Hill, Robert D.: Seven Strategies for Positive Aging.

• Author: Purk, Janice Kay
• Position: Book review

Hill, Robert D. Seven Strategies for Positive Aging. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008. x + 256 pages. Paper, $17.95.

Robert D. Hill is a licensed psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Utah. In Seven Strategies for Positive Aging, Hill uses information from his earlier work, Positive Aging: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals (2005) in such a way as to guide readers through an examination of their own lives and how they react to life experiences. Seven Strategies for Positive Aging is a clearly written, easy-to-understand approach to examining one's own aging process and how a positive approach to addressing issues associated with aging can improve one's life experience.

Approaching aging through the positive lens of the glass half-full, Hill allows the reader to explore his/her reactions to life situations. As with Positive Aging, Hill's latest work explores aging not as "normal aging" or as "successfully aging," but as a concept rooted in positive psychology, which proposes a successful coping with life events. The role of personal choice becomes the foundation of the text to guide one to change the manner by which he/she experiences the aging process.

The first strategy leads the individual to find meaning in old age. Hill encourages us to not only accept the changes that occur in aging, but also to adopt a new life pattern. This can include a change of habits or a change in the way one responds to the changing that is occurring. He encourages a self-examination of the things that make us unhappy which can be controlled through exercise, eating, stress relief, and trying new things, instead of focusing on the changes to our body that aging controls. He then encourages reframing the issue to better understand the reaction of the older adult or our own response. Each process is supported with research, examples, and narratives that provide the reader with a better understanding of the aging process.

The development of positive aging suggests the use of social and community resources to live a functional and constructive aging life. For those who believe in relying only on oneself, Hill suggests that, for positive aging, reframing from those beliefs can lead to an understanding of the value of accepting services and support from others. This, in turn, can benefit the aging person as well as those offering assistance. The right of self-determination is not forgotten in this work, but the need for...