A woman has spoken about how she uses exercises based on Chinese medicine to stay healthy and she plans to work until she is 70 in her current job.
Lisette Davidson, from Nairn, has been practising Qigong for longevity for almost 10 years and all of her close family now do the exercises as well.
She said the slow movement exercises helped heal her from a host of illnesses she suffered from previously, including pleurisy and years of acid reflux.
She said: “I feel so amazing and fit and healthy right now. I don’t feel anywhere near the age of 60, which I’m going to be in March.
“On a physical, mental and emotional level, I don’t feel anywhere near retiring. People are used to retiring at 60, the female retiring age used to be 60 but that’s the furthest thing from my mind.”
The exercises are intended to open up energy pathways within a person to rid them of emotional and physical stagnation.
The mum-of-two explained: “To move the energy in your body by doing simple, slow movements, is literally to clear out the grief or the pain or whatever form of stagnation you have, either emotionally or in some cases, physically.
“In my case, the reason I’m healthy now is because I cleared out the stagnation that had caused the illnesses I’d been suffering from.”
She previously suffered from illnesses including IBS, acid reflux, pleurisy a weak chest, migraine and sciatica. But now she says she doesn’t have any issues with these conditions, and credits her recovery to Qijong.
She does the exercises for just 20 minutes a day and said they keep her body “flowing” and in a state of “quiet, calm contentment”.
Lisette worked for 15 years in the EPOS industry and was then made redundant. But two years later, an ex-colleague decided to start a company in the same industry in that very same office, and offered her a job.
She took up the offer in 2017 and says she now “absolutely loves” her job running the office, especially as she feels she has cleared out the stagnation of her job being a difficult thing.
Research by Aegon as part of its The Second 50 report recently found most people who choose to stay in work beyond 60 do so for positive reasons. The group found 57 percent of people who stay in work do so because they enjoy their working life.
Lisette has been married for 37 years and has two children in their 30s who both live at home.
Looking ahead, she has a workplace pension and will be able to claim her state pension when she turns 67. But she doesn’t have any particular plans for her retirement after she turns 70.
She said: “I like taking things as they come. I think with a strong intuition, you’re fairly guided in what you do in life. I don’t like to make hard and fast plans, I like to see what comes.”
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