Stay young the Ageless Way
If you're thinking the ageless way to stay young looking is expensive cosmetics, pills, powders and potions, that's because you've fallen for some slick marketing. My grandfather, Ernie, lived to 101, but you'd never have known how old he was because, he had hardly any wrinkles and cosmetics didn't vaguely make it onto his list. You can see him on his 80th birthday on the cover of my book: Secrets to Longevity. He always looked younger than his age and this is often the case with people who live to over 100. What's their secret?
what's the secret of those young-looking centenarians?
In 1979, Harvard undertook a study men in their late 70' and early 80's. One of the many things they did was to take photographs of the men before and after this week, during which they lived as if they were a 20-year younger version of themselves, and in an environment where all the cues were from 20-years previously. After this one week (!) the photographs of them taken at the beginning of the experiment were sent, along with photographs taken at the end of this week, were shown to independent raters who knew nothing of the experiment who judged that all the participants looked noticeably younger at the end of the study. Ellen Langer who was responsible for this study states "Over time I've come to believe less and less that biology is destiny. It is not primarily our physical selves that limit us, but rather our mindsets about our physical limits."
Fact is that after only 1 weeks of acting younger, no creams, or beauty products, they were noticeably younger. "If we open up our minds, a world of possibility presents itself" - Ellen Langer. The reason this is so important is that our culture loves to dictate to us that wrinkles are inevitable (unless we use their wrinkle cream) when this isn't true. Change your biology and you can change how young you look. THIS is the ageless way of holding onto the fountain of youth. It starts with maintaining a mind open to possibilities.
Another finding from Ellen Langer is that people who believed that 'midde age' was 15 years older than the average person were rated as looking way younger. Think about the power of that.
the mind-body connection of the ageless way
It's clear that when it comes to an ageless body, or living forever with good health there is a strong mind body connection that plays powerfully through our cells - when we learn to harness that power, we find our own ageless way to become our own fountain of youth.
Our cultural beliefs, as well as our own personal perceptions, play a major role in whether we appear to be young or old as those ageless living wonders who live past 100 reveal. And what we believe, and how positive we are about aging, change how our brain and body work and the age we appear.
How distressing and disempowering are the cultural stories about how we are 'supposed to look", supposed to act', or "supposed to be?" What is all the culturally-induced stress about how our appearance doing to your health and how youthful or old you look to others? And have you ever seen someone go through a really stressful event and literally go grey or become wrinkles overnight? That's what stress can do. You need enough stress to challenge and empower you, that's a health-enhancer. However, stress that distresses and disempowers you is a health-eroder.
For more information about how to start retraining your biology to stay youthful....click here.
PS: You are beautiful exactly as you are: You are worthy exactly as you are. You are 'good enuff' exactly as you are. And when you believe that, your body with respond with health hormones and endorphins that make you look and feel younger AND you will literally have younger biology.
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