How Old Do You Feel?
Just when I thought I was getting old, the voice of reason settled my soul.
We are all acquainted with friends or loved ones who have managed to make it to the nine decade mark of life. I am in my 70th year of life – reaching a full seven decades next year. I didn’t mind at all turning 65 years old: I celebrated, I boasted of my accomplishment, and I plowed through each day as fit and proud as can be!
Then I turned 66, then 67, then 68, and most recently 69. Ugh, what a geezer I had become. But why? Really and truly, if sixty-eight was fine with me, what changed in the ensuing 364 days of that birthday year?
- I started paying attention to the body sensations and pain tweaks that prior to my change of age didn’t warrant such hyper-attention. What you focus on grows bigger.
- Having enlarged the body sensations I was feeling, I started to cut down my activity level because in my mind I no longer had the ability to be as active as before. I believed the lie that my fight or flight brain was telling me.
- Not only did I cut back on my physical activity, but I narrowed the scope of my world: going to fewer places, spending less time with people I usually enjoyed spending time with, and relying on others to get me to where I wanted/needed to be. Isolation does not do a body good.
- I found myself taking what I call a Senior Lie Down just about every day. A feeble body needs a nap to make it through each day, don’t ya’ know.
STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!
If genetics has anything to do with my lifespan, at least where my father’s side is concerned, I will live at least eight decades. My father died at the age of 89, suffering from prostate cancer and Alzheimer’s, and even with those diseases, he lived twenty years longer than my current age!
I don’t want to shorten my enjoyment of life because of facts not yet entered into evidence! Not on your life, or at least, not on mine!
Changing my mindset has made a ginormous change in my outlook on life. No more sweating the small (or normal) stuff in life. Living life, rather than fearing it, is a far better use of my time.
Living: the ultimate team sport 
November 14, 2022 at 8:00 am
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October 17, 2022 at 11:41 am
Great post Irene! Good words of wisdom🙂.
Yep, we can’t let fear dictate our lives as we get older. I ascribe to the philosophy of “keep moving, and engage as I age, every day”.
Thank you for your vulnerability and sharing your own journey of discovery and rising above fear!
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October 17, 2022 at 12:16 pm
It’s a process, isn’t it? Thanks, Don.
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October 17, 2022 at 9:29 am
“Ugh, what a geezer I had become.” This made me laugh, Irene! I’m happy you’ve reset your mind. Fear isn’t real. Thankfully, it’s only a thought that we have the power to control. Of course, that’s sometimes easier said than done!
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October 17, 2022 at 9:31 am
You are 100% right.
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