Are you Aging?

It is a serious question that I think we all need to evaluate. I know this may not be a shock to you if you are a regular reader of this blog, but I don't beleive that people are supposed to age. I do think we are supposed to grow older, but not age. 

You may be asking yourself, "what is the difference?" Well, there is a huge difference. Growing older happens with time. Aging happens with lack of use.

Aging is the result of not living and moving the way we were meant to. As we grow older, we should still be able to move around much like we did when we were teenagers, or the way we did when we were in our twenties for those of you who don't think you can move like you did as a teenager. 

Think about it. We really are wonderfully made. What would be the point of growing older without vitality? We were meant to live and enjoy this life. We weren't meant to grow older only to lose our independence. That is not growing older, that is aging. 

Aging happens to us when we spend our lives being static. When we allow stress and fears to consume us. When all we do is work and not play. Aging is a result of using our bodies, or not using rather, for something other than what they were intended. We were meant to move, to play, to engage life. We need to get back to doing these things so we can grow old with vitality. 

And we can. We cannot reverse time. We will grow older. But we can reverse the aging process - to a degree. We can regain our vitality. We can enter our 90s with vibrance. We don't have to wonder if we will be bed-ridden by the time we are 70. 

Jack Lalanne is a man who understood this. He died at age 96 and he was still able to do finger tip pushups when he died. How many teenagers, or twenty-somethings do you know who can do that? Harrison Ford is another example. He lives and works on his ranch. Riding horses and feeding cattle keep his body young even though he is in his 70s. 

I am even learning this lesson from my own life. I am knocking at the door of 40 and yet daily I find myself engaging in new activities that I could have never done in my twenties. I certainly move better today and have more energy than I did when I was younger. 

So how do we stop aging? The answer is ridiculously simple. We move. We engage in life. We smile more. We believe we can become better than we currently are. When we imagine ouselves growing older, we imagine ourselves being vibrant and not achy, slow, crooked, or ancient. 

We get to have a huge say in how we grow older. We don't have to age. And, if we find ouselves aging, we can change and become vibrant again. 

If you want to grow old with vitality and you don't know where to start the anti-aging process, just start by spending about 5 minutes on the floor every day. Start rolling around like a kid. Start crawling on your hands and knees. It is amazing what a difference this will make in your body. It is so amazing that it is almost a miracle. Engaging in "child-like" movements is a great way to turn back the hands of time. And it doesn't have to be laborious, you can start with just 5 minutes a day. But do it every single day. Consitent engagement in these simple movements is an effective tool for regaining our vitality. If and when 5 minutes seems too easy, great, do 10 minutes - every day. 

Wonderful things happen when children learn to roll, creep, and crawl. Wonderful things can still happen when adults remember how to do the same thing. You can actually regain your vitality by simply spending time on the floor and moving like a child. 

If you are aging, stop. You're not supposed to. Wake up the kid inside of you and start moving. You are meant to grow old with strength and health. You are meant to be able to wrestle with your grandkids and go for long walks with your spouse. Growing older should be a wonderful process, not something to be dreaded and feared. Roll on!