Staying Young at Any Age

Is it possible to live out your years independently and qualitatively in your own home? In this week's

segment of the show, an expert on longevity, attorney and nationally recognized author says yes.

He tells of his dad who was a World War II veteran who maintained a positive disposition, healthy diet and walked at least three mile daily, and who passed away in his home at the age of 102.

So, what is the secret that is not a secret?

​A healthy mental disposition of gratitude: My guest revealed the pack him and his dad made years ago of reflecting of at least three things they were grateful for before ever clambering out of bed. And sometime during that same day and every day, they would make not only themselves laugh but someone else as well.

What is your view of whether your glass half-empty or half-full? How you respond to this age-old question about positive thinking may be very telling about your outlook in your lot in life, your attitude in how you see yourself, and whether you have a healthy outlook or negative outlook, and it may even have a repercussion on your well-being. Are you grateful that it is at least half full?

I am reminded of the story of an optimistic and a pessimistic youngster. The pessimistic boy was given a shovel and brought into a room full of manure and was instructed to shovel it clean. Being very pessimistic, he protested and refused to do it, it was just too much work. However, when the optimistic youngster was brought into the same room with his shovel, he was elated, he exclaimed, "with all this manure, there's got to be a pony somewhere."

I must say that positive thinking does not mean closing your eyes to the realities of life's that are not so pleasant. Having a positive outlook merely means that you approach unpleasant situations more productively. The positive youngster thought of the best is going to occur, not the worst. He fell in love with the process of shoveling and knew the result would work itself out.

Having a positive outlook often starts with meditation or self-talk. When you tacitly Self-talk, it is an endless river of thoughts. these meditative thoughts can be positive or negative, of course, your self-talk derive from logic and reason, but there is an element of misconceptions that we develop because of not being completely informed or a deep seeded negative experience. Therefore, our expectations due to preconceived ideas of what may happen, or not, is not based on reality. The pessimistic youngster failed to ask himself the question, why is there so much manure in this room? Where in turn, the positive youngster leaned on logic and reason, and extrapolated that manure came from a pony. It is a matter of looking up-stream or in other words, what caused this manure.

Whatever we want to accomplish in life, again, "fall in love with the process and the end result will materialize itself before you know it."

To hammer the point home, there was a stone worker that hammered the stone 101 times before he broke it, thus, he was able to proceed to carve the sone into something beautiful for others and himself to enjoy. Some would say that it was the last 101 strike of the stone the broke it, but they are wrong. It was the 100-preceding pounding of the stone that accomplished the break, no question about it, he was in love with the process. Can you see how this can reduce the stressors in life?

Give thought of those in your life, are they friends you can depend on giving you helpful advisement? Otherwise, pessimistic people tend to augment your stress level and make you to start questioning yourself and ability to manage stress in salubrious or healthy ways.

Here is one rule in positive self-talk. Start by not saying anything to yourself that you would not say to another person, hmm, sounds like the golden rule. Be kind, gentle and encouraging with yourself. If a pessimistic thought crops up, analyze it logically and reasonably and respond with validation of what is good in you.

Incidentally, having a positive outlook is an essential factor in staying young at an old age, because it is a tremendous motivator and conducive to exercising and having a healthy diet.

Implement a healthy lifestyle: Plan to exercise for at least 30 minutes on every other day during the week. I have known of some that exercise incrementally by breaking it up into 10-minutes. My guest indicated that if you would work yourself up to walking 3 miles every day, you are more than likely to avoid a nursing home. Additionally, do your best to keep your home safe such as throw rugs that you may trip on, and the biggest culprit is the bathroom. He tells of the experience of his mom who fell in the tub and broke her hip. This was the beginning of her diminishing health, he fumbled the ball by not keeping his mom safe, he said.

Start by practicing a healthy diet, the amount of food intake, and give your mind the fuel and your body it deserves and get enough sleep which varies from one person to another, mine is seven hours.

To capsulize my assertion, longevity and quality of life starts by being grateful for the positive things in your life! And your chronological age does not have to be your biological age!