Revitalize Your Life
Simple habits can have a major payoff when it comes to our wellness and healthy aging. There are so many things you can do to keep feeling your best and doing the things you love longer into your later years – and actually feeling great at any age.
Good-for-you changes like eating a Mediterranean-style diet, getting regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, and drinking a lot less can slow down the aging process inside and out and keep your body and brain fit for a longer, fuller and more joyful life.
Investing in meaningful relationships is one of the best things you can do to boost your quality of life. Belonging to a community and staying connected with the people you love is a big deal. So cultivate strong relationships with family and friends, old and new, by sharing special experiences like travelling, joining a club or sharing a relaxing spa day. Data reveals that those with strong social ties have a 50% higher chance of living longer than those with poor connections.
Managing stress is essential. Stress can take a major toll on your physical and mental well-being, so taking steps to reduce worries with regular self-care time, such as meditation, exercise, massages and more, can do wonders for an increased healthspan and vibrant lifespan.
You are what you think when it comes to aging. Maintaining a positive outlook actually gives us energy and resiliency, helping to maintain and even improve vitality over time. When we think good things about getting older, we live longer, walk faster, stand straighter, have a better chance of recovering from injury and even perform better on memory and motor control tests, according to research.
Aging is inevitable, but to do it better, we need to feel better about it. There’s never been a better time to age! Vast advances in nutrition, healthcare and technology help to slow the physical decline, but we also need to adopt more optimistic and realistic views and ditch prevailing toxic ageist attitudes, anxiety and dread.
No age is perfect, but the truth is that many things stay the same and some things even get better as we get older, says Carl Honore, author of Bolder: Making the Most of Our Longer Lives. Every age can be wonderful, but only if we embrace it: “We need to embrace the present without pining for the past or shrinking from the future” and welcome aging as a privilege and an adventure.
Make time to learn, work, rest, care for others, volunteer, create and have fun all the way through our lives. “Aging can be a bonus rather than a burden,” says Carl. He offers these tips to get bolder as we get older.
- Keep on learning and experimenting. Novelty keeps you energized and engaged.
- Draw inspiration from role models. Think Helen Mirren, David Attenborough or even Michelangelo, who rebuilt St Peter’s Basilica in his 80s.
- Channel Marie Kondo. If something – a job, a friendship, etc – no longer sparks joy, drop it. Streamline to make every moment count.
- Find a purpose that puts meaning in your life.
- Be honest about your age. Lying gives the number a power it does not deserve – and reinforces the myth that younger is always better. Owning your age is the first step to making the most of it.
- Remain flexible and open to change, growth and evolution.
- If you think growing older will be bad, it will be bad. Be positive and focus on the upsides of aging: feeling more at ease in your own skin, deeper relationships, more happiness, altruism, creativity, knowledge and experience.
- Cultivate a sense of humour. Laughing boosts health and longevity. As George Bernard Shaw put it: “You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.”
- Make the most of the here and now. An awareness that time is finite gives life shape and meaning – and spurs you to make the most of the present.
