5 Wellness Hacks to Stop You From Getting Old
The quality of life is 100% up to you
Ageing is a disease. A disease of the mind. Not Alzheimer’s disease or any degenerative cognitive disorder, but a disease of voluntary mental attitude.
The truth is, thinking you’re old is going to kill you faster than actually getting old.
Whilst I appreciate no-one gets out alive, I firmly believe in stepping out of the box of conventional behaviour. By taking control of your daily actions you will slow down time and ultimately make yourself ageless.
It’s never too late to make changes and take control of your life.
I don’t care what kind of mess you’re in health-wise. Getting to grips with your mid and later years is something everyone can do. You don’t need to slip down the slippery slope of poor health and endless medication once you pass 50.
Fail to plan, plan to fail.
As organised as your life maybe, if you don’t have a wellness routine then you might as well drain your bank account and give it to the nearest hospice.
It has been proven beyond doubt that planning, setting goals and being accountable to something or someone delivers success. Short, mid and long-term plans are essential.
Get out of bed in the morning and do thirty minutes of whatever health-related activity you said you’d do. This is blindingly obvious to most, I know, but making it easy for yourself to go for a jog or walk by putting your sneakers and kit by the side of the bed will make backing out less likely.
Make a plan and stick to it. Have a daily intention to stay ageless.
Planning the evening before allows your subconscious to prepare. It is as if you have already done it. Plan your activity, plan your food and plan your day.
Start thinking week to week, month to month. Small targets such as losing one pound per week or signing up for that art class (mindfulness at its best).
Then think about the next couple of years. Close your eyes and clearly imagine what your life will look like. What you will look like. Goal setting and visualisation are a superpower. You become what you think, so keep it positive, progressive and above all light and fun.
Be an all-rounder.
Every day you must do something towards the greater good of your health. Once you nudge past 40 years old, metabolism and hormones will slow down. As fat gain and memory loss increase, being an all-rounder will not only save the day it will refurbish the foundations of your very existence.
Without fail every week should include the following:
Weight training to muscular failure. Read my previous piece on 10k dumbbells. I make it simple and explain why weight training is essential.
Meditation. Meditate at least twice per week for thirty minutes at a time. In an ideal world, you’d do this at the end of every day. The longer the better.
Stretching/yoga. Why not stretch for ten minutes every day before you meditate? Allocating two mornings per week to stretch for longer will give you the essential muscle memory and familiarity of your routine.
Cardiovascular workouts. The heart is the only muscle that does not regenerate itself. It needs constant maintenance and strengthening.
Digital detox. Enough screen time already. Your eyesight is diminishing anyway so don’t speed it up by staring at screens all day. Your emotional and mental wellbeing doesn’t need the 10–14 hours a day of digital frying either.
Allocate two hours a day to do all your emails, social media and planning. Obviously, if your job is 100% dependent on a screen, you can’t avoid it completely but be strict with when you stop. Finish by 7pm. Your brain needs a chance to process. Information overload will impact on your sleep and under no circumstances can your sleep be affected.
As each small element of wellness is integrated, it becomes part of you. It forms part of who you are.
Get amazing sleep by removing tension.
As far back as 1924, Dr Edmund Jacobson discovered that by tensing a muscle in isolation or as a group, the muscle immediately relaxed.
To try this yourself, begin by lying in bed and isolating each muscle group. Tense and squeeze each muscle. Start at the feet and work up. Take a slow in-breath to a count of six as you tense, then exhale again for six and relax.
Like anything you are teaching the body and mind, it takes time to learn and fully effective. I find that punctuating each act of tensing with a slow breath in and out is the perfect rest. It allows you to regroup and focus on the next muscle.
Begin with your right calf then do the left. Progress slowly up the body. Hamstrings, glutes, quads, stomach. Then clench a fist on the right to tense the arm and repeat to the left. Finally, squeeze the facial muscles whilst breathing slowly.
It takes practice. But in time, your body will know the route and respond immediately to what you’re asking of it.
Once you are competent, silently say the word ‘relax’ at the end of every outbreath. Yes, you guessed it, you’ll relax more by telling yourself to relax.
This tension and relaxation exercise will help to give you the great night’s sleep you’ve been dreaming of. Sleep is essential on the long road of life. It’s where energy restoration, cognitive processing and deep intuitive cultivation happens. Remember, if you live to be 78, you’ll spend thirty-three years or more sleeping, so it makes sense to get it right and ultimately live longer.
Get addicted to vitamin D.
“My life, my life, my life, my life in the sunshine
Everybody loves the sunshine
Sunshine, everybody loves the sunshine
Sunshine, folks get down in the sunshine
Sunshine, folks get brown in the sunshine”
— Roy Ayres Ubiquity
Now, whilst I appreciate the positive merits of other nutritional supplements (for example, glucosamine and vitamin C) and applaud the nutritional power of things like flaxseed, goji berries and spirulina, I put a good vitamin D supplement at the top of any pile.
The whole of the western world is deficient in Vitamin D. Dr Zahid Naeem explains that this deficiency is an ignored epidemic.
“Vitamin D, also described as “the Sun Vitamin” is a steroid with hormone like activity. It regulates the functions of over 200 genes and is essential for growth and development… Natural diet, most humans consume, contain little vitamin D. Vitamin D3 deficiency can result in obesity, diabetes, hypertension, depression…Vitamin D3 is believed to play a role in controlling the immune system (possibly reducing one’s risk of cancers and autoimmune diseases), increasing neuromuscular function and improving mood, protecting the brain against toxic chemicals, and potentially reducing pain.”
To cut a long story short, vitamin D is essential if you want to protect yourself against disease, pain, low mood and a weak immune system. It’s benefits are endless. Excellent sources of vitamin D are egg yolk, fatty fish, fortified dairy products and beef liver. So, add salmon, sardines, yoghurt, egg (yolk), mackerel and cheddar cheese to your shopping list.
Please note: Any food that’s been fortified with vitamin D will not work. It’s a sales con. Only natural occurring food should be added to your diet.
Cod liver oil is a great way to add vitamin D into your diet. If you don’t manage to get out into the sun or would like a boost, take advice from a nutritionist and consider a cod liver oil supplement.
Never retire.
As soon as you dip through the red tape of retirement, the race is literally over. Don’t do it. Don’t retire. Why stop the things that keep you mentally focused, give you purpose in life and bring you self-worth?
It’s not enough to do a crossword every day. Completing a Suduko in ten minutes will not keep you mentally young and alive. Don’t fool yourself.
Why would you stop doing what you love? There’s no reason. But there’s every reason to carry on. I’ve met many inspirational people along my journey. For example, a client who I trained for 23 years, is now 90. I began working with him when his psychiatrist gave up. He said he couldn’t do anything for him and passed him on to me.
Sure, it was a challenge at first. The guy wouldn’t get out of bed. His head was full of negativity and self-loathing. His business of 35 years was a massive success. He was financially rich. But, he was poor in so many ways. He was deeply unhappy. And his plan to hand his business over to his son had filled him with fear. He was scared of having no purpose in life.
Fast-forward two decades of eating right, daily exercise, meditation and inspirational podcasts and he’s never been happier. Straightening his health out made him realise he wasn’t ready to retire and hand his business over to his son. His daily conference calls are his life blood.
Now, his business has grown exponentially in the last ten years. He’s always thinking. Always creative. And he always has a twinkle in his eye.
In another story, just last week on LinkedIn, I read about the astonishing pianist, Ruth Slenczynska. She is the last remaining Rachmaninov pupil. She has a gift of playing wonderful music that has inspired and touched so many people.
At the age of 97, she has just signed a new recording contract.
Both people are examples of what happens when you follow your creative passion. It is never too late to throw yourself at what makes your heart sing and it is always too early to stop.
Takeaway.
If you’re lucky enough to reach your 90s, you will have got your house in order. You’ll have followed the above five points and more. You’ll feel alive, creative, passionate and have excellent wellness habits and goal setting routines.
Of course, there are many more significant actions to add to the list of five above. Don’t forget a loving relationship, regular physical human contact, buying a dog, being financially safe and spending time with friends and family.
The most important thing of all is to be open to the brilliance of life. This requires you to be physically and mentally abundant. And there’s plenty to feel abundant about. The beauty of getting older is your experiences give you more clarity and a clearer understanding of what not to do. You feel wiser, more in control and braver. Life is yours for the taking.
And remember, you don’t make mistakes. You create life lessons.
When it comes to your wellbeing, even the smallest of positive action has a huge impact. So, start now. Not later. Not tomorrow. Now. What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Have no fear. When you focus on your wellbeing and transform your life to suit you, only good things will come.