Health Longevity Institute

Staying Young

Forget your age. Your number of birthdays isn’t important. How you look, feel and most of all your enthusiasm for living determine your age.

Be adventuresome! Always stay interested in life. Find new things to do daily. Do the things you enjoy and plan something "SPECIAL" to look forward to each day. Never, never let yourself be unhappy or depressed. This leads to poor health. You are as young as you feel.

Eat nourishing food. A balanced diet is very important. And never, never overeat.

Exercise daily. A good long enjoyable walk each day is a must for good health. Get into this habit, and each day you’ll find yourself looking forward to your walk.

The most important exercise you can do other than walking is the "stomach lift". This strengthens your abdominal muscles and enables you to permanently keep your waistline.

Here’s how to do it. Pull you stomach in and hold it for about 20 seconds. Relax, now pull your stomach in so that it feels as if your stomach is touching your backbone. Hold for a count of 30. Do this several times daily. Do it anytime you think of it.

Follow a regular exercise routine about 10 minutes daily. If you don’t know any regular exercise routines, your public library should have several books on this.

Good elimination. If you have poor bowel habits, try to correct them. Eat bran cereal for breakfast. Add high fiber bread to your menu.

Relax. Remember, relaxation is beauty, tension is ugliness. Now here’s how to begin relaxing. Lie on your bed or couch. Pretend you’re floating on a cloud or drifting idly in the ocean. think of anything that will make you feel loose and free.

First tense your arms; stretch them as long as you can. Next tense your fingers. Then ball them into tight fists. Now, let your arms and hands relax. Pretend you’re a rag doll and you cannot move them. Do the same with your legs and feet. Next comes the neck. Roll your head from side to side as if you were saying no. Then pretend your head is so heavy you cannot lift it from the pillow.

Work at this daily until you teach yourself to relax. It can be done. When you’re at work or anywhere that you feel yourself become tense, take several deep breaths through your mouth. This will help relax you. Follow this plan and you should look and feel young.

Keep your mind active and continue to learn. Take advantage of opportunities, like new friends, reading, movies, television, traveling and cultural activities. Take advantage of community resources. Most churches have programs for older people. YMCA college and hospitals have programs. Become a giver rather than a taker, beginning to look at the later years or life as time you can make major contributions to people at a personal level. Help out at the local Y. There are a lot of kids and young families that could use guidance and counseling from older people.

Don’t let your self become sedentary. Don’t stay cooped up in the house. Plan short walks, visits and shopping trips around your neighborhood.

Travel can be an aid to living a full and healthy life. Go some place new. It doesn’t have to be a trip around the world. Walk around your community, take a ride across town. Visit the local museum and other interesting places. If you live in a larger town go to the local airport. Travel can be an aid to living a full and healthy life. Go someplace new. A wonderful time can be had on bus tours. You meet lots of interesting people and see new places.

Friends are a source of energy. Friends and family are important to a healthy lift. Friends make us feel good. They keep us wanting to be alive.

Be less critical and more appreciative of others. Try not to put enormous demand and expectation on others. Be more appreciative of yourself. See yourself in terms of potentials and talents rather than weakness and problems.

Learn to take care of your body. Develop a regular habit of exercise. Find some activity that will allow you to stretch, breath and gently exert yourself. Swimming, cycling and golf are good healthy activities.

Search out and make friends with people who are active and optimistic. Spend as little time as possible with people who do nothing but complain or gossip. Look for cheerful people.

To have real happiness and contentment, simplify your life. Get rid of junk that you no longer use or need. Don’t clutter up your life with stuff you see, but don’t want or need.