The Age-Old Question

How old is old?

Aging is inevitable; getting old depends on the relationship between your body and mind. Your body picks up cues from your internal and external environments and sends messages to your cells. Those messages deplete or revitalize cells.

Vitality can be lost at any age. One of the greatest dissatisfactions among people over the age of 50 is body image. However, people don’t become obese and out of shape because they age.

Obesity often begins in childhood. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 17% of children and adolescents are obese. So, body dissatisfaction is not a characteristic of aging. Women, in particular, struggle with body image throughout the lifespan.

Aging Without Growing Old

Unfortunately, the world doesn’t make a distinction between aging and getting old. Anti-aging creams, foods, and lifestyles suggest we aren’t supposed to age. So, by the time many people reach the age of 40, they have a negative identity with their age.

A culture supportive of aging would refer to products as “aging’ instead of “anti” aging. Instead, restore youth and look young by any means necessary is the message. That includes costly cosmetics, surgeries, and damn-near poisonous supplements.

Snow White

In the fairytale, Snow White, the queen always looked to the mirror to affirm her beauty. One day, the mirror reported that someone else’s beauty was more captivating. The mirror will render us a similar truth eventually. Thus, the problem with comparison. Youthful appearance is a status symbol without substance.

Part of the increasing emphasis on youthful beauty is that many older people find themselves in the singles population due to divorce. Many believe they have to look young to find someone to grow older with. But, worrying about body parts is a race against time. Time will win.

Flow with time

The average U.S. life expectancy has increased to 78.6 years in 2017, up from 68 years in 1950. So, we should prepare for post-retirement-age years. We need to prepare mentally and physically, not just financially. Cosmetic surgery is no more a worthy aging investment than a bank account is for a retirement investment. The return is too low.

Active Aging

As Betty Friedan asserts, “Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” Statistics on aging show that 42% of men and 31% of women who have a bachelor’s degree remain in the workforce past age 65.

Unsurprisingly, the poverty rate among the elderly has dropped from nearly 30 percent in 1966 to 9 percent in 2017. The benefits are not just financial. People who work past retirement age are also less likely to experience a cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer’s.

When people remain active outside of work, their life satisfaction also increases. Older people who participate in organizations and stay physically active, report higher satisfaction than those who spend leisure time primarily reading and watching television.

Lifespan approach

“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” Samuel Ullman

Medium writer Julia E Hubbel asked the question. “Are you growing old way too fast? We should ask ourselves that question long before we see a gray strand or notice the smile line around our mouths.

We should take care of our bodies without shame or regret throughout the lifespan. The body can bring pleasure and pride without the mind becoming its victim. Own your beauty, not in the mirror, but in real life.

You don’t have to be an Earnestine Shepard, the oldest and most beautiful competitive bodybuilder. She started training and winning at age 71, after mourning the loss of her sister. She’s just one example of how our lives can transform at any age.

Sometimes, the most significant achievement you can do for your body is to learn how to breathe. I found that out a year ago when I started hot yoga at age 56. I had just about given up on running. I had been having great difficulty with my asthma for two years, since moving to Colorado’s high altitude.

Three months of attending hot yoga at least twice a week gave me a new set of lungs and restored my running. Many of my peers had advised me to stop running simply because of my age. My physician agreed with my peers.

Mind and Soul

Staying in the game of life mentally is the real challenge as we approach and move beyond retirement years. As Deepak Chopra asserts in his book “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind,” the mind sends messages to the body cells to age based on the environment.

The exertion of prolonged negative energy speeds the aging process and positive, active lifestyles slow down the aging process. Beliefs that life exists beyond your control is negative energy.

The acceptance that breathing difficulty is a message to slow down will make a person respond by slowing down or becoming sedentary. Slowing down then gives subsequent messages to body cells to age.

On the other hand, if difficulty breathing is interpreted as a message to pay attention, then the resulting behavior is different. Instead of slowing down, you look for alternative ways to be active. If you are lucky, you find the kink and reverse the aging process.

Adverse life experience

Life is kinder to some than others, but, no one ages for too long without adversity. Some people’s lives start with adversity. Others, due to reckless living, invite it. Still, adversity never seems fairly distributed and can wear heavy on the heart.

Our response to adversity may be one of the most significant determinants of aging. Adversity can be used as inspiration or as an excuse. It can be a portal to spiritual awakening or a gateway to mental imprisonment. The former revitalizes cells, and the latter weakens them.

When our cells are weakened by our thoughts and beliefs, our psychological age advances faster than our chronological age. To optimize vitality throughout the lifespan, we have to synchronize our mind and body efforts to send messages of longevity to our cells.

Through the Eyes of the Soul

Your body is your skeleton’s closet. It holds the secrets of unprocessed pain and dreams deferred. We have to air out the closet by being conscious and responsible for our internal and external environments throughout the lifespan. I refer to this consciousness as “seeing through the eyes of the soul.” The closing verse is a stanza from a poem I wrote with said title.

Free your soul from your broken heart

And the suspicious mind where dying starts

Turn the page and start a new chapter

Live with a healthy dose of laughter

Write new pages in your book of life

The soul is stronger than the tears you’ve wiped

But, if you close your heart to protect your soul

The soul will die young, even if the body grows old

References

American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2017). Obesity in children and teens. https://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Obesity-In-Children-And-Teens-079.aspx/.

Cho, D., Post, J., & Kim, S. K. (2018). Comparison of passive and active leisure activities and life satisfaction with aging: Leisure and life satisfaction with aging. Geriatrics & Gerontology International, 18(3), 380–386. doi:10.1111/ggi.13188

Chopra, D. (1994). Ageless Body, Timeless Mind. Penguin Random House.

Hrustic, A. (2017). Let the world’s oldest female bodybuilder be your fitness inspiration today. Men’s Health. https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/a19540992/oldest-female-bodybuilder-ernestine-shepherd/.

Julia E Hubbel (2020). Are you aging way too fast? Illumination on Medium. https://readmedium.com/are-you-aging-way-too-fast-308429abac4e.

Mather, M.; Jacobsen, L & Pollard, K. (2015) “Aging in the United States,” Population Bulletin 70, no. 2 https://www.prb.org/aging-unitedstates-fact-sheet/.

Senior Planet. https://seniorplanet.org/14-of-the-best-quotes-about-aging/.