Ageing is in the mind - 5 Aug 2010

In this life we are either growing and evolving or we are shrinking and dying.

There is a fascinating study that Harvard did about ageing where they took a bunch of 70 year old men and they tested them for various signs of ageing. They then trained them to remember what their life was like when they were 50. They then put them into a large house where the decoration style was in keeping with styles from 20 years before, they piped in old TV shows, they reprinted old newspapers as though they were new, they all had talk about themselves and their lives as though they were 50. They had been trained to remember where they worked and how old their children would be. After two weeks of living as though they were 50 (not 70) they were tested again for signs of ageing and the results were extraordinary. On many levels of assessment they reversed the ageing process but probably the most interesting indicator was the before and after photos that were taken. After having just lived as and imagined themselves as being 20 years younger for two weeks nearly all of them looked younger in the after photo with some of them being externally assessed as being as much as 5 years younger.

This experiment is documented fully in the amazing book “Timeless mind, ageless body” by Deepak Chopra. An amazing read for anyone interested in the importance of understanding the psychological element of the ageing process.

Our body responds to what we believe. We need to break the patterns of our conditioning and continually strive to expand our sense of self, to look to our more senior years as a time of self-exploration and more importantly self-expansion. By the time we are ready to retire from work we can hopefully relax into good financial security and whilst there is nothing wrong with snoozing on the couch for the rest of your days. It might be a better use of your time to use that solid base as good footing from which to leap into all sorts of new and interesting activities.

We have on average 60,000 a day and unfortunately 95% of those thoughts are the same thoughts we had the day before. By consciously choosing to enjoy new experiences, new learnings, new words, new feelings we are able to break out of our conditioned way of thinking of ourselves. That conditioning may well include all sorts of limiting ideas about what old age is, what ninety possibly looks and feels like. When you think of 90 do you see a buckled over, bumbling, forgetful, frail and tired person or do you perhaps see a vibrant energised, positive, enthusiastic human, bristling with energy and looking forward to the next two decades of their full lives charged with creativity, sexuality and dynamism?

What you think your limits are will be what your limits are. No doubt, you may get struck down by some nasty virus along the way or more messily by some nasty bus but outside of such calamities your programmed internal beliefs may be ageing you faster than you realise. We can change what we think, we can stretch our awareness of what we once dreamed is possible and learning, growing and developing is the best way to re-experience life with the freshness and enthusiasm that keeps us young, fit and vital no matter how old we are. There are some tremendous stories of communities of people around the world where the majority of people in those communities stay active, healthy and happy to well over a hundred. So yes learning is great but maybe learning what they do is even better. Learn about living a long time and vibrancy and keep things fresh by experimenting with new ways to keep yourself young and vital. The best summary of that can be found in this TED lecture by Dan Buettner. To find the path to long life and health, Dan and his team study the world's "Blue Zones," communities whose elders live with vim and vigor to record-setting age. Well worth watching.
http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html