On Birthdays & Aging!
Are you aging or growing?
The Reality of Birthdays:
Most people would love to celebrate the day with drinks, good food, family, and friends. While kids celebrate with no regrets, some in their late thirties and forties do not want to agree on their age. This is mainly because of the fear that they hold as they see age in numbers. Another group of people mocks as the number (age) gets higher (or) when you grow old. These days, social circles are classified based on the generation gap where:
Silent Generation → Age > 70
Boomers → Age 50 to 69
Gen X → Age 35 to 49
Gen Y → Age 25 to 34
Gen Z → Age 18 to 24
Every Birthday is a year closer to death — fools celebrate the day,
The wise stay put knowing the reality!
— Anonymous
Those who realize the limited time available will genuinely understand the shortness of life given a lot of dreams aligned forward. Most of the time, we are not actually living life but simply existing — allowing life to happen to us rather than taking the reigns to live the lives we want to live. Our time is valuable, and it is the only thing that we cannot ever get back. Life is long if you use your time deliberately and carefully. Life can be fulfilling if you invest your time in the right things, people, and good experiences.
With all these birthday parties and social boundaries around the society, the most critical question to ask is:
Are we Aging or Growing?
Aging is a natural process, and eventually, everyone will age. None can escape aging. A person tries to fit in the crowd with cosmetics or attire by fooling themselves into thinking they are young. The reality — every minute, hour, and day, we age. There is no escape.
Aging is mandatory, whereas growing remains a choice. To understand this better, one has to perceive the two types of age:
- Biological (or) Chronological age
- Psychological age
The Chronological age refers to the number of years you stay alive on this planet. The body ages as days pass by; nothing can stop it from happening to any living being. Whereas Psychological age is how old one feels, acts, and behaves and is thus not necessarily equal to chronological age. Some may attribute psychological age to Intelligence Quotient, or I.Q., whereas I believe I.Q. is just a superficial scratch over the tip of the iceberg. In reality, people emphasize the chronological age more than the psychological age.
Chronological age is less important as long as one’s psychological age remains young. One can see that when a person is psychologically evolved or grown, their dynamism, clarity in expressions, and their behavior are all irrelevant to their chronological age. Their sense of curiosity will be as good as a kid’s and be open to opinions and ideas.
Why is Psychological Aging more dangerous than Chronological Aging?
As we all grow up, we gradually lose the sense of curiosity, and learning stops. Losing the importance of curiosity and learning is where psychological aging begins. As we grow old, we fill ourselves with opinions about things around us. For example, we must have asked why the sun rises in the East? As we grow up, we fill ourselves with pre-assumed opinions and never re-visit to ask the same question again! Likewise, we fill ourselves with opinions and remain closed to new ideas. At this point, curiosity and creativity deteriorate, and people start growing old. The only way one can out beat biological aging is by growing psychologically or remaining curious and creative!
Aging in the Age of Anti-Aging:
People have multiple anti-aging creams to make them look young. These anti-aging creams can only mask their chronological age, and nothing can mask their psychological age or actual growth. The beauty of psychological development is that only you can feel and see it.
A simple question shall reveal whether a person is aging or growing;
“Are you Happy?”
or
“How Happy are you every day?”
If your answer to the above question is “YES,” you are growing; else, you are just aging. For example, when I express my ideas through my blogs, I am happy, and thus, I continue to read more books, practice things in my daily life, and then write about them.
While all that being said, it brings us to a point to address the following question:
How to be Happy?
A simple way to stay happy is to express what you love. For example, an artist will remain happy whenever he paints a picture, a dancer when she dances, an orator when he delivers her speech, a writer who writes his ideas in blogs, etc.
Expression is the essence of Happiness!
-Sriram Balasubramanian
Even a drunkard is happy only when he blabbers as he gets drunk!
Thus, to stay happy, one has to express themself. Expression is only possible when people are open to new ideas and learn new things. A bucket full of water will not be able to accommodate more water. To learn new things, one has to empty the buckets so that water can be filled in — simply put;
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, and Learn new things!
As long as a person remains happy, though they may chronologically age, their psychological age remains younger, exhibited through their dynamism, behavior, and level-headedness.
Before I conclude, today is my Birthday, and thus, here are some great quotes that I read from some stoic books & core idea was derived from the book Seventh Sense.
Count your age by the number of lives you touched, not years.
We do not become The Crone, the Wise One until life has carved us open, we have sewn ourselves back together thousand times over.
Last but not least, — about life:
Learning how to live takes a whole life, and, which may surprise you more, it takes a whole life to learn how to die.
Every Birthday is a year closer to death — fools celebrate the day,
The wise stay put knowing the reality!
— Anonymous
When I read the above quote in one of the blogs, I was completely taken back. I have always been one of those who celebrated birthdays (in my capacity), but this quote made me think. Whether I am wise or a fool, I decided to be a Wise fool on this birthday.
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