The Self Language Of Anti-Aging

I had a lengthy breakfast with a friend yesterday, we are both 60 and both very engaged in martial arts, he has had a hip replacement and I've had both knees reconstructed. As we stood up to leave we both groaned, he from back pain and me trying to enthuse my knees.

I joked about feeling stiff and sore after a long bingo session at the retirement village. Sure for us it's a joke because we are both very fit and active in spite of past injuries but it is important to be careful how we speak about our age, out capacity and our health.

I know people my age who are old physically and mentally. The move, act and think like an elderly person.

I also know elderly people who have more energy than many 40 year olds. The difference is largely in their thinking.

When people are faced with challenges it is common for them to focus on what they can't do and they forget what they can do. A lady I spoke to recently, who is just a little older than me, told me that she doesn't get out much, that she has a lot of pain, that she smokes heavily for the pain and that she was good at keeping appointments.

Nowhere in her conversation did she discuss what she could do. It took some doing to have her think that smoking was making things worse, and that if she quit she would be so much better off. But a big problem was that she was thinking like she was at the end of her days, and not a 63 year old with some problems, most of which could be solved if she decided to take action.

How often do you here "I'm too old for that" or "I'm not as young as I used to be" or it's all right for you young people"

I'm not saying that aging is a barrel of laughs, but we are all doing it. It's just a matter of how we do it. How we think, how we speak, the people we spend time with, how active we choose to be, what we choose to eat or not eat. Sure aging is in our cells but it is also in our minds.

I've lost count of the number of times I've been told that "I don't have time to exercise" or "it hurts to exercise" We all have time for the things we decide are important, and don't do the things that hurt you, find things that don't hurt and do them. It's your choice how you age.