by Patricia Weber | Featured Contributor
As I was at home one day, turning on the television as I ate a light lunch, a Shriner’s Hospital ad was playing. Each child tells their dream and sounds confident it would happen.
Do you remember when you are younger you can’t wait to be older?
Then did that feeling switch when you got older: now being older you want to turn the clock black? Or at least, pause it?
Image courtesy of twobee at FreeDigitalPhotos.netThe commercial made me feel like I was going back in time– just for an instant! Then I realized, I could take things right where I am now and put some ways of doing and being together to support my mantra for the year.
Secrets to Being Young-at-Heart to Enjoy More Of Life
Sadly, in the USA, many of us may value being young at heart, however, our heart is older than our chronological age.
Then a 2014 UK report of about a 10-year long study with almost 6,500 people gives us hope! The Feeling Old vs. Being Old – Associations Between Self-perceived Age and Mortality study is overly cautious that the findings are not to replace the efforts a person might have to make to move their health in a positive direction.
Over the 8-year study and after all the analysis, the findings stated, “feeling your age was not associated with any greater risk of death, compared to those who felt younger.”
So where’s the hope, and why bother with a young-at-heart message?
Because of one more conclusion: “It seems likely that how old people feel is related to how well they are.”
The authors of the study said they while more investigation is needed, “…there remained a 41% greater mortality hazard in people who felt older than their actual age compared with those who felt younger than their real age.”
Findings always need more than one study. But why wait until the full verdict is out? What we have to recognize is there are likely specific health behaviors that are underpinnings to feeling younger.
Here are just three healthy ideas for you to build on a young-at-heart life.
Secrets to Being Young-at-Heart to Enjoy More Of Life
Help your mind.
Our mind gives us knowledge and experiences, to set the stage for us to do, be, think, reason and feel alive.
Stay informed. Reading, taking courses and paying attention to world events keep us thinking.
Keep exercising the brain. Puzzles, engaging in art or craft activities, even some of the online brain-gyms, keep our neurons firing.
Be and stay active. Research shows that getting physical exercise also helps our mind. In one of the walking programs I engage in almost daily, we’re often doing one of those exercises like rub your belly and tap your head! It’s a two for one exercise: mind and body.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.netHelp your mindset.
In some things, we might be starting we might feel we want to shift our mindset. You have this ability, but it might need to be nurtured.
Set-up for resilience. Remember when almost anything that took the bounce out of your step just bounced away? Something as little as a haircut can often do that for me! Yes, sometimes it has to be more like a day at a spa. Studies say music that we like is soothing. My husband had his first open heart surgery at age 40. When he was in the ICU, he asked me to bring in his radio and tune it to his favorite radio station, a jazz one. The next morning the nurse reported how all three people slept as sound, and woke as refreshed, as she had ever seen them.
Be mindful. Be more in the moment. If I have a setback, and I have them, just a few mindful breaths ground me and anchors me in the here and now. There’s little point in carrying regrets forward. And there’s not much use is worrying about the future either. All we ever have is the present, so let’s be in it.
Help your body, boost your health.
Keeping our mind active and alert, and being mindful of our outlook and blessings, is the inside job to make the outside work easier.
Be physically active. We sit too long! Recently on a date night, my husband was so gracious to get me a seat at the bar while we were waiting for dinner. But I always refuse these days. When I am working from home, I am at my computer too much even with my breaks to get up and move every 25 to 30 minutes. Moving more makes better sense, even if it’s just standing. Run, walk, practice yoga, swim or my favorite, hula-hooping – just get moving.
Cook and eat healthier.
My husband and I love our date night. For him, it’s being among some of his friends, and for me, it’s not having to cook. It turns out cooking can be healthier for us. I’m a big label reader and avoid, best a person can, overloading on sugars, carbohydrates, and those bad fats. We don’t have to want to lose weight to cook healthier. We can easily be encouraged about how we feel, look and even what our doctor says about our blood tests. I’ve learned I don’t always need to skip dessert either.
Today I’m putting these secrets into high-gear to be more young-at-heart to enjoy more of life.
How do you stay young-at-heart? Tell us some of your secrets?
—————————————————————
Patricia Weber: I understand the possible difficulty of being an introvert in business and am on a mission to build the confidence of those more introverted, with a variety of practical tools to navigate communications work and life.
Since 2007, recognized internationally, on radio and in print, for most things introvert I blog at http://patricia-weber.com Followers, who regularly comment find the messages both resonate with them and inspire them.
My recent book, Communication Toolkit for Introverts: Find your voice in everyday business situations, is something a publisher asked me to write –imagine that.
If you are fed up with the often, uncomfortable extrovert rules, or tired of being tired, be ready to be inspired.
I am NOT shy. Many introverts are not either.
My work is not my life. I have other interests, in the past: had my own Harley Davidson (FX model no longer manufactured) until I slid horizontally a few times!
That’s why now; I go along with my husband in our safer car hobby.
Also, we enjoy traveling. We go from one coast to another to have the joy of seeing my son and his family including two granddaughters. On occasion, it’s off to Europe.
Twitter | Linkedin | Facebook | Google+
