Since we will all get old, it is a good thing to learn how to age gracefully no matter how old we are right now.
We all add numbers to our age each year, but how we are adding the numbers of life is important.
Are you adding numbers with negativity, doubt, stress and unhappiness or adding numbers to your age with all the positivity, happiness, peace and health?
I am 50 years old now. I still love learning new things. I take time, but love to do it at my own pace.
At this age, I learned to ride Scooty, l am learning to write blog posts, and learning gardening. I am enjoying all of them.
I started this blog Mrsbloneinprogress at the age of 50. Do not let your age become an obstruction in your way of progress.
To spend each day with mindfulness and self-improvement is to age gracefully. It is not that you have to reach 40, 50, or 60 to learn the habit of how to age gracefully. You can learn it at any age.
Here in this post, I will share how to age gracefully.
So let me start.
Habits of women who age gracefully
1. Embrace Change
Change is the only constant. We are all changing from moment to moment, and we must accept change.
A good way to embrace change is to remind yourself, “I am of the nature to get old. I am of the nature to get sick, I am of the nature to die. I am of the nature to change”
Accepting thing in life as it is, is the greatest secret to happiness.
If you do not embrace the winter how you can enjoy the spring?
“ A man’s effort comes to fruition in old age. The true measures of our life is revealed in its final years, by the finishing touches we put on it and what we have actually accomplished”
Chinese poet Du Fu
3. Eat healthy food
Food plays an important role in our well-being at any age. We have to consume the food that is best suited for our age.
As the years add we need to cut down some of our food habits to remain fit and healthy. We need to check both the quality and the quantity.
An unhealthy body is the house of all the negativity and sorrow and the food we eat is responsible for all the diseases.
Reduce the intake of sugar, fats and salt from your food. It will help you balance your diabetes and blood pressure.
Eat slowly and mindfully. Do not rush in eating, enjoy your food.
Drink water even if you are not thirsty.
4. Think positive
Take life positively, and have a positive attitude in everything. I have seen most of the old people nagging and complaining all the time.
As you grow older and age, don’t let life wear you down, but instead let it add to more learning, more joys and more wonderful experience.
With each passing birthday, let it be an extension of the wonderful years you are living your life.
5. Offer Gratitude
A heart that offers gratitude is always young. And when the heart is young, it can actually slow down aging.
If worrying makes us look older, then offering gratitude and having a happy and thankful heart makes us look young and helps in slowing down ageing.
To offer gratitude has no age limit. Make it a habit to offer gratitude for everything.
You are in this beautiful world till this age when so many could not reach and savour the beauty of the universe.
6. Do your own work
You can be retired from your job but not from your life. There is so much to offer to the world.
I do not go to work. I resigned at the age of 47 when my daughter got a secure job.
My friends and family asked me how I spend my day. They are curious whether I feel bored.
To tell you the fact never for a single moment do I feel bored. Me and my daughter I always say that if we had more than 24 hours we could do so much more.
There are so many things to do at home. Do it slowly and happily. Your heart will be happy and you body will also be physically active.
I work in my garden. I take of my plants with utmost love and care. I feel the connection with my plants and I love them so much.
7. Go for a walk
Walking helps to move your body and helps circulate the blood. This helps to control many diseases.
You can go for a morning or evening walk according to your convenience. I go for an evening walk as I have my own morning routine to complete.
I walk slowly and with total awareness of what’s going on around me. I sometimes send my blessings and good wishes to the passers-by in my mind.
Sometimes I walk singing a song slowly and happily. When I return home, I feel refreshed and recharged for my evening rituals.
The road would be noisy in the evening compared to the morning, but I embrace the noise outside. I feel that the noise is the feeling of aliveness. I can hear these noises because I am alive.
Leave everything behind and come back home refreshed.
8. Apply moisturizer
As we age our skin starts losing its natural moisture. Apply moisturizer to keep your skin smooth.
I put on my moisturiser after washing my face first thing in the morning. While doing so I put slowly smiling at myself. I offer gratitude for my skin.
While going to bed, I sometimes apply coconut oil, ponds age-miracle night cream and sometimes aloe Vera gel (fresh from the garden)
9. Exercise regularly
Exercise keeps my body fit and fine. I give some time in the morning or evening to move my body. When I stretch my body I feel relaxed and refreshed.
I do it slowly listening to some mantras in the background. Regular exercise is keeping my back problem away.
I had slipped disc and was bedridden with severe pain. I am thankful for my exercise routine that it has not come back for 7 years.
10. Meditate
After a light exercise, I sit to meditate for another 10 minutes. Meditation helps to keep my mind relaxed.
You can find a silent place and a cushion to sit on. Just sit and observe your breathing going in and out.
Breathing is the best tool available to us to calm our minds.
You will notice the different patterns of your breathing change according to your thoughts.
Just observe your breathing. If your mind starts to wander, bring it back to the center every time you realize you have wandered without agitation.
I am thankful I could learn these from my 10 days Vipassana course.
11. Read
Reading books is the best habit I cultivated in my life. A good book helps you to lead a good and meaningful life.
It is very good to learn from the people who have already achieved the things we wish to achieve. We have got the blueprint already with us. So why not make the best use of it?
I read two books a day. In the morning I read motivational books which motivate and help me to improve my life in some way.
I would not have started my blog if it were not for these books that keep inspiring and motivating me.
In the evening I read fictional books or autobiographies of great personalities.
12. Laugh More
Laughing really helps in ageing slow and gracefully.
Watch funny movies, and comedy shows where you get to laugh loud. Laughing keeps the stress away from our life.
Do not take life seriously. It is to enjoy. The purpose of life is to remain happy and give happiness to others.
13. Spend more time with nature:
Lastly, spend more time in nature. Nature is the best teacher. Be with nature often and learn to live life from it. There is so much to learn from it.
Going for a walk around nature, going hiking, spending time in the mountains or in the sea, looking out into the open night sky, helps us reconnect with our soul which is forever young.
The more you spend time with nature, the more you learn to let go and the more you let go, the easier it is to age gracefully.
The final thoughts on how to age gracefully
To enjoy life and to age gracefully is an art of living. Accepting your age as it is and finding peace and happiness at any age is the secret to ageing gracefully.
When you do so and believe you are still young at heart, when you continue to learn, when you continue to love life and live life unapologetically you will naturally and inevitably start looking young.
Every living being gets old, but when you act your spirit and not your age is when you slow down ageing and age gracefully.
