Since childhood, we have seen our grandparents, parents, and other people close to us grow old. Our experiences are full of people becoming frail, their mind weakening, memory gradually impaired, their eyesight and hearing diminished. Then, one day, right in front of our eyes, their bodies “shut off’,” leaving them dead. These are very powerful impressions. Our young and impressionable minds form a picture of how and when we ourselves would become old and die.
All these sensory impressions affect our beliefs and attitudes regarding aging. What we learn about aging “corrupts” us. All the so-called facts, beliefs, and conceptions about old age go in the mind’s databank and are drawn from where the “program” is written about our own aging process. Some scientists in the process of aging say we are just following the “script” written by our mind.
First, we grow old in mind and then we grow old in body. We know what to expect of old age and thus we limit ourselves based on these beliefs. But since we learn these limitations, we can also change them. There is nothing fixed about the life span and everything is inherited. If genes were the sole dictators of our lifespan, how come each generation lives longer than the previous one? A bold theory of aging suggests that if we free ourselves of the self-limiting beliefs, we may stretch our genes to healthier and further frontiers.
I am 54 years old and feel and look closer to 39. I am healthy, energized, and embarking on the second half of my life doing what I’m most passionate about. I am experiencing a fearlessness that I have not felt since my childhood. Why am I different from most 54-year-old women? I don’t have a lot of money, I don’t have a new body, a new lover or a vacation home so why am I not experiencing this ‘decline’?
The beliefs I hold about myself and the world are different from most people my age. Instead of seeing myself as being less ‘productive’ physically, I see myself as being more capable in every other way – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Instead of seeing myself as ‘failing’ or becoming frail, I see myself as feeling better and better every day – stronger, more authentic, more flexible, and more self-loving than every before in my life.
Our beliefs create our reality. When we choose to keep our attention focused on ones that feel good to us, our reality begins to feel good. You have a choice and can feel good about your age now.
Learn more about how to challenge and change your limiting beliefs about aging here.
My father and my grandmother were two people that aged really well because of their level of activity. A few years back my dad broke his leg. The doctor was surprised just how fast it healed for someone in their sixties – within a third of the expected healing time.
But it really hit me that age is just a number when I saw this woman lift weights in a gym in Winnipeg. A woman in her seventies took a barbell and placed it on the floor. She went back and forth to the rack of weights and added to her barbell eight 45 pound plates. She then deadlift the bar off the floor ten times. She was not frail at all. The only part of her that told her age were the wrinkles in her face.
There is another gentleman I ran into. This time in South Carolina. He started body building when he was in his mid sixties. If you were to look at him he looked like he lifted weights his whole life. Age is definitely just a number.
I can share more examples of these more elder athletes – lifters, runners, and martial artists. My point is that age is just a number and when we get older we should keep in shape and not slow down just because being old means you need to slow down.
Get in shape. Keep your doctor in the loop. Get solid night sleeps.
Thanks for these great concrete examples Chris. The more people can believe it’s possible, the faster it will happen.