Aging is a myth of the mind

Now that I have crossed over the 80 line, I wish to share some reflections on aging, or the art of aging, with you? All of us get older daily. None of us can escape this destiny. But many of us fear it and give up the fight early and simply wait for death. But it need not be that way. As we age we can become a living treasure—house of knowledge and inspiration.

We cannot prevent aging, but we can control how we age. Growing older can be a pleasant and an exciting part of life. Check out the wonderful book by Deepak Chopra entitled Suggestions for keeping an ageless body and timeless mind. Let me share several of his ideas with you on the subject of aging. Hopefully they will relieve some of the anxiety that we possess about aging and help our transition into the “twilight years.”

First, let’s examine some negative factors that accelerate aging. As we go through the list, consider how many we could control better to minimize their effects on us:

1. depression
2. inability to express emotions
3. feeling of helplessness to change oneself or others
4. living alone
5. loneliness, no close friends
6. lack of a daily routine
7. job dissatisfaction
8. habitual or excessive worry
9. regret for past actions
10. irritability, or unable to express anger
11. financial burden, being in debt,
12. criticism of self and others
13. worrying about future
14. lack of goals and future plans
15. neglect of health

Above are some negative factors that accelerate aging. Now let’s look at some positive factors that retard aging:
1. happy marriage or satisfying relationship
2. job satisfaction
3. feeling personal happiness
4. ability to laugh easily
5. satisfactory sex life
6. ability to make and keep close friends
7. regular work routine
8. regular daily routine
9. taking at least one week vacation every year
10. feeling in control of personal life
11. enjoyable leisure time, satisfying hobbies
12. ability to express feelings easily
13. optimistic about the future
14. feeling financially secure and living within means
15. goal oriented.

If we want to control our body and mind, we must become aware of the many subtle changes happening daily within ourselves. Many of the changes happen without our conscious awareness that they are happening. In other words, aging happens not only in the body but in the mind.

Everything that happens to us is a result of how we view ourselves. To become aware of the subtle changes going on in our body, we must listen to it. To despair at or to fight the act of growing older makes us grow old faster. But to accept the process with grace keeps many miseries, both physical and mental, from our doorstep.

When we experience the physical world through our body, we must understand that it is a response to how we observe and create our world. The mind and the body are inseparably one. For example, we hunger because our mind tells us. We ache because our mind tells us. We feel emotions because our mind tells us. What we eat affects not only our body but the mind as well. Remember the body and the mind are inseparably one.

We have three ages:
A. Chronological age—how old we are by the calendar,
B. Biological age—how old our body is in terms of critical life
signs and cellular processes,
C. Psychological age—how old we feel mentally.

How we view each one will determine our aging process. Do we focus on numbers or on a mental state? Our viewpoint is indispensable to our aging process.

Another vital recommendation that we must consider as we age is that we watch closely what we eat and its quantity. Too many of us are still eating the same kind and amount of food we ate when we were younger. We tend to neglect vegetables and fruit as the mainstay of a healthy diet. We keep eating heaping portions of fatty meat and fried oily foods that our body finds hard to digest. Is it any wonder that the body begins to rebel as we age?

We forget that as we age we become less active, therefore we need less intake of food. Eating the same portions as when we were young and athletic results in becoming overweight. Why do we forget that we become what we eat? Being overweight is one of our most insidious silent killers. Let me relate a personal experience.

Several years ago while visiting my brother in the United States, I suddenly developed severe chest pains called “angina pectoris.” My brother rushed me to the hospital where within the next few hours doctors performed angioplasty. This is a surgical repair of blood vessels that connect to the heart.

On the plane home, I read the performing surgeon’s medical report about my condition. One phrase in the report glared out and shot into my brain like a bullet and has never left me: “the patient is an obese male Caucasian… “The word “obese” struck a chord which has ever since motivated me to watch my weight. From that moment on, I vowed to reduce my weight to the norm for my height and age. And it has worked miracles.

Obesity is clearly linked to disease and premature aging. What is going to be our excuse when “obesity” hits us and flattens us on our back? Don’t let food kill us!

Yes, aging is an inevitable process. But it doesn’t have to be a decline in the joy and excitement of living. As we move into our twilight years, our happiness should increase because of all our past experiences. We should stand tall and gaze lovingly at all the mountains we have climbed and all the valleys we have crossed with family and friends.

Let us perceive the world in a positive light closing out all negative emotions. As we change our perception of our surroundings, we will be able to appreciate the experiences of our body and of our world.

In reading over this article please don’t think that I am trying to be an expert on aging. The Lord knows I have enough trouble taking care of myself. It is just that I am concerned when I see so many “senior citizens” simply drop out and sit waiting for the last day. Instead we should all be enjoying ourselves in more productive ways bathed in happiness.

I am reminded of the lines from a poem by Robert Frost:

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”

All of us have many miles to go before we sleep. Let us enjoy our twilight years with vigor and excitement.

Let me close with the lines about aging from “Ulysses” written by the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

“There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me…
Free hearts, free foreheads,–you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world. ….
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are—
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Strive for joy in life. Let us keep meaning in our lives. The greatest threat to life and health is having nothing to look forward to. Even if we don’t wake up to dreams from God, every day has to mean something to us and when it does, let us believe that the battle is won. Think young! Live happily!