There was a study published in the British Medical Journal of 20,000 British folks which showed that you can cut your risk of having a stroke in half by being active for 30 minutes a day, eating 5 daily servings of fruit and vegetables and avoiding cigarettes and excess alcohol.

You know, those are all good things to do but I for one believe there’s a lot more. For instance, I read somewhere that in societies where people retire and stop working, the population becomes obese and the amount of chronic disease skyrockets after retirement. I’ve also read that the best thing you can do to prevent dying at an early age is to buckle your seat belt when driving.  These are all good things to know too but I still think there is more.

I am one of those people who feel strongly that rather than focus on your problems as you get older, you have a better chance of a quality life if you make changes, find meaning in your life, and focus on the opportunities life has to offer.

If you are 40 or 75 you still need to ponder your current life and your life dreams and figure out who is it that you want to be in your near future. Granted, introspection is a challenge, regardless of age. But assessing who you are and where you are can allow you, can permit you to make changes along your passage.

Let me ask you, what is the next step you’ll take to gain clarity about what you plan to do after you retire? How are you going to make effective transitions from one stage of your life to your next?

Aging well is more critical than ever in the U. S. or anywhere for that matter, as the world gets older. The longer you can hold off any disabilities and maintain your health the more you will enjoy your life.  There’s a big difference between aging well and growing frail and less independent.

That’s not to say your body doesn’t change. It does – not matter what you do. The brain processes information more slowly. Social isolation and depression are common as we age. On the other hand taking care of your gums will help you keep your teeth. At age 40 your ability to see close declines. Cataracts and glaucoma are more common when you’re 60.  And so many people start losing their ability to hear especially the high sounds. The list goes on but researchers are learning that the aging process, that is how well you live as you age, can be manipulated at least in animals.  They don’t know how well it will work in humans.

Actually, you too can manipulate the quality of your aging: staying active, eating less, and stimulating yourself mentally. Keep in mind that aging is not a disease. However, postponing aging would certainly put us all at a lower risk for disease.

So what do you think? Is it positive thinking or organic foods that keep us alive and healthy as we get older? Love to hear what you have to say on this topic.

To your healthy aging success,

Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Copywriter & Content Marketer

Feeling positive, enjoying where you are, and acknowledging who you are can make your brain healthier and keeps your body functioning well. No one knows for sure why a positive attitude seems to lead to a longer life but it does.

If you were to ask me the question, what’s so good about aging, my instinct would probably be to dwell on all the nastiness of aging – friends who are ill or who died, the fact that I can’t jog 6 miles anymore or get things done as quickly as I used to, and I need to focus more when creating a strategy or learning something that’s technical.

Our society does prize youth and beauty and old age doesn’t fit with that. The fact is messages about aging tend to emphasize the negative aspects.  However, like fine wine, people can get better as they age.

One of my own personal theories about people as they age is that they merely become MORE  of who they are. If they are persistent and pleasant and intelligent they will remain so in their 70′s and 80′s and 90′s. If they have a sense of humor when they’re 30, they’ll keep that sense of humor when they’re 90. The only factor to upset the apple cart is if they become ill because disease and treatments can change personalities.

The point is that experience along with maturity gives older people excellent insight. They are more in touch with their spirituality and the priorities in their life no matter the facial wrinkles. Some even managed to preserve their health and energy.

There also was a large study few years ago that suggested that happiness can lower levels of inflammation and the stress hormone cortisol which is associated with problems in learning, memory and other cognitive functions. Apparently, feelings of contentment and well being bring mental and physical benefits that counteract any negative thinking.

My suggestion, open yourself to humor and friendship. If you are feeling down in the dumps take a walk with a friend and go out of your way to find reasons to laugh and to spend time with people you enjoy. This is not a secret.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Yesterday I woke up in a funk. Usually I can change my outlook just by staying in bed for 10 minutes and reorganizing my thinking. That did not work yesterday.  It took longer to change from negative to positive but I did it.

It has always been important to me to be positive. In my early teens I read Norman Vincent Peale’s book, The Power of Positive Thinking.  At the time I couldn’t figure out why it took an entire book to say that to think positively you needed to work at doing just that – it doesn’t often just take place. Well the book must have made an impression because I’ve been working at thinking positively my entire life.

One of the things I do, and I’m hoping this will help you when you have your blue days, is to organize my day – on paper. This helps me to establish priorities and when you write down what you absolutely must do, the list isn’t as big as you think. This is particularly helpful for me when I feel overwhelmed about what I should be doing. The problem is I sometimes confuse what I should or could be doing or want to be doing with what I need to be doing.  Once I detail what I need, which usually resembles my personal and business goals, that murky unsettled feeling drifts away. And when that happens I usually, almost always, acknowledge my gratitude for what I already have and what I’ve achieved.

It’s the organization of the day that starts the move toward being positive.

I know the challenges will become even more frequent as my husband and friends and I add up the years.

Do let me know if you find this helpful. And I would love to know what you do to get up from being down in the dumps.

To your healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky