“Keep learning and keep moving,” Billie Jean King advises Journal on Active Aging

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[Vancouver, BC] Billie Jean King may be best known as the victor in the famous Battle of the Sexes tennis match against Bobby Riggs in 1973.

But the former No. 1 women’s tennis player is also an advocate for social change and equality, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a member of the US Presidential Delegation to the Sochi Winter Olympics and now the Active Aging Ambassador for Atria Senior Living, a leading provider of independent living, assisted living and memory care services in the U.S.

In an interview with the bimonthly Journal on Active Aging® published by the International Council on Active Aging® (ICAA), the 70-year-old King suggests that staying engaged in life, adapting to challenges and, as her own mother advised her, continuing to “keep moving” can enrich and prolong life, particularly in one’s later years.

“Society keeps giving us messages that when we get older, we’re finished,” she says. “We’re not finished. Every day is a new start. Every morning when I wake up, I have my gratitude list, and I thank God for all of these wonderful things. I have another opportunity today to be challenged, to learn, to solve problems, to really engage in whatever I want to do.”

In the interview with ICAA’s CEO Colin Milner, King reveals her top 10 tips for successful aging:

1. Relationships are everything.

2. Keep learning. Keep learning how to learn. Stay curious.

3. Be in the moment and focus on the process. The journey is the ultimate prize.

4. Be resilient and engaged in life. Keep moving or it’s over.

5. Accept pressure as a privilege and face it head on.

6. Be a problem solver. Champions in life adapt or adjust.

7. Reinvent yourself on a regular basis.

8. Exercise matters.

9. Be a positive person.

10. Never underestimate yourself, or those around you.

“I just think it’s important to keep going, because what choice do we have?” says King. “I can be a complainer today, or I can pick myself up. That’s one thing I learned by being in sports; that daily discipline, and how to be resilient and keep bouncing back.”

To view Billie Jean King’s interview with Colin Milner, visit www.atriaseniorliving.com/BillieJeanKing-ICAA

To read it, visit http://www.icaa.cc/media/billy-jean-king-colin-milner-interview.htm.

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About the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA)

The International Council on Active Aging® is the professional association that leads, connects and defines the active-aging industry. ICAA supports professionals who develop wellness facilities, programs and services for adults over 50. The association is focused on active aging--an approach to aging that helps older adults live as fully as possible within all dimensions of wellness (i.e., physical, social, environmental, vocational, intellectual, emotional and spiritual)--and provides its members with education, information, resources and tools.

As an active-aging educator and advocate, ICAA has advised numerous organizations and governmental bodies, including the US Administration on Aging, the National Institute on Aging (one of the US National Institutes of Health), the US Department of Health and Human Services, Canada's Special Senate Committee on Aging, the European Commission, and the British Columbia ministries of Health, and Healthy Living and Sport.

For questions:

Contact: Colin Milner, CEO, ICAA
Toll-free: 1-866-335-9777 (North America)
Telephone: 604-734-4466; cell: 604-763-4595
colinmilner@icaa.cc