THE INEVITABILITY OF AGING

Is aging inevitable?  I believe it is.

Aging becomes a major issue in our lives at one point—or many times, in fact, to some.  To some people, aging means senility, ill health or even death. The idea of us getting old is always a concern that prompts us to put in huge amount of money if only to reverse the process or to stay fresh and young all the time.  We are always terrified at the idea of us losing that splendour, that magnificence.

And while different business entities have come up with what they claim as the answer to aging, we become unnerved to getting the right potion for our dream to eternal youthfulness.  Beauty cream producers have always gotten us in their pockets.  And who does not fall victim of their drama when everyone rushes to believe the promise of staying young? We all do. We always do.

Aging to some would mean losing that marketability factor. We become less attractive thus making us last in line as far as viability is concerned.  We panic when at our late thirties we are still single or have not experienced yet having a partner.  In our forties we become crazy when a rivalry for a crush is between us and  a twenty something. Hmmm unless we are rich and we use our money to lure our prospect lol...  but that can only aggravate our insecurities right?

So how do we deal with this scary thing???

Deepak Chopra author of Ageless Body Timeless Mind says AWARENESS has the power to change aging and because it can both heal and destroy, the difference lies in how our awareness becomes conditioned or trained.  He added that although awareness gets programmed in various ways, the most convincing according to him are what we call beliefs. Belief is different from a thought. It is deeper and is more powerful. 

Deepak Chopra’s point is that our outlook in aging is most of the time programmed by what we experience in life.  For instance, if we are surrounded with people who believe that by reaching the retirement age they can just sit down by their rocking chair waiting for their deathbed, we probably might not consciously see ourselves winding up like them, but the truth is we are on the verge of duplicating how they age by unconsciously adopting their beliefs.  We probably might lose our control of the aging process by losing touch with our own awareness.

Aging according to Deepak as a whole is a vicious circle.  When someone expects to be withdrawn, isolated, and useless at a certain age (feels disgruntled over the appearance of wrinkles; feels afraid with the thought of growing old alone, etc...) he creates the very condition that justifies his belief.  When we are trapped in the consciousness of negativity, we can always create a new mode of awareness. By doing so we focus on the positive side and we alter the aging process.

Our awareness simply starts with a thought.  Once we understand that what we think becomes what we believe in, we start to become very careful of what we think about.  Wayne Dyer in her book  There’s  A Spiritual solution to Every Problem puts it nicely when she said “When you put your thought energy on your intentions with passion you ultimately act upon those thoughts and you are bound to attract what you are thinking about into your life.”

If we think our chronological age is what we really are, we become what it is.  So if we are 50 years old and we think, we act , and we feel as 50 years old we will look just as old as a 50 year old would look like.  But if we say we are 50 yet we think, we act and feel like we are still in our late 30’s people will simply wonder how we are able to maintain that youthful glow amid the years that pass by.  Our awareness is triggered by our thoughts and what we deeply put in our consciousness is what our belief system becomes.

When we see people that don’t look their age we sometimes reason out that it is because of their genes.  And science tells us that genes really has something to do with that. But what I see is the belief system that is passed through from generation to generation.  Remember that the people that surround us influence greatly our belief system.  So if you are surrounded by people of positivity, we inherit that positivity and incorporate it to our own belief system and we simply become like them.

Patty (not her real name), a friend of mine in her late 50’s still looks and feels she is in her late 30’s. She said she’s like her mother  who died at the age of 89 yet still looked like 65.  She recalled how her mother  was so conscious of her beauty regimen that even in her hospital bed she still managed to apply her facial moisturizing cream.  Patty claims she has her mother’s genes. But what she really inherited as far as I can analyze apart from the genes is her mother’s belief system.  And part of that belief is caring for one’s skin.  Patty believes on the power of moisturizing creams to delay the aging process. And as she believes so shall it happens.  Yet the most effective anti-aging regimen she consciously applies is the awareness of having a positive outlook.  True enough, when you are with her, her cheerfulness and vivacity will surely affect you.

The principle that states as you think so shall you be becomes our powerful weapon to combat the issue of aging.  Think young, act young and live young.  Reinforcing our belief system with thoughts of what we really want is vital in our battle to combat this issue.  Even if we consume barrels of beauty products that give the promise of eternal youth yet live a life of negativity, stress and constant worry we are doomed to age dreadfully.

As Deepak Chopra puts it “By increasing someone’s awareness, bringing it into a new focus and breaking out old patterns, you can alter aging.”

So, is aging inevitable? I don’t think so.

Yes we certainly will age.  But we can delay it and we can age gracefully.