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How to Stay Young

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<a href="http://www.how-to-self.com/stay-young/">How to Stay Young</a>

The idea is to die young as late as possible.
- Ashley Montagu

You are going to have another birthday every year - until you don't - but you don't have to grow old. Most of the factors that influence how old you feel are under your own control. These are some important ways to stay young...

1. Break the Stereotypes about Aging - Avoid the Myths of Aging

A 2009 study by researchers at North Carolina State University showed that senior citizens performed worse on tests of memory ONLY if they believed that older people naturally perform poorly on tests of memory.

It is commonly believed that aging inherently causes the loss of memory, mental acuity, creativity, and adaptability. But those are myths. Having a negative attitude is the primary cause of losing memory, mental acuity, creativity, and adaptability -- at any age. And disease can be another cause of memory and other mental impairment.

Another myth is that all old people get depressed. Age, by itself, does not predispose one to depression. Depression, at any age, is a matter of attitude and of brain chemistry. The same goes for apathy. Age, by itself, does not cause a lack of interest in living.

A 2005 study of 60- to 92-year-olds by the Yale School of Public Health found that those who viewed aging as a positive experience lived an average of 7.5 years longer.

2. Have a Life Purpose

If you don't know where you're going,
any road will take you there.
- Lewis Carroll
(Alice in Wonderland)

Without a purpose to your life, you aren't going to be happy at any age. And as you add years, this issue gets far more acute. For a while, socializing, career advancement, and raising children can postpone the longing for a true purpose to life. But after your children have grown, a life without true purpose becomes burdensome and creates depression.

You are never too old to set another goal
or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

It is never too late to become what you might have been.
- George Eliot

If you have not yet found your purpose in life, please read How to Choose Your Life Purpose - and be sure to do the Tombstone Exercise.

3. Be Enthusiastic

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.
- Henry David Thoreau

Live boldly. Laugh Loudly. Love Truly.
Play as often as you can
Work as smart as you are able.
Share your heart as deeply as you can reach.
- Mary Anne Radmache

Enthusiasm and Life Purpose go hand in hand. However noble, a "life purpose" without enthusiasm gets you nowhere. If you don't take action each day in furthering your purpose, something is missing. If you don't wake up each morning really caring about your life purpose, something is missing. If you don't feel enthusiastic about your life purpose, search the scope of your life purpose for aspects that truly excite and motivate you to daily action. If you still don't find the excitement and enthusiasm, consider revisiting the search for your true life purpose.

While life purpose becomes meaningless without great and constant enthusiasm for it, enthusiasm itself is a wonderful attitude to bring to all of your life.

Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years.
We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin,
but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.
- Samuel Ullman

If you have zest and enthusiasm,
you attract zest and enthusiasm.
Life does give back in kind.
- Norman Vincent Peale

4. Have a Positive Attitude

Life is 10 percent what happens to me
and 90 percent how I react to it.
- Charles Swindoll

We cannot choose our external circumstances,
but we can always choose how to respond to them.
- Epictetus

You are only as old as you think you are.
- Anonymous

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
- Satchel Paige

5. Play - and Find Humor in All of Life

We don't stop playing because we grow old;
we grow old because we stop playing.
- George Bernard Shaw

Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Take time to play!
Ask for what you want.
Laugh.
Live loudly.
Be avid.
Learn a new thing.
Be Yourself!
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Life is too important to be taken seriously.
- Oscar Wilde

Life is to be taken lightly
by those who wish to be happy
and by those who wish to age gracefully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

6. Stay Curious and Never Stop Learning

Curiosity is a really important aspect of staying youthful.
- Goldie Hawn

He who can no longer pause to wonder
and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead;
his eyes are closed.
- Albert Einstein

Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.
- Tom Clancy

Curiosity keeps one young - in thought and in action.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

7. Be Acceptive - Never Angry

Anger is a killing thing:
it kills the man who angers,
for each rage leaves him less than he had been before -
it takes something from him.
- Louis L'Amour

Anger burns, resentment smolders.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Anger ages people before their time. Be especially careful to avoid suppressed anger - it is even worse for your health than an angry outburst.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr (Serenity Prayer)

8. Don't Allow Yourself to Worry

You can't change the past,
but you can ruin the present
by worrying about the future.
- Anonymous

Don't hurry. Don't worry.
You're only here for a short visit.
So don't forget to stop and smell the roses.
- Walter Hagen

9. Smile - Stay Happy

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile
can be the source of your joy.
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Laugh when you can,
apologize when you should,
and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
- Anonymous

10. Care about Other People - Be Compassionate and Generous

Those who love deeply never grow old;
they may die of old age, but they die young.
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher

If we have no peace,
it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa

Lord, grant that I might not so much
seek to be loved as to love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures.
The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
- Lao Tzu

What you leave behind is not what
is engraved in stone monuments,
but what is woven into the lives of others.
- Pericles

It is the friends you can call up at 4 A.M. that matter.
- Marlene Dietrich

Our relationships - love and friendship -
are at the core of the meaning of our lives.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

11. Be of Service

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson

As we work to create light for others,
we naturally light our own way.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.
- Rabindranath Tagore

To laugh often and much;
to win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children,
to leave the world a better place,
to know even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived,
this is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. Stay Mentally Active

The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

Bringing a childlike wonder
and a beginner's mind to life
maximizes both success and joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Incite a riot of new ideas.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

13. Stay Physically Active

Don't sit all day long - get up and move.
Use the stairs.
Walk every day.
Try yoga, or a moving meditation like qigong.
Try a dance class.

14. Be Open to Change - Don't Become Set in Your Ways

I don't believe one grows older.
I think that what happens early on in life
is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates.
- T. S. Eliot

The most dangerous phrase in the language is,
"We've always done it this way."
- Grace Hopper

If we don't change, we don't grow.
If we don't grow, we aren't really living.
- Gail Sheeh
y

15. Eat Well

You are what you eat.
- Anonymous

Eat mindfully - be aware of what you eat, and appreciate each mouthful.
Prepare meals with care and love - from scratch - not from a box.
Never eat in front of the TV.
Choose healthy snacks - raw carrots rather than crackers and cheese.

16. Sleep Well

The best bridge between despair and hope
is a good night's sleep.
- E. Joseph Cossma

See my hints on How to Sleep Better.

17. Be Thankful

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank you, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves
to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

18. Cultivate Your Spiritual Practice

Food for the body is not enough.
There must be food for the soul.
- Dorothy Day

Faith is taking the first step,
even when you don't see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
- Albert Einstein

Grant That I May Radiate Thy Light, Thy Love,
Thy Healing, Thy Joy, and Thy Peace,
to All Those Around Me
and All Those in My Thoughts
This Day and Ever More.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

More Quotes about Staying Young
(or at least aging gracefully)

And in the end, it's not
the years in your life that count,
it's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

The key to aging with grace is a non-complaining, victimless view of life.
- Dr. David Mokotoff
(read Dr. Mokotoff's article Aging with Grace)

Age is an issue of mind over matter.
If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.
- Mark Twain

Aging is not lost youth
but a new stage of opportunity and strength.
- Betty Friedan

The secret of staying young is to live honestly,
eat slowly, and lie about your age.
- Lucille Ball

To be seventy years young is sometimes
far more cheerful and hopeful
than to be forty years old.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

It takes a long time to become young.
- Pablo Picasso

The trick is growing up without growing old.
- Casey Stengel

A man is not old until his regrets take the place of his dreams.
- Yiddish Proverb

Habits age people before their time.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I will never be an old man.
To me, old age is always 15 years older than I am.
- Francis Bacon



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Jonathan Lockwood Huie
"The Philosopher of Happiness" - is the author of 100 Secrets for Living a Life You Love, co-author of Simply An Inspired Life, speaker, personal coach, and creator of the popular Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote free email and Regaining Your Happiness in Seven Weeks e-training program.



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