Each Decade Make Health a Choice

How was your week of reflection and gratitude?  Can you write down at least 10 things, right now, that you’re grateful for in your life?  When you think about your gratitude’s do you find they fit into one part of your life or are they in all areas of your life?  For example, do you only list family, friends, and relationships?  Was there anything on your list that related to your health?  What about your finances? I encourage you to continue to look at even the littlest things and to make gratitude a part of each day throughout your entire day.

The past two weeks have been filled with decade birthday celebrations: 70, 60, and 10.  Our granddaughter, Sophia, was 10 yesterday.  She’s in the 4^th grade, learning violin, and loving the play time with the neighborhood kids.  She is an avid reader, a protector of her brother (most of the time), enjoys hiking, biking, and exploring the world around her. It’s amazing as we watch her learn more about who she is as a young girl - her whole life ahead of her. 

Each decade, for me, has had its own challenges and its own growth, but isn’t that what life’s journey is all about?  Hopefully, what remains constant is the mission to continually learn and grow mentally and emotionally, and a constant focus on personal health and wellness.  Stages in adult development show our 20’s being the time to establish careers, marriage, and children.  In our thirties, we are gaining more confidence in our jobs, children are probably starting school, we seem to be juggling more activities and time commitments which often times means we’re spending less and less time on our personal self.  At 40, we begin to look at our life as half over.  The issues and problems we had earlier in life seem much less dramatic as the ones which we’ll face in the next 40 years.  Things like taking care of ailing parents, the loss of a parent(s), children leaving home and establishing their own lives, retirement, the loss of a spouse, our own death.

So how do we make the most of each decade and still enjoy every decade?  First and foremost, I would venture to say that if we don’t have our health our choices are extremely limited.  It’s a choice.  It’s a choice to quit smoking, it’s a choice to address addictions, it’s a choice to make exercise a part of the day, it’s a choice to eat healthy and reduce portion sizes!  It means paying attention to your weight and not settle for the couple pounds that seem to add on each year.  It means paying attention to your balance and flexibility.  It means not ignoring and not giving excuses for your lack of physical fitness. We are all aging; however, the key is what do you plan to do about it?

Darren Hardy, editor and publisher of Success magazine, wrote the book The Compound Effect.  The Compound Effect is the “principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices…These small changes offer little or no immediate results, no big win, no obvious I-told-you-so payoff. So why bother? What most people don’t realize is that the small, seemingly insignificant steps completed consistently over time will create a radical difference.”  Once again…it’s all about the choices we make.  Choices are at the root of everything we do and therefore, our results. “You didn’t intend to sabotage yourself, but by not thinking about your decisions – weighing the risks and potential outcomes – you found yourself facing unintended consequences.” We don’t intend to get “out of shape” or become obese, “but often (if not always) those consequences are the result of a series of small, poor choices.” 

So if our health is a key component to how we live our life what do we do if we find ourselves with aches and pains, not as flexible, and not being able to keep up with the kids/grand kids?  Yes, we’re back to that key word again…CHOICE.  Jon and I have been working out for many years using a variety of programs.  Each seemed to have its benefits, and we enjoyed them.  Recently, however, we were watching a PBS program on Aging Backwards also known as Essentrics.  As it turns out, it’s also the program our nephew’s wife, Jenny, had told us about a while ago, but we didn’t pursue it. She is a fitness trainer using this approach and has people in her class ages 20-80+.  Because we have worked out, Jenny suggested we try the Classical Stretch CD which has 30 different workouts lasting 23 minutes each.  Each workout targets different areas.  Jon and I have now focused three days a week to doing these workouts.  They are totally different than anything we have done before, and we’re finding great results. 

Here’s an excerpt from some of the information about Aging Backwards:

DID YOU KNOW... THAT WE CAN CHOOSE HOW WE WANT TO AGE?

The human body is designed to remain pain-free, energetic and healthy throughout its lifespan. With Aging Backwards—gone are the days when we had to accept the negative consequences of aging as inevitable and a “normal” part of getting older. In reality, we should never have to surrender helplessly to chronic pain, hip and knee replacements, loss of energy and mobility, poor posture, weight gain—regardless of our chronological years. Most of us are unaware that the process of aging is triggered by cell death. In Aging Backwards, Miranda explains how you can slow down and reverse the speed in which your cells die—showing scientifically, how anyone can stay feeling young and vibrant their entire life!

Everyone, no matter their age—can benefit from the breakthrough knowledge and advice provided in Aging Backwards .It’s never too late to take control of your body and never let aging get in your way!

Check out these websites for more information:

http://essentrics.com/

http://classicalstretch.com/

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never worked out or you have a regular workout routine; it doesn’t matter if you’re in your 20’s or in your 70’s; it doesn’t matter if you’re a professional athlete or just a weekend hiker, biker; it doesn’t matter if you are 100 pounds overweight, need to lose a couple pounds, or you don’t have a weight issue, this is a program that will make an impact on your health from the first time you do one of the 23 minute CD’s.  Thanks, Jenny for bringing this to our attention!!

CHOICE.  Choose a program that you will stick to. Choose a program that you will see results no matter your age or physical fitness level.  There are many different programs available.  Aging Backwards/Essentrics is one to definitely consider adding to your regiment or starting a new commitment to your health.

I wish you a week of choosing health as your number one priority for the rest of your life!

Do you have a personal philosophy?

Do you have a personal philosophy?  You probably do, however, until we can put words to what that is exactly, how can we proceed with purpose in our lives?  What generally happens is we think we know what we want, we set our goals and hopefully even write them down, and then we take action.  If we get a roadblock, or we sway from the original path, how will we find our way unless we understand our personal philosophy?  For me, I had an intrinsic feeling of what I was meant to do; however, it wasn't concrete in my mind.  After reading an excerpt from Dr. Phil last week, I began to think about my own personal philosophy.  What exactly is that philosophy?  What do I, as an individual, stand for?

“’The way you do anything is the way you do everything’ and how it applies to life,” became Dr. Phil’s personal philosophy.   Whether or not this resonates with you, take the premise that a personal philosophy is necessary, read these thoughts, and come up with a philosophy that fits YOU.  I recognize many of you will respond with such thoughts as:  Here we go, one more thing I'm supposed to do when I already don’t have time.  Is this really that important? I’m doing just fine, thank you very much.  I already know my personal philosophy; I know it but it’s hard to explain.”  Etc. etc.  I would suggest this may be one of THE most important activities you put on your “to do” list for this week.

“For many of us, the way we do anything is the way we do everything.”  Dr. Phil suggests taking a look at the areas of our lives that could use some improvement.  “Is your credit score the pits because you don't pay your bills on time?  Think about how that neglect could be showing up in your relationships.  Are you just going through the motions at work?  If so, chances are you're just going through the motions, period.  As I have learned, the good news is – it’s never too late to change no matter how small the change.  If anything is going to change it’s definitely up to me, and no one else.  As Darren Hardy repeatedly speaks to in his book, The Compound Effect, it’s the “principle of reaping huge rewards from a series of small, smart choices.”  It’s interesting to me that what both Darren Hardy and Dr. Phil are speaking to is that the individual steps along the way, don’t “feel” very significant but may have massive results.  It may be as simple as wanting to take better care of your health and lose a few pounds, but you realize you're snacking throughout the day.   “Once you pay attention to the things in your life that need tending, you'll make it a priority to tend to yourself.”

So how do I get started?  First of all, building on a personal philosophy to guide all areas of my life must be a priority.  That’s the foundation I now build everything on, and that foundation needs to be strong.  Next, I must come up with what’s really important to me.  I have to say that at age 62 it would be easy to “blow this self-development stuff” out the window.  I've “already lived my life” so why should I spend time on developing a personal philosophy now? According to Dr. Phil, “You have a philosophy, even if you're not conscious of it; everybody does….you need to be able to clearly articulate your own guiding principle.”  Hmmm, if that’s the case, I need to examine what it is that I stand for at this point in my life.  I still have a lot of living to do.  :)

In reflecting over my life, I have begun to see some patterns. With this nudge to articulate the things I have unconsciously based my life on to this point, I am now focusing on articulating those things on a conscious level.  After taking some time to think, reflect, and examine my actions, my feelings, my choices, etc. I am beginning to create a true path of focused awareness.  My personal philosophy has begun now on a conscious level.  Again from Dr. Phil, “The next step is to live by it with every choice you make.  After all, you don't become a champion by winning the Super Bowl; you become a champion by practicing.  And remember: If you don’t live your life as if everything matters, you’ll never become everything you’re meant to be.” 

You may be in your 20’s, 30’s or older.  You may be male or female; formally educated or not, single or married, parent or not…it doesn’t matter.  If you take the attitude that God has given you this life then I would propose that He is waiting for you to actively and consciously participate in your life.  No excuses.

These blogs have been my personal journey of learning and growing on a daily basis.  I come away with an even truer sense of who I am as a person and feel much more content with myself and my life.  I only hope that in reading these, YOU will gain YOUR own sense of who YOU are, that YOU will create YOUR own personal philosophy for YOUR journey in this beautiful life.

I wish you an awesome week of joy, reflection, and FUN!