As we age, it can be a dent to your pride once you feel you’ve pushed past your prime. Things become a little bit more difficult, maybe your bones creak, or you struggle to get out of bed for a bit longer? But, instead of resigning yourself to the fact that this is just part of getting on in age, it is far better for your mental and physical state to tackle these issues. Lots of people find that as they get older, resignation sets in, and so they feel that it’s just part of a steady decline. And some people feel this resignation even before they hit 30! But, it’s important that every single one of us understands the physical, and mental, facets of aging. Once we understand this, we can finally begin to combat these signs. What are these signs, that are a part of your physical and mental physique, and how can we fight them?
Fighting The Memory Battle
It’s certainly one of those concerns that we all have as we get older, we wonder where we left our keys, or we put something down and forget immediately where it is. And certainly, these little issues can add to some sense of anxiety. But problems like age-related cognitive decline and general short-term memory problems can be combated, and it’s all down to one word, exercise. There is a lot of information going around relating to the correlation between retiring later in life, and overall mental physique. It seems that the older you retire, the more active your brain is, which lends itself well to the age-old adage of “use it or lose it”. But for those people who have worked their entire life and are ready to put their feet up, surely there are other options? The things you can do widely reported, in essence, it’s just about exercising your brain. This means doing the usual fare, crosswords, Sudoku puzzles, but also, engaging with the right technology. Technology has had a bit of a rough time when it comes to the detrimental effects on our lives, such as the blue light impacting our melatonin levels, as well as increasing our stress hormone cortisol. But technology, when used right, can be supremely beneficial for your brain. There are games like Dual N Back that challenges your brain in such a way and works hard to focus your short-term memory, and it can be incredibly frustrating. But, the goal for a lot of these difficult games is to frustrate your brain, because this is how your neural pathways are strengthened. On the other hand, you can do something else that challenges you, but something you would rather enjoy. These could include things like learning a musical instrument, or a language, or indulging in a new hobby. In essence, you need to use your brain as you get older, the cliché that your brain can only learn so much, until it goes into a state of decline, is not true in the slightest.
Why We Should Prepare More
Our body is our temple, and much like putting the wrong fuel into a car, we still fill our bodies with the ingredients that are detrimental to our brains and bodies. And while variety is the spice of life, we can overindulge in these sweet treats, fast food, as well as the plethora of junk that surrounds us. Instead, think about what makes you function at 110%. As we get older, it’s a lot harder to fight off the fat, as well as make sufficient muscle gains. This just means we need to put it in a little bit more work than we are used to. If you exercised when you were a teenager, you might have noticed that your muscles pretty much replenished themselves overnight. As we get older, it’s about reducing that visceral body fat, and focusing more on maintaining and increasing our strength. And this is the key, firstly, maintaining what you have is the priority as you get older, and once you are comfortable and healthy in maintaining a certain body weight, as well as muscle mass, then you can focus your attention on specific muscle groups and give your muscles a sufficient amount of resistance to push against. A lot of people, even after retirement, go all out in the gym and have achieved fantastic results. This goes to show that our body doesn’t have to be in a state of decline as we age. It just means that we have to put a little bit more thought and effort into how we maintain (and increase) our strength.
Understanding Your Outlook
And while this all sounds like a lot of hard work, it’s important to make sure that you are happy when doing this. Once you feel you are past your prime, negative thoughts can creep in, which is why it’s important to ensure you do things that you enjoy. Of course, hobbies are one of those things that you indulge in, especially when you are of retirement age. And while it’s a clichéd hobby, something like golf is beneficial in so many ways. Firstly, you maintain a routine in life, which is great, especially if you’ve been used to working all your life, but the added vitamin D of getting out in the sunshine is good for you in so many ways, but also, the social aspect is a wonderful thing to maintain as we get older. The glorious thing about golf is that it’s not just a social activity, but it’s one that allows you quiet contemplation if you want to. You can look at many a golf cart blog to see exactly what people get out of a hobby like golf. And believe it or not, it’s not just resigned to people in retirement- people go on golfing vacations! But don’t underestimate the power of a multifaceted hobby because it can improve your outlook immensely.
The great thing about preparing for getting older is that we can take action now. Whether it’s preparing your brain that bit better, or making sure you are exercising, or even improving your mental health by being more sociable, or indulging in hobbies that you really like, by preparing your mental and physical physique, it will ensure you don’t deteriorate into old age, but instead, you will peak.
