YOUNG AT HEART
Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional.
- Chili Davis, Jamaican baseball player
To be 'young at heart' is to love life and wake up every day and enjoy that day as a gift.
It involves loving, living life to the full and facing all that life presents, returning only blessings. One who is young at heart lives in the now and has a grateful heart, no matter what has gone before.
It’s a conscious decision and a way of being.
The cold hard facts are that we’re all going to age, so why not do it with style and class, grace, poise and, most importantly, vibrancy and enthusiasm.
YOU JUST KNOW FROM THE SMILE ON THIS FABULOUS WOMAN’S FACE THAT, REGARDLESS OF THE EFFECTS ON HER BODY, SHE’LL NEVER GROW OLD.
Ok so many of you reading this blog may still be in your twenties or thirties and have not even thought about this subject yet, but you will be bearing witness to family members, friends and even through our media platforms what aging means to those around us and how they are handling the process. They will be planting seeds in your mind as to what normal is and what to expect for yourself. A relative who thinks that we’re doomed when we reach our 60's or 70's and beyond is not exactly a good role model for us!
As I look around, I’m inspired by those women I hold as my mentors, the mad ones who refuse to fit into society’s norm of what it means to age, and are unapologetically living their life with gusto and uniqueness.
Who says we have to tone ourselves down, hide away, dress a certain way, chop our hair off, dye it purple and live half a life.
Yes, many aging adults also fear the unknown, but if you practice being young at heart by trying new things, from exotic food to learning a new skill rather than feeling fear, you will find that there’s so much more to live for.
At 52 I refuse to conform to what society thinks is "appropriate behaviour for a women my age".
NO WAY I’M GOING TO TONE IT DOWN. IF I WANT TO DRIVE DEEP INTO THE AMERICAN COUNTRYSIDE, ALONE OR WITH A VAN FULL OF FRIENDS, I WILL !!!
Although you can’t see them, this picture was taken when I was travelling across Across America with my two young children. I was home schooling them.
I’M 52, AND IF I WANT TO RIDE A UNICORN WEARING A BIKINI, NOBODY IS GOING TO STOP ME!
Screw that, I intend to keep running, keep roller skating, ballet, wearing short skirts, bikinis, studying and mixing with younger souls until im well into my 80's and 90’s! Age really is just a number, it’s how you feel inside that matters, and how you feel inside determines how you treat your body.
A healthy "Young At Heart” attitude inside will keep you on your toes and create a more pleasant and happy and healthy life experience not just for yourself but everyone around you.
SHE LOOKS AND FEELS YOUNG…AND SHE DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK
Of course you must take care of your whole health as you age. So along with your inner voice of living young in mind, you must practice young in body with good eating habits, stop sugar intake, fats, avoid bad habits such as smoking and too much alcohol, and limit your stressors and anxieties.
Some of the best times I've ever had have been in the company of my older friends, teachers, professors and colleagues. Our older generations have so much knowledge and amazing things to teach us when we choose to give them our time and respect. Both the lives of the young and the elderly become enhanced from the experience. It helps keep the elderly young at heart and the young wise at heart....
WHY THE HELL SHOULD YOU ACT YOUR AGE, JUST BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE IN SOCIETY THINK YOU SHOULD.
DO WHAT YOUR HEART WANTS YOU TO DO…..AND ENJOY LIFE.
Each of us has a chronological age, the number we commemorate on birthdays. But some 50-, 60- and 70-year-olds look and feel youthful, while others do not show their age, and more than their age, either physically or mentally. Scientists can measure the physical differences by looking at age-related biomarkers – things such as skin elasticity, blood pressure, lung capacity and grip strength. People with a healthy lifestyle and living conditions and a fortunate genetic inheritance tend to score “younger” on these assessments and are said to have a lower “biological age”.
But there’s a much easier way to determine the shape people are in. It’s called “subjective age”. When scientists ask, “How old do you feel, most of the time?” the answer tends to reflect the state of people’s physical and mental health. “This simple question seems to be particularly powerful,” according to Antonio Terracciano, a professor of geriatrics at Florida State University College of Medicine in Tallahassee.
Scientists are finding that people who feel younger than their chronological age are typically healthier and more psychologically resilient than those who feel older. They perform better on memory tasks and are at lower risk of cognitive decline. In a study published in 2018, a team of South Korean researchers scanned the brains of 68 healthy older adults and found that those who felt younger than their age had thicker brain matter and had endured less age-related deterioration. By contrast, people who feel older than their chronological age are more at risk for hospitalisation, dementia and death.
So if you’re young at heart, you’ll look, act and feel so much better.
There is a fountain of youth. It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” – Sophia Loren
WITH LOVE AND LIGHT AND LAUGHTER
