Are You Aging Before Your Time?

It’s strange but for many people, the anti aging battle is just about looking younger. But the aging process doesn’t just affect your looks, it also affects your mind and your attitude to life. Entering a state of atrophy is a major factor in aging. Atrophy is the process of withering away and it happens because the individuals concerned allow themselves to become stuck in a never-ending rut of dull routine.

If your anti aging strategy is to be successful, avoiding atrophy is crucial.

Have you ever noticed how people become trapped in routines as they get older?

Every day of every week passes in pretty much the same way. The same meals are eaten on set days – “it’s Tuesday so it’s pot roast” – the same jobs and chores are performed on the same days and weekends pass by each one identical to the last. A lie in, a cooked breakfast and a family lunch on a Sunday is a typical example.

Vacations are taken at the same time each year and for the same duration: 1 week at Easter, 2 weeks in summer, maybe a few days at Christmas or New Year.

And if those aren’t enough routines, many people shop on the same days and at the same stores. Such routines are not a recipe for remaining ageless!

So what’s the problem with having so many routines? Well, the danger lies in living the same year over and over again. And in living this way, life has no new challenges, no new adventures, no new skills, just living in exactly the same way from one month to the next.

When opportunities to change, to develop new skills, to go on an exciting adventure and to experience a buzz of excitement come along, they’re avoided like the plague and a common phrase is always uttered to explain why:

“I’m too old now, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. I’m too set in my ways.”

Don’t you think that makes a person sound so old?

If you become set in your ways, you resist any attempts to change and grow as a person. This is atrophy and it will age you rapidly because you’re not growing as an individual any more, you’re not engaged in the process of actively experiencing life and instead, you are wasting away.

Imagine a child at age ten saying: “I don’t want to learn anything more now, I’ve learned enough and I don’t want to experience any new adventures or fresh experiences.”

It isn’t a young attitude is it?

If you want to be forever young, a vital strategy is to be fully engaged in living life by keeping the learning process ongoing. A passion to acquire new skills, an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, eagerness to undertake new challenges and willingness to experience a variety of adventures all contribute in a major way to slowing down dramatically the aging process. You keep your mind active, you keep your body active and your appetite for life shines through and communicates a young, vibrant personality.

Contrast this with someone who shies away from new experiences, who doesn’t learn anything new from one year to the next and who remains trapped in a never-ending rut of repeated routines and you will see clearly how atrophy ages you.

Can you imagine anybody who lives life in the same way over and over again ever being described as “young at heart, passionate about life”? Such a person is more likely to communicate an aging, resigned attitude, an attitude that isn’t conducive to remaining ageless I’m sure you’ll agree.

You can choose to remain set in your ways and disengage from life or you can open yourself up to new experiences and fresh challenges and fend off the effects of aging. It’s true, you really can choose to be forever young.