As a Registered Nurse of over 30 years, I’ve spent most of my professional life caring for the aging population, specifically helping older adults achieve their best possible outcomes. Then, several years ago, after becoming disconcerted with several aspects of our modern healthcare system, I launched my own consultancy – One Life Consulting – aimed at helping older adults navigate the complex world of late-life care.

In doing so, I found myself spending most of my time, not with the older adults themselves, but with their adult children, coaching them on time management, stress reduction, and otherwise reinforcing with them the importance of self-care as they attempted to shoehorn managing their aging parents’ care into their already busy lives.

This unexpected focus on the adult children turned out to be synergistic with my own personal life philosophy, as health and wellness has been an explicit, non-negotiable part of my life since my early 20’s.

Out of this serendipitous coincidence evolved a formal coaching program designed to reinforce the importance of self-care, not only to achieve a present sense of satisfaction and overall well-being, but to ultimately maximize healthspan, or the period of life lived in a state of good health, absent disease or other debilitating health conditions.

I firmly believe that a longer healthspan is a far more worthy goal than is a longer lifespan, and this sentiment is reflected in every aspect of my self-care program.