The Come Alive Project

Category: Senior Fitness

  • Energy Bite 385 – Will “Expectations” of Aging, Actually Age You?

    Science is recognizing the interconnections of mind and body more than ever. There is now strong evidence that what you THINK about yourself can affect your genes, and the way you think about life can affect the way it actually turns out. While the actual science is relatively recent, that sort of thinking goes back a long time.

    Right now, whether because of the COVID Pandemic or because of other events going on in the world, depression and feelings of unworthiness have become a near epidemic among Seniors.

    This is nothing new. These feelings have been going on with Seniors since the first person started aging and younger people started observing.

    The words, the thoughts, and particularly the expectations that we express to ourselves and one another about aging, can actually affect the way we age.

    “The expectations of aging will age you” said Maxwell Maltz author of the famous self-help book from the 1960s, Psycho-Cybernetics. He asks the question: “Do we sometimes THINK ourselves into Old Age?”

    The traditional thinking was that a person becomes pretty much useless as he or she passes through their 60s and into their 70s and 80s. The retirement age for many companies has traditionally been 65 or 70 years old. My Father was a “young” 70 when he was forced to retire from being a well respected University Law Professor. Seniors of that age used to be considered well past their functional prime and pretty much useless to business and society. No wonder so many Seniors experience those feelings of depression and unworthiness as they get older. NOTE that I don’t call this practice “AGISM”. It simply represented traditional thinking in the 1960s and earlier.

    Maltz went on to say:

    “In expecting ‘old age’ and fearing its onset, we may unwittingly do those very things necessary to bring it about. We begin to taper off on both physical and mental activity. Cutting out practically all vigorous physical activity, we tend to lose some of the flexibility of our joints. Lack of exercise causes our capillaries to constrict and virtually disappear, and the supply of life-giving blood through our tissues is drastically curtailed. Vigorous exercise is necessary to dilate the capillaries which feed all body tissues and remove waste products.” — Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics

    Beliefs are a powerful motivator both positive and negative. If our beliefs tell us that we are getting old and there is nothing we can do about it then we will fulfill our expectations and get old and decrepit. If, on the other hand, we believe that we can take positive action in both mind and body to slow the aging process, and EXECUTE on those beliefs, then we will fulfill those expectations and keep our youthful vigor.

    What are those positive actions? Physical exercise, eating well, breathing deeply, getting plenty of rest and sleep, and equally important, to think and believe that we can agelessly move though our 60s, 70, 80s and beyond with vigor and Flow.

    We can choose who we are as we age. As I wrote last week, we can CHOOSE whether to be AGELESS or we can CHOOSE to be OLD. It’s up to us which one we CHOOSE.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 384 – I Am Ageless. You Can Choose To Be Ageless Too

    Being Ageless is a mental construct. It is a State of Being. I am ageless. So are YOU if you choose to be.

    There is difference between longevity and being ageless. Longevity refers to living a long time but often succumbing to the biomarkers of reduced . . .

    Lean muscle mass . . . Strength . . . Metabolic rate . . . Aerobic capacity . . . Bone density. Biomarkers also refer to negative changes in blood pressure, body fat percentage, ability to regulate body temperature, insulin sensitivity and your cholesterol ratios.   — Biomarkers, Wm Evans, Irwin Rosenberg, 1991.

    You can add loss of hearing, eyesight, and the potential for mental deterioration.

    You become old. As in living a long time but deteriorating/decaying.

    Being ageless, while a mental construct, is both a mental and a physical state of being. It’s the mental attitude of feeling “alive” with mental energy, Flow, and enthusiasm for life . . . AND . . . The physical capacity (physical energy) to be able to carry out the purpose you choose for that life.

    Will you regress occasionally? Of course. Situations will arise that will depress you, isolate you, anger you, or injure you. Yes, you will fall ill on occasion. But the “ageless” person is more likely to recover, to “shift” and to re-awaken into “aliveness”.

    Those are amazing feelings you get as the endorphins kick in and you “shift” into that addictive state of Flow, where time SLOWS DOWN, you can perform at an optimal state, and when you have truly “Come Alive”.

    You can LET yourself get old, or you can choose to be ageless. There is no reason to let yourself fall into the aging trap when you can “shift” at any time and “Come Alive Again”.

    I am ageless. You are too if you choose to be.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 383 – To a Fit and Energy Filled Senior Life

    I’ve been asked a number of times why I don’t demonstrate or recommend exercises that Seniors should be doing to get or stay fit. The answer is that while these articles are about Health, Fitness and Personal Energy for Active Seniors, this is not an exercise site.

    Our bodies take on different characteristics and go through different stages as we age. For some it’s muscular deterioration, for others, maybe bone density precludes some kinds of weight bearing exercise. For still others, weakened joints, tendons or ligaments will dictate some of what we can or can’t do. Our posture deteriorates, our body weakens overall, and often the short term memory lapses can signify future challenges.

    These are not excuses, they are simply what we believe are facts of life and represent challenges that, while they can be overcome, are legitimate reasons why we develop physical problems as we add on the years.

    This is all based on stereotype beliefs of what will happen as we age. Do they necessarily have to happen?

    The real point of Come Alive Project is to reinforce in the minds of Active Seniors that we can break away from what we traditionally think of as the normal aging process: deterioration and decay, weakness and approaching befuddlement.

    Personal fitness, personal energy and good health habits play a major role in longevity and empowering an active, enthusiastic and purpose filled senior lifestyle. Of your mindset and attitude toward aging are what either limit you or set you free to live a life of energy and enthusiastic purpose.

    I recently turned 81 years old and feel more alive and empowered that I have in many years. I keep my body fit but I’m not overly strong, nor do I have huge muscles. I feel great.

    My wife just turned 76, looks much younger and certainly acts and moves like a much younger person. That’s because we both take responsibility for our bodies and our attitudes.

    I would suggest that if you signed up to get this blog, you want, or maybe already have, the same thing. You understand that it is YOU who is responsible for the way you age.

    So, while I may start demonstrating some simple fitness movements that most seniors should be capable of doing, I will continue to focus these articles on how we, as active seniors, can break out of the stereotypical senior rut and instead, choose to move toward an active and productive life filled with good health, fitness and a strong sense of personal energy, vitality and purpose.

    Thank you for reading.