The Art of Living Well
Meet "TV JANN"
ANN JARDEN'S ALTER EGO
HER STORY
THE BLIND PHYSIO MADNESS THROUGH HISTORY
PLUS • Immune Health • Facial Workout • Yoga for Runners • Financial Guide VOL. 2 NO. 3 WINTER 2021-2022
COVID or NOT
LIVE YOUR
BEST LIFE
• CONTENTS •
Departments 7 Editor’s Letter Post-pandemic life won’t be the same. That’s not all bad. By David Holt
ON THE COVER MODEL JANN ARDEN PHOTOGRAPHY C OURTESY OF CTV
8 Insights Some people love their work so much they don’t want to stop. Reach out and touch someone, and lots more. 12 Wealth Seven retirement myths debunked: Healthy retirement planning is a process, just like earning and saving. By Wendy Brookhouse 16 Spiritual journey Crossing the river: Spiritual growth requires confronting your own demons. How hard can it be? By Lynda Casey 28 My Story Love is blind: Sure, creating my career was hard, but I loved every minute By Ruth Vallis
66 Healthful Gourmet These recipes put the comfort in vegan. By Lauren Toyota 76 Wellness Puzzles
Features 42 Cover Story: Who is the real Jann Arden? Singer-songwriter, musician, writer, environmentalist, social activist, nature lover, citizen of the world. Then there’s “TV JANN,” the disorganized diva. Can one woman really play all these roles? By David Holt 50 Living in a bubble: Deborah Grover loves working on JANN. By David Holt
pg 66
2 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
© ISTOCK / JEAN PIERRE PINOCHET
52 Ancient wisdom for modern angst For many, post-pandemic anxiety is taking the joy out of life. Therapeutic yoga can help. By Lisa Greenbaum
No matter where you are in life, we have a plan for you. Life is not predictable – your financial future can be. At Black Star Wealth, we balance today, tomorrow and taxes with zero judgement. Reduce uncertainty with a solid financial plan that covers more than just your investments, tailored to you and your situation. Wherever you are in life. What are you waiting for?
www.blackstarwealth.com
• CONTENTS •
fitness
Health
LIFE
55 Creating an efficient stride Exercises based on yoga are a great way to improve the strength and flexibility runners need. Building from the ground up, let’s start with the feet. By Christine Felstead
70 Immune guide Keeping your balance: your immune system defends you from constant threats. Look after it so it can look after you.
20 Learning from ‘Old John’ Growing up in Cape Breton, I found the rest of the world remote, strange, frightening. Then I met a man from Hungary who became a friend. The rest of world seemed closer then. By Linden MacIntyre
MIND 34 We’re all mad here. Why do so many quirky people succeed — at least in the short term? By David Holt
pg 58
24 Is entrepreneurship in your future? It’s a big step, but those over 50 can have an advantage over younger entrepreneurs. By Wendy Mayhew 39 A gift of history. Karsh’s ‘Roaring Lion’ photograph celebrates its 80th anniversary. By Bruce Sach
58 The beginner’s guide to face exercise By Suzanne Bechard
pg 50 M SilverMagazineCanada N @SilverMagCanada www.silvermagazine.ca
4 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
© ISTOCK / BLACKJACK3D
pg 39
The Art of Living Well
2021 Vol.2 No.3 – SILVER SILVER is a wellness magazine for health-oriented Canadians age 50+. It is based on the brand pillars of health, nutrition, life/adventure, fitness and mental wellbeing. EDITOR IN CHIEF DAVID HOLT DESIGNER DENISE SWAN ASSOCIATE EDITOR JULIE LAWRENCE ASSOCIATE/DIGITAL EDITOR JESSICA CLERKE CONTRIBUTING EDITOR YASMIN MISSAGHIAN CONTRIBUTING WRITERS SUZANNE BECHARD, WENDY BROOKHOUSE, LYNDA CASEY, LISA GREENBAUM, NICHELLE LAUS, AND MARYLENE VESTERGOM. HUM@Nmedia Inc. PUBLISHER, PRESIDENT & CEO MAX BRENNAN CFO KEVIN COLVEY GROUP PUBLISHER GILES CROUCH CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER DAVID HOLT MANAGER – FINANCE & ADMIN ANGELES HOPKINS DIRECTOR OF CONSUMER MARKETING CRAIG SWEETMAN, CRS MEDIA DIGITAL CONSULTING JASON CHEN PRINTING DOLLCO PRINT SOLUTIONS GROUP
HOW TO REACH US: SILVER—a HUM@Nmedia Inc. Brand PO Box 292 Dartmouth Main Dartmouth NS, B2Y 3Y3 Canada
www.silvermagazine.ca Toll Free: 1-877-612-1082 Facebook: SilverMagazineCanada
Twitter: @SilverMagCanada info@humanmedia.ca sales@humanmedia.ca
The information in this magazine is not intended to constitute specific medical, fitness or health advice. It is not a substitute for advice from your physician or qualified healthcare professional. Before adhering to any information or recommendations, consult your physician or qualified healthcare professional. Any reliance on the information in this magazine is solely at your own risk. SILVER is not responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts. All contents are the property of SILVER and cannot be reproduced in any form without written consent. The publisher reserves the right to refuse any advertising and bears no responsibility for advertisers’ messages. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 41578041 ISSN# 1925-9875 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: SILVER PO Box 292 Dartmouth Main Dartmouth NS, B2Y 3Y3 Canada © 2021 SILVER & HUM@Nmedia Inc. Please recycle this magazine.
Become a SILVER Subscriber $19.99 (plus tax) for 4 print issues and exclusive subscribers–only content. Visit www.silvermagazine.ca to join!
Dollco PRINT SOLUTIONS GROUP
• EDITOR’S LETTER •
The POWER of TIDYING UP BY DAVID HOLT
S
ometimes, you have to go backwards to go forwards. We humans don’t like that. We are goal oriented. We want to advance. Failing that, sometimes we want a complete break. But there is an intermediate stage. Call it tidying up. The other day my neighbour spent hours cutting trees on our property while I hauled brush and tended a fire. It was a whole-body workout. My clothes and body were covered with smoke, ash, and grime. It was hot, dirty work, much harder and grimier than going to the gym for an hour. The property was a mess for a while. Until it was done. This is a metaphor. We strive for the next big thing, but sometimes we need to pause, tidy up, take better care of our health, put renewed effort into a relationship, or do a work re-org. This is all stuff we tend to put off. The benefits come later, if at all. Here’s the rub: the second law of thermodynamics says things fall apart – order tends to disorder. You need to tidy up and repair just to stay even. If it works out, later you realize you’re moving forward more easily than you did before. There is a bigger issue here. Humans are competitive. We set ourselves up in a hierarchy of winners and losers. There’s a lot of luck about who gets in which category. According to historian Walter Scheidel, author of The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer until the whole society gets shaken up, usually by a revolution, a war, or a plague. Some observers say that is happening now. We have been gobbling up the earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate. Global warming is just one consequence. The growing gap between rich and
poor is another. Interesting that COVID-19 comes along now. The old-fashioned word is “plague.” It’s a big reset. Many people are working from home, skipping the commute – all that stress and air pollution. Indeed, our economy is based on cheap fossil fuels and the cost of pollution is usually not borne by the polluters. We are destroying habitats, which has played a role in mixing species that used to be separate, bats and other animals. This helped COVID spread initially, before infected people started getting on airplanes. At the same time a lot of politics is polarized, dysfunctional. No way to solve the massive problems we face on planet earth. In fact, problem solving is rarely glamourous. It’s often slow, tedious, and based on a lot of trial and error. You can’t do that when you’re going flat out chasing your dreams. COVID is just one problem. Really, it’s more of a symptom. We might destroy the planet on our quest for a new SUV, a dream vacation, or cheaper stuff from across the world. It’s a stretch to say that nature is fighting back. But either way, it’s a pause. Let’s slow down, reflect, and do what’s right for the planet and ourselves. Meanwhile, Jann Arden is on our cover this issue. Besides being an actor (JANN on CTV), she is a singer-songwriter, writer, health advocate, and hard-nosed environmentalist. Jann loves nature. She is fighting to protect the planet and the species we share it with – “our roommates,” she calls them. Let’s all join in.
David Holt is the Editor of SILVER and the Editor in Chief of HUM@Nmedia Inc.
SILVERMAGAZINE.CA
7
• REFLECTIONS •
© ISTOCK / RORYMN
In Linden MacIntyre’s boyhood, Cape Breton was a mythical place of Gaelic, folklore, and larger-than-life characters.
20 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
• REFLECTIONS •
LEARNING FROM ‘OLD JOHN’ Growing up in Cape Breton, I found the rest of the world remote, strange, frightening. Then I met a man from Hungary who became a friend. The rest of world seemed closer then. BY LINDEN MACINTYRE
I
t was only after he was gone that I discovered his last name. He was a European: Hungarian. And it was presumed his last name would be impossible to spell and easy to forget, so people didn’t ask while he was alive. It was in the mid-fifties. It wasn’t unusual, so soon after the war, for people who were from Europe to be cautious about revealing their last names. A first name was usually enough for most. His first name was John. Or, as we all knew him, Old John. When we finally discovered his last name, it was just as plain and easy to remember. Suto. He was John Suto. He showed up in my village as part of a large crew of workers who were building what is now the causeway to Cape Breton from the mainland. Or from Cape Breton to the mainland, depending on perspective.
Before John, I became friends with two construction workers from Québec. The friendly one was named Camille. A wonderful name, I thought. After John, I met an engineer from South Korea. His name was Tae but everybody called him Ted. Like John, Ted had an air of mystery around him. He had gone to school in Japan during the Second World War, which in later life I discovered was controversial to people who knew a lot more than I did about the war. But he knew Judo and he taught me Judo tricks and simple Japanese expressions. Which was how we talked about Korea and Japan and wars.
For me, the causeway was connecting the world to Cape Breton and Old John was a fascinating preview of what the world was like. He was exotic and mysterious. The world was exotic and mysterious.
useway, Cape Breton.
Building of the Canso Ca
SILVERMAGAZINE.CA 21
• BUSINESS •
© ISTOCK / PEOPLEIMAGES
Second act: Starting a business can create a passionate and successful new career.
24 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
• BUSINESS •
IS ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN YOUR FUTURE? It’s a big step, but those over 50 can have an advantage over younger entrepreneurs. BY WENDY MAYHEW
I
t’s been a long year and a half — and more. You may be one of the hundreds of thousands over the age of 50 who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. You may have tried early retirement, gotten bored, and are now thinking of launching a business. You may be looking for work because you aren’t ready to retire or can’t afford to. (Unfortunately, the prospects of finding employment later in life are low.) So, what do you do if you need an income? Or if you don’t need the income but have a business idea you want to launch? If one of your goals is to start a business, and you have an idea for one, then there couldn’t be a better time to discover if becoming an entrepreneur is something you want to pursue. Moreover, statistics show that those over the age of 50 who start a business are more successful than young entrepreneurs. Why? We have the skills from years of work experience that young entrepreneurs don’t possess. (In fairness, young entrepreneurs also have skills we don’t have.) We are also as innovative as other groups of entrepreneurs. After her mother died in 2000 from a high-profile medical error, at the age of 65 Catherine Winckler left her position running a 35-person, multi-milliondollar digital design agency to create Mindful
Garden Digital Health. Catherine describes Mindful Garden, the digital crash cart for frail seniors experiencing hyperactive delirium/dementia, as a videogame that the individuals don’t know they are playing. When I started advocating for new entrepreneurs over the age of 50, I was repeatedly told we would never amount to anything. Yet Catherine is just one example of what we can accomplish as entrepreneurs. We understand technology. Like all business people, we know the importance of finding and working with others who have the skills we don’t necessarily have. Not only does Catherine have two young cofounders, but she also has a group of advisors. Whether you decide on having a co-founder or not, it is essential to have advisors who will help you with decisions and direction as you start and grow your business.
ENTREPRENEURS LIKE HELPING ENTREPRENEURS! Once you’ve decided to explore being an entrepreneur, search for local events that you can attend in person or virtually. You will meet likeminded people and entrepreneurs interested in assisting others in their entrepreneurial journey. Also, search for local small business centres SILVERMAGAZINE.CA 25
• COVER STORY: JANN ARDEN •
Two sides of the same coin: Jann Arden can be both serious and funny – at the same time.
42 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
• JANN ARDEN •
WHO IS THE REAL
JANN
ARDEN?
Singer-songwriter, musician, writer, environmentalist, social activist, nature lover, citizen of the world. Then there’s “TV JANN,” the disorganized diva. Can one woman really play all these roles?
PHOTO CREDIT COURTESY OF CTV
BY DAVID HOLT
SILVERMAGAZINE.CA 43
• HOMEWORKIN.CA •
THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO
FACE EXERCISE BY SUZANNE BECHARD
E
ver look in the mirror and wonder why no matter how much rest you’ve had, you still look tired? Where did all those droops and sags come from? Your sobering reflection may send you in search of the latest anti-aging miracle cream. After trying expensive moisturizers and serums, you watch helplessly as Father Time wreaks havoc with your jawline. What’s next? Botox? Injectable dermal fillers? Surgery? These days, media is filled with ads for injectable cosmetic treatments to reduce facial wrinkles and restore skin. This is no accident: the global facial injectable market size was valued at $13.4 billion US in 2020 and is expected to expand. COVID-19 has increased time spent on video calls, known as “Zoom Boom.” This has made us more aware of our appearance, which fuels demand for cosmetic procedures. Do you want to hop on this beauty bandwagon? Are you willing to commit to a lifetime where you entrust someone to re-engineer your face in pursuit of fuller lips and more sculpted cheekbones? Imagine how a muscle that has been repeatedly paralyzed “wears” on the face years later. Or the unnatural pouches that remain after years of injecting dermal fillers. Not to mention the expense. As a passionate fitness instructor, the concept of injecting or paralyzing a muscle to smooth out a wrinkle never made sense to me. I have spent 58 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
years studying and testing how facial muscles respond to exercise. I’m in my early fifties. When someone meets me, I frequently watch them puzzle over my age or try to spot cosmetic work. Through experience, I can confirm that enlarging a facial muscle through exercise will smooth the skin that lies over the muscle, reducing or eliminating wrinkles and restoring a youthful contour. While there’s still little clinical research, a 2017 study conducted by Dr. Murad Alam, professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, showed how a 30-minute facial exercise program sustained over 20 weeks improved the appearance of selected middleaged women. Participants notes significant improvement in many facial features. Besides a healthy diet, no smoking, and regular use of sunscreen, exercising the face is now clinically proven to be a natural way to correct droopy facial features. I designed the following face strengthening program as an essential workout for anyone new to face exercises. I hope you will find this to be confidence-boosting and effective. In the privacy of your home, in just eight to 20 weeks you can preserve your natural beauty and restore your face to the toned and lifted look you had when you were younger.
• HOMEWORKIN.CA •
You have to do some work, but like anything worthwhile in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
5. Exercise the entire face to produce a wellbalanced facial contour, rather than just focusing on problem areas.
Shall we begin?
6. Allow one to two seconds between each repetition.
HOW TO PROCEED
7. Follow the recommended number of repetitions and try to feel the burn or muscle exhaustion in the working muscles.
1. Until you get used to exercising the face, exercise in front of a mirror to ensure you are activating only the desired muscles and relaxing the rest of the face. 2. Use a straight-backed chair to help you achieve healthy posture. 3. Exercise with a clean face and hands.
SCHEDULE Perform this workout daily for eight weeks. During weeks nine to 20, practice the exercises every other day (three to four times per week).
4. Be precise, concentrated, and methodical in your execution of each exercise.
BODY ALIGNMENT 1. Sit up straight and place feet flat on the floor and parallel to each other. 2. Lengthen through the back of your neck, lifting the back of your head. Allow your chin to recede slightly so that your head is balanced on top of your spine.
PHOTOS BY @PALOMINO_DESIGNS
3. Find and maintain a central line through your face so that the center of your forehead, nose, mouth and chin line up with the notch at the middle of your collarbones. 4. Place your tongue flat along the roof of your mouth, trying to lift the back one-third of your tongue to your palate. Breathe in and out through your nose and become aware of the sensation of aliveness in your face, releasing any tension or stuck stress.
SILVERMAGAZINE.CA 59
• IMMUNE GUIDE •
Some micronutrient deficiencies — for example, deficiencies of zinc, selenium, iron, copper, folic acid, and vitamins A, B6, C, and E — may alter immune responses in animals, as measured in the test tube. However, the impact of these immune system changes is less clear, as is the effect of similar deficiencies on the human immune response. If you suspect your diet is not providing you with all your micronutrient needs, taking a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement may bring other health benefits. Taking megadoses of a single vitamin does not.
STRESS AND IMMUNE FUNCTION s
Take steps to avoid infection, such as washing your hands frequently and cooking meats thoroughly.
s
Try to minimize stress.
s
Keep current with all recommended vaccines. Vaccines prime your immune system to fight off infections before they take hold in your body.
MINIMIZE THE DOWNSIDE With age, the immune response becomes reduced, which in turn contributes to more infections and more cancer. Respiratory infections, including influenza, the COVID-19 virus and pneumonia are a leading cause of death in people over 65 worldwide. A form of malnutrition that is surprisingly common among older people is known as “micronutrient malnutrition,” in which a person is deficient in some essential vitamins and trace minerals that are obtained from or supplemented by diet. 74 THE ART OF LIVING WELL
Modern medicine has come to appreciate the closely linked relationship of mind and body. A wide variety of maladies, including stomach upset, hives, and even heart disease, are linked to the effects of emotional stress. Despite the challenges, scientists are actively studying the relationship between stress and immune function. Most scientists try to study more constant and frequent stressors known as chronic stress, such as that caused by relationships, or sustained challenges to perform well at work. Some scientists are investigating whether ongoing stress takes a toll on the immune system. Regular exercise is one of the pillars of healthy living. It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases. But does it help to boost your immune system naturally and keep it healthy? Just like a healthy diet, exercise can contribute to general good health and therefore to a healthy immune system. SOURCES: How the Immune System Works by Tim Newman, Medical News Today (2018). How to Boost Your Immune System by Harvard Health Publishing (Feb 15, 2021).
© ISTOCK / FATCAMERA
A healthy lifestyle is the best defence.