I recently had the somewhat dubious pleasure of visiting an establishment for the sick and the convalescing. Hospitals are always interesting places, though I greatly dislike the pallor. You have so much humanity concentrated in a confined space – everyone with a problem. Your first awareness is that there are virtually no happy faces. Everyone has that stern, constricted look of forbidden pain. It’s as if to say, “I await the stark truth of something: the unanticipated, the unknown or the realization of my own mortality.” Looking past this, you truly come to an epiphany: all of us create our own reality, whether terminally sick or not. Now, I must admit that I do not suffer from some chronic, debilitating illness. In fact, I feel pretty good. The joy and happiness I perceive, however, is to a large extent of my own mental creation. That said, my short sojourn only reinforced the belief that there has to be a better way. The question is with a seemingly endless stream of negativity, from social media and from life itself, how does one develop a positive mental attitude and hence physical fitness?

The answer, by definition, should allow us to lead a “healthy life,” regardless of our body’s condition. Your first task, I believe, is to have a serious “talk with yourself.” What does this mean? It means to dissuade yourself from some of the preconceived notions of our civilization: the concept of time, of age, of wealth or of what it means to be successful, etc. This is extremely easy to say from my vantage point (I am almost sixty) but profoundly hard to implement. We must remember that we are striving for a wholesome life which should lead to a form of longevity. I maintain that the solution lies in the realization that you are not living one life but a series of interconnected lives or epochs: we are nothing but a stream of consciousness, to paraphrase David Hume. (1) What this demonstrates is that you must have (or find) a goal or sense of direction in your life to fill your being with positive memories. With this in mind, you can set off. Life is fickle and must be responded to. There are times in life that money may become an important element for the well-being of your family, for example. Perhaps you have a son or a daughter that requires additional training in music or ballet. This surely costs more than your average income can sustain. The challenge therefore is to supplement your income at that particular time. Perhaps you need to work further hours or do something entrepreneurial such as opening a business. What I am suggesting is to know when that extra income or effort becomes unnecessary so that you can return to your original goal (perhaps you want to be a painter in Paris). What I think happens in many, many cases, unfortunately, is that we accept this altered lifestyle as normal (for us) and continue to lock ourselves into a path that we do not want or did not choose to take this far. Surely the “retirement community” has to be one of the most bizarre outcroppings of a society gone mad and disconnected. Many of these “villages” restrict the age of their inhabitants. (2) This, to me, has to be the ultimate result of a misdirected life. Anyone with any access to young people quickly realizes that they are also an elixir to longevity: with their ideas, their energy and, sometimes shockingly, their music. Why would one shut themselves off with a group of individuals their own age? This truly confounds me. I believe the answer could only be a total lack of imagination in an unrequited life. Guard against this: create your own life plan! This from Sadhguru: “When you come to old age, all the longings are over, a whole experience of life is behind you and you are once again childlike, but you have the wisdom of experience of life. It can be a very fruitful and wonderful part of your life, but unfortunately most human beings suffer their old age simply because they don’t take care of their rejuvenation process properly. … Everything is over, but very few old people can even smile, unfortunately. This is because the only thing that they knew in their life was the physical body. Once the body begins to recede, they become despondent. It might not have become diseased, no big cancer need to have come, but in every step that you take, age is telling you this not forever. If you establish yourself in other dimensions of experience, the body becomes an easy thing to handle. Old age and even death can be a joyful experience.” Thus life can be a wonderful adventure at every step and so it should be. There is no excuse to be either bitter or stupid; this does not serve society at all. Keep alive and active, both physically and mentally, until you die; and keep the weight off! Confucius (551-479 BC) leaves us with a thought: Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

A small joke: Tom was a very poor student. This was not because of his intelligence but because he was indolent. He had a chum, Robert, who was of the same ilk. One day they were supposed to be organizing their school’s basement when the teacher appeared at the top of the stairs. “Tom! What are you doing?” was the teacher’s query. “Nothing!” was Tom’s reply. “Where is Robert, what is he doing?” The teacher continued.” “He is helping me,” was Tom’s dismissive answer.  

This week, please reflect of your concept of age.  

Every day look for something magical and beautiful.

Quote: One of the great joys of life has to be the planting of a rose garden. Roses are tenacious: they bloom in all their magnificence and then gracefully succumb to age, and return to the ground.  

Footnotes

1)    David Hume (1711-1776): A Treatise of Human Nature

2)    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age-restricted_communityAs the age-old adage goes: good health is your only real treasure