We all have perceptions and expectations of Aging. We see older people shuffling along, bent over, slow moving, morose, depressed, wrinkled and on and on. We often say that we don’t want to be like that. For some, it becomes an outright fear. Yet so many seniors don’t do anything to prevent it. We allow ourselves to “get old” based on those very perceptions and expectations.
We don’t have to be like that. We know what has to be done and we can do those things necessary to maintain our youthful energy and improve our outward appearance.
Our age should not be our defining feature. But if not our age, what will define us? How about our actions? How about our energy? How about our service to the people around us? How about what we do vs. how old we are? Just because we’re getting older doesn’t mean we are used up or are useless to the world. Hardly!
Studies show that this fear of aging, and giving into those perceptions and expectations, begins as early as between 55 and 60 years old. But we have a lot of “life” left in us if we take care of ourselves and do those things we know we should be doing.
Can you hold the door open for a younger person as a courtesy rather than let them hold the door for you? Can you be upbeat and chipper around your peers when they may be feeling a lack of hope for their future? Can you be a role model for other less positive seniors by being a model of energy and enthusiasm, alive with possibilities? Can you be someone to be looked up to by others instead of being a victim of a fear of your own future?
Stereotypes happen because we see so much of it and we tend to think of them as the norm. And that stereotypical norm can catch up with you unless you do those things that will keep it from happening: Movement, good eating, sleeping and breathing habits, and those other little things that can keep us feeling young and alive.
You don’t have to act old. You don’t have to allow yourself to be defined by your age, no matter what you chronological age happens to be. Define yourself by your energy, your enthusiasm and your actions instead. Become the role model for good health, fitness and personal energy so that others can see that they don’t have to “Let the Old Man or Woman In”
Thank your for reading.
NOTE: I hope that by next week, I will be publishing these posts under the name SeniorFlow Moments rather than Energy Bites. I will be migrating the website to SeniorFlow.net which is currently under construction. Everything else will remain the same. But PLEASE, don’t sign up for the blog on the form on the SeniorFlow website. You will get a duplicate of the post. Thank you.