Carol Orsborn

In the late 1980s, I had a breakthrough realization about life balance that resulted in my first books, "Enough is Enough" and "Inner Excellence." In brief, I was among a vanguard of corporate visionaries who believed that human beings deserve at least as much downtime for maintenance as our machines....

When you are in the turbulent middle years of life, the promise of serenity fills you with hope. Somewhere down the road, there will be peace and quiet. Your life will be orderly and things will make sense.

Now that I've lived long enough to get beyond the epicenter of...

With a recent issue of AARP The Magazine featuring Diane Keaton over the headline "How She Stays Forever Young," the message surrounding aging is emblazoned on our consciousness: Young is good, old is bad.

When it comes to ageism, do baby boomers really need a new consciousness movement? Haven't...

In the fairytale of the American storyline, good-intentioned people who put themselves into play have a crack at finding what really matters. In the case of the ABC TV show The Bachelor, it's about following your heart to find love. In the case of politics, it's about taking a stand...

As a baby boomer demographic expert, I know the statistics. You name it. Boomers aren't ready for it. For years, we have been in denial about aging. And who wouldn't be? Expecting to reap the rewards of the longevity bonus, this is a generation that has had better health, education...

Baby Boomers are old enough to remember a time in our lives when everybody we knew "Liked Ike." At least, I thought we all did. That was around the same time the first television sets were trickling into Chicago, so the ethos of a nation was more defined by the...

I am here to declare the death of serene old age. My proof: Grammys 2012. From McCartney to Raitt, from the Beach Boys to Springsteen. And if that's not enough, we've got Madonna at the Super Bowl and Billy Crystal at the Oscars. And don't forget Joan Rivers, at the...

When I was in my thirties and forties, making big bucks, taking on debt and not even close to calling the shots in either my personal or professional life, I thought coupons were beneath me. But even then, I didn't scream at dollars off the way J.C. Penney's new advertising...

Those of us who are 50-plus identified way too closely with what has now become known as Meryl Streep's "senior moment." To a person, we squirmed uncomfortably when Meryl Streep forgot her glasses on the way to the podium of the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Only when she bravely...

True believers have spun into overdrive regarding the Tim Tebow miracle: a synchronicity that falls into the same category of mystic coincidence that sent me to get my doctorate in religion from Vanderbilt University in the first place.

In fact, the questions the Tebow phenomenon raise -- and just...

If the Republican primaries are providing us with one useful take-away, it's this. We are a confused country. We are confused politically. But many of us are also confused personally, philosophically and spiritually.

The issue at the epicenter of our confusion centers on what to do about...

Old people have irreplaceable value. If you don't want to take it from me, take it from the birds and monkeys. Quoting Harvard Medical School's Dr. George Vaillant: "Among jackdaws and chimpanzees... the young are unable to alert their fellows, but the alarms of the elderly are taken very seriously."

Every time I write anything about the boomer generation, I brace myself for the responses, like the comment on my most recent submission on The Huffington Post about the Academy Awards that read, "No one likes the boomers. Neither the people older, nor the people younger. We are...

When Bob Hope took the Oscars podium last night, the life of two generations passed before our eyes. Transmitted through the magic of black and white kinescope, his wry vitality cut through the sea of sparkly space-age metallic draped on dewy bodies, reminding me how much can be lost...

I am a woman of many Superbowls. I am also a marketer specializing in the Boomer woman demographic. As such, I am always on the hunt for the one commercial that most clearly reveals cultural trends regarding attitudes about women and aging.

Last year, there was no question that a...

The big news of the 2010 Oscars was that for the first time in Academy Awards history, a woman was given the top award for "Best Director." Then her film, The Hurt Locker, went on to win "Best Picture." This was not just any woman, mind you. This was a...

The Grammys needs a new name next year. Call it the "Young and Nubile Awards", or the "It's Okay to be an Older Man But Not An Older Woman Awards", but there was nary a real live Grammy in sight at Sunday's festivities -- despite the fact that it was...

I was seated in a circle of my friends, one-by-one bemoaning the state of the world. The all-too-familiar "hell in a hand basket" kvetch went something like this: "Health Insurance Reform," to which we all responded "Oy." "Greed on Wall Street." "Oy." "Tiger Woods." "Oy." "Unemployment, terrorism, global warming." "Oy,...

The thought is just dawning on many of us that we are not simply celebrating a new year, but a new decade. And even more to the point, nobody's talking much about the dawn of a new era. In fact, it feels like we barely made it through the first...

Baby Boomers have seen many winter holiday moons. We know how to turn out a great stuffing, light the yule log and find the perfect gift at the best price. So why, after all these years, do things sometimes spin out of our control--especially, it seems--during the holiday season? And...