Good News - Most of your cells are still this young
Here is the scene: You need a passport for a trip. You go into City Hall in the city where you were born to get a copy of your birth certificate. Whoops!
The Clerk says there was a mistake on the birth certificate and you are not 62 but 92!
You say, "It can't be!" Turns out its true. An honest mistake. What do you think your thoughts will be as you leave City Hall and return home?
Well, nothing else has changed. Your social security may have to be adjusted, but you really don't have to tell anyone....do you? Do you kill yourself because you think it's all over?!
You don't feel 92, or what you thought once upon a time you would feel IF you ever got there. You feel much younger. Why not just go on to Europe or wherever and keep encouraging everyone around you to stay young?
You see, you really are as young as you feel, in many ways, and being a certain age does not call for some ancient ritual of behavior, or a suicide pill. It is all a mental framework, a paradigm you have constucted. But you do have a disease called aging, at any age, starting when you are very young.
Medicine is slowly finding ways to treat it, but you don't have to wait for medical advice on this. In fact, it may not help. Doctors do NOT treat aging. They get old and retire, hopefully, so young ones can come in and bring fresh ideas.
What Can I Do About This?
If you assume that your mind and body are linked, then you know there is an effect that each has on the other.
If you are over 50, your own expectancy is now largely up to your choices. Modern Medicine is focused on specific diseases. There's a cancer center, a cardiac center, sleep center, pulmonary center, etc. It could be called the "Whack A Mole Treatment" model. Fix one thing and you are back on the street. So now you won't die from that, but now you are back out on the street resuming normal stuff. However, you are also back in the average statistical pool which determines what every other disease threat means in terms of your lifespan. Glad you survived! Now we resume the fight on every possible front.
It's a good model for what ails us at the time, and it works, but it doesn't treat the underlying degeneration called aging, which is the real enemy, and should be called a disease. Because it's becoming curable.
It's time to rearrange your head
In last week's blog the point was that your choices are what control your best chances. Choices are based on the pillars of values and purpose. There's a good place to start. But it will take a lot more than just restating those vital pillars, and it's worth the extra effort.
There are many current articles in the Wall Street Journal about the latest research on aging and why it doesn't have to happen anywhere near as fast as it does. Do we have a cure? Not yet, but it also could come faster than you think. Will you be able to take a pill once a day? Eventually, but now it is still science fiction. (Think Apple Watch, Dick Tracy Comic from 1950 - wristphone).
For a really good book on this, you should look into "Lifespan: Why we Age and Don't Have to." by David Sinclair. You can get a better idea of the enormous research on aging.
A quick look and fun is the documentary by Dan Buettner on the Blue Zones. These are the small areas in the world where most all people live very long lives. It is a very helpful source on many ways to live long and live well. Very popular Netflix Series now!
The pill will take a few more years - in the meantime your choices about your mind and body will be more important than the date on your birth certificate. Love yourself! Stop Aging!
Happy Days Ahead
Joe Grant, MBA
Certified Retirement Coach
Contact me for a Free 45 minute Consultation at https://yourvantagepoints.com
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