It’s amazing how the idiosyncrasies of age creep up on you in the years before midlife even occurs. I’ve been talking to my girl and guy pals lately and we have all been feeling some of the same things: aches & pains. We find that we can feel muscles that we’ve never felt before, we hear creaking in our joints, and our bedtime has drastically become earlier and vital to our everyday survival. We are all on medications for something; high cholesterol, birth control, allergies, and a few unmentionable conditions that will pass with some ointment and time. The ignorant bliss that we were privileged to as teenagers and twenty year olds have expired and now our wounds take longer to heal, our fates are written in ink on prescription pads, and we are faced with the inevitable choice to do something or nothing about it all.
For me I’ve always believed age was a beautiful blessing. One that comes with knowing more, seeing more, and having an assurance that few can shake. I am only 31 but I feel wiser and more confident than I ever had in my life. I can say with blessed assurance that I would never want to be a teenager again. Looking over the last three decades it was the one that was most turbulent- with all its hormones, expectations, pressures, and confusion. Again, I’m still a youngin’ but one that anticipates the real “growing up” that comes with each passing year. With open arms to knowledge, revelations from some deep reflection and my recent aches I have made a few lifestyle changes to up my chances of enjoying my journey to old age rather than just getting there. For every wise 70 year old I know and have heard stories of elders who have and are living very miserable lives; mostly attributed to their choices.
In the last year I have had all kinds of body aches, sharp pains in hidden places, and issues with gas so mighty it could be classified as a weapon of mass destruction. With the many weight loss solutions, ads for medication, and TV shows about out of control people seeking help I cannot ignore the reality in front of me. Something has got to change and we cannot only think about changing…we have to do something about it! Getting sick is inevitable at times but I am starting to think that we are making ourselves sick by doing some things and not others. Over the last few months I started taking the hint of my older colleagues and going to bed before 10am. It’s gotten so good that I yearn for my memory foam mattress every day and without those seven hours of pure rest I can be a real pest. I’m clearer in the head, feel more amped throughout the day, and other conditions in my body are improving. Medications I started taking in my twenties have been greatly reduced, I am building muscle (getting my ‘strong sexy’ on), and I think I even look better. In addition I have cut out the plethora of processed food I used to indulge in, incorporated yoga as a part of my morning, and deleted all the negative people from my Facebook. These are small changes that mean nothing else to anyone but me, yet they are great factors in my overall wellness.
There used to be a soap opera on television called “Days of Our Lives”. The show itself never really impacted me but the announcer’s introductory line over the dramatic violins (“These are the days of our lives…”) has stuck with me. I really believe that these are the ONLY days of our ONLY life. Why waste it by consciously destroying ourselves every chance we get. Why sit around sick and tired when for the most part we can influence our destinies each day. Yeah some of us have Sickle Cell, Breast Cancer, Leukemia, and may even be missing a vital organ …..yet so many of us don’t have these conditions and we are sicker than individuals living with such heavy burdens. I am passionate about this subject for many reasons and I could go on for many more paragraphs. But in the end my point will be the same; let’s take advantage of the strength in our youth (30something) and DO something good for our young and old selves.
