Aging Gracefully

Wow, where has time gone!?! Just yesterday I was thinking about how ten and a half years ago I was walking into work here at Helping Hands Massage for my first day. As my thoughts elaborated I started thinking about the clients that have been coming here for ten-plus years now.

In ten years a lot has happened in all of our lives. We have all grown older. That being said, we as a human race are aging. Did you know that as a human race that our life expectancy has gone down considerably in the last 100 years? It has gone down for many reasons…but I’m not going to get into to the WHY of this today. Instead, what I wanted to focus on today is aging. More specifically, how to age gracefully.

Okay, okay, I know some of you may be scoffing at how a younger person can help you age gracefully when I’m not “older” yet. I understand where you are coming from and I respect your standpoint. I may be younger, but I do know a thing or two about health and aging 😉

Aging gracefully is a beautiful thing. Everyday, we can take action by making choices, by taking steps to help how we age in the days, months, and years to come.

I’d like to touch on some ways we can help ourselves age gracefully. I’m not going to go full bore into each topic, but instead toughing very lightly on each. Here we go!

1). Eating clean, organic, whole foods. Eating hormone and antibiotic free meats, vegetables, and fruits are the easiest and healthiest ways to eat clean foods. Going organic is the best option for choosing these foods, as you are not getting chemicals and pesticides in your foods…that in turn hinder your organs, skin, blood, gut microbiome, and DNA-your genes.

2). Eating GOOD Fats. GOOD fats are GOOD for us. They are. And guess what? Good fats DON’T make you fat, they actually do the opposite–they help you to lose weight! Eating ghee (butter without the dairy in it), avocados, oils (avocado, olive, sesame, and nut oils) are all great choices! Please note that canola, cotton, and shortening are NOT good for us, and can be food in all processed foods.

3). Using clean skin care products. Skin care is so over looked for QUALITY in todays day an age. The majority of skin care products found on store shelves are filled with damaging ingredients that will negatively effect a person’s DNA, organs, and skin. There are clean, good, products out there for people to use, but we need to dig a little to find them. Don’t settle for chemically filled creams or lotions, please. Find skin care products that won’t hurt your body, organs, (thyroid) and skin. Using clean skin care products, my friends, can help you look even younger as you get older! And who doesn’t want that!?!

4). Detoxing. This word in and of itself usually scares people. Sometimes, even to the point they run the other way rather than listening to or reading about it! Detoxing can be, or can not be, hard. It really just depends on the person, their health situation, and what kind of detox they choose to do. I’ve personally done detoxes that are hard, and then others that have been easy. I can tell you this from having done some…the less toxins we have in us the easier it is to detox. Given we are now in the month of January, I highly encourage anyone that has been thinking about a detox to start researching first, and think about starting a detox this coming Spring season. Spring, summer, and fall seasons are the best times to do a detox. Winter is NOT, as our bodies are, in the mid-west, still in recovery, and rejuvenating to refresh mode.

5). Laugh. Laughter can be one of the best medicines. All too often, in the 21st century, we fly through the day not stopping to feel or work through our emotions. And yes, this includes laughter. Laughter and smiling are so healthy and easy to do each and every day. We ALL can do a better job of laughing and smiling!

6). Movement. Please seriously take notice to my choice of words here, movement. Not exercise, but movement. Given the line of work that I’m in and from all the experience I have through my years, I’ve learned that MOVEMENT is more important than exercise. I could seriously write an entire blog about why exercise is so twisted and messed-up in today’s culture…but I’m not going to. Instead, ask me privately if you really want to know.

MOVEMENT is key. Why? Movement is different for everyone. Depending on our age, health condition(s), and so many more contributing factors, our amount and various ways and means of getting movement in everyday is different. Vacuuming the house, going out for a walk, doing planks or lunges, etc. are just some of many ways we can get different forms of movement in! Every individual is different, and as we get older and seemingly have more health issues, our ability to get movement in daily is altered. Be encouraged, there are ways to find movement for each person no matter your age and situation.

7.) Drinking Water Water is SO very important for our body to function optimally and properly. Water also helps improve the quality of our skin. Drinking half of our body weight in ounces of water is a good goal to strive towards. If I weigh 130 lbs. I would drink 65 ounces of water daily! Depending on various contributing factors, some individuals may need to up their intake of water even more. Water is CRUCIAL to our health, and for us to age gracefully! Oh, and not drinking enough water usually results in headaches, migraines, low energy, muscles aches and pains, brain fog, and so much more. All the more reasons to drink WATER!

8). The in between. In life there are two things that we are promised when we enter this world. The first being we are born and the second being we will die. It’s the in-between the two that matters. *What choices we make each and every day in our life is so important. *What we put into our body and what we apply onto our body. *Working through our baggage, our emotional health. *The nutrients we feed ourselves with. *The detoxing we do. *The amount of laughter we have in a day. *Healthy relationships. *Our belief in God. ALL of these aspects, plus so much more, impact us directly and indirectly each day of our lives. If we want to not only live our best life, but age gracefully too, we certainly want to take into account all of these important aspects. Life is a gift. We can take that gift for granted.

As I wrap up this blog, I want to finish with some of the thoughts that I started this blog out with. Our life expectancy isn’t what it used to be. If you want as many years as possible with your loved ones, you may seriously want to consider implementing some of these aspects, just talked about, into your daily life. We never now how many days we have ahead of us. But one thing I do know. We each have the ability to make the most of those days by making choices to make better our days, months, and years ahead of us…no matter what age we are.

I hope I’ve inspired you to make even just one healthier choice in your life so that you can age more gracefully. Aging gracefully can be a truly beautiful thing, if you choose to.

God Bless!