Super Ager. Elise Marie Collins

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СКАЧАТЬ tendency to criticize and denigrate aging. It may be helpful to remember and realize that not all cultures put youth on a pedestal. Many cultures treat their grandparents, great-grandparents, and people over eighty as rock stars. A culture that values the fire stage of life of competition, aggression, and winning, instead of valuing the air stage of life, will also value drive and aggression over wisdom and inspiration. The point is that fire is not above air or below it. Fire is fire, and air is air. We need all elements for balance. When you embrace aging and cease to denigrate it, you esteem its qualities including wisdom, inspiration, and humility.

      Logotherapy, developed by Victor Frankl, is a therapy concept based on life purpose. Frankl believed that life purpose helped one choose their attitude. Life purpose and attitude were central to Logotherapy. “Everything can be taken from a man, but one thing, the last of the human freedoms, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” wrote Victor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning.

      Singapore’s Mother Teresa

      One way to boost attitude is to volunteer. Helping others seems to boost mood and mindset like nothing else can. Teresa Hsu Chih was known as Singapore’s “Mother Teresa.” A social worker, yoga teacher, and nurse, she devoted her life to feeding and housing needy people, especially those in dire need, regardless of race or religion. “She’s ninety-five, and she’s looking after those younger than her. She doesn’t care about herself. She only cares about others. This inspires me to follow her,” said a certain Mr. Thanaraja, a volunteer at Teresa’s nonprofit. Although she cared deeply for others, she had a simple, yet structured self-care routine. Born in 1898, she rose daily at 4 a.m. to do yoga, calisthenics, and meditation. She was a vegetarian who took up yoga in her sixty-ninth year. Known for her supremely optimistic spirit, she told people, “I prefer to laugh than to weep.” Teresa Hsu Chih lived to the age of 113 years. Her organization, Heart to Heart (www.hearttoheartservice.org), continues to carry out her legacy of helping feed and house the poor in Singapore and beyond.

      –PRACTICE PLAN–

      Journal

      Journal on resiliency. When and why do you give up? What triggers you to stop trying? Do you push yourself too hard? Will better self-care will help you to get through “the yuck?” Journal on seeing the bigger picture.

      Express Gratitude

      Daily Habits

      Write down five things you are grateful for. Gratitude is one of the simplest and best ways to change your attitude.

      Be Mindful

      Take five minutes every day just to notice what you are thinking, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. When we feel our senses, we step away from the mind. We step away from judgment. We become aware that we have the ability to choose our attitude towards our experiences. This knowledge of choice is a huge step forward.

      Spice Up Your Life

      Weekly Habits

      •Exercise your “trying” muscles.

      •Try something new every week; notice if you judge yourself or just feel good about trying.

      •Develop resilience through trying. A Super Ager must continue to push through fear, worry, excitement, regret, and doubt. Try new activities or try to do something you have never done before every week.

      •Write down your goals. Focus on your goals to sharpen your mindset.

      Weekly/Monthly/Annual Habits

      •Go to events that uplift your energy. If you aren’t inspired, your mindset will suffer. When you are inspired, it changes your mindset.

      •Here are some ideas for uplifting events:

      –Go to a concert or lecture.

      –Go to a museum.

      –Go see a movie by yourself or with a friend.

      –Get a massage or reiki healing.

      –Get acupuncture.

      –Walk in a park, forest, beach, desert, or some other place of natural beauty.

      –Have a party or meet friends for a drink.

      Super Aging Habits

      Daily Habits

      •Compassion – Practice a daily self-compassion meditation (Chapter 11).

      •Keep a gratitude journal.

      •Make a God Box or a surrender box. If you find yourself constantly worrying or thinking about the negative, begin to write down your negative thoughts and worries. Place these worries in a box. Place symbols of your worries in the box. If you find you cannot let go of your worries or negative thinking, allow yourself to indulge in thinking negative thoughts or let yourself worry, but put a time limit on it. Set your timer for fifteen minutes or even an hour. When time is up, put your thoughts back in the box. If it is too hard, try doing it the other way around, give yourself fifteen minutes or one hour worry-free, then let yourself worry like crazy the rest of the day or think negatively. You may find you like the worry-free time better.

      •Stop Complaining – This is a fascinating exercise from the book, A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted by Will Bowen. I was introduced to this book through yoga teacher Judith Lasater and her yoga club. She asked us to read it and try the exercise, which meant wearing a colorful soft plastic bracelet. The exercise went like this: each time I complained, I would have to move the bracelet from one wrist to the other. It made it oh so obvious just exactly how much I complained. Judith Lasater reminded us that it is human to complain. The real truth is that when we complain, we block ourselves from accepting things as they are or from taking action. Complaining creates a kind of inertia, a stagnation that quietly pollutes our mindset.

      •Cease gossiping – Are you talking about someone else? Is what you are saying about another person something that you would feel comfortable saying to their face? If not, stop right now: you are gossiping. Mitch Horowitz, author of The Miracle of A Definite Chief Aim and One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life, says that to stop gossiping is like taking a healthful pill. “This formula is free, and it can be yours immediately. It’s only aftereffects are satisfaction, calm, and good spirits.” Stop talking behind people’s back to experience an immediate shift in mindset.

       Chapter 4

       You Are a Mosaic of Habits: Everyday Opportunities to Super Age

      “Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you have to start young.”

      —Fred Astaire

      Lifestyle makes up 75 percent or more of how you we age. You are a collection of your habits. Your habits are who you are. The biology of aging is extremely complicated, involving so many systems of the body, brain, and the nervous system. Not to mention that СКАЧАТЬ