Healthy Aging: Reinvent Yourself!

Think it’s too late to “rein­vent” your­self? Think again. Accord­ing to Car­olyn Wor­thing­ton, editor-in-chief of Healthy Aging® Mag­a­zine and executive director of Healthy Aging®, “it’s never too late to find a new career, a new sport, pas­sion, or hobby.”

Here are some ideas from the edi­tors of Healthy Aging® Mag­a­zine (www.healthyaging.net) to help you think outside the box:

10 Tips for Rein­vent­ing Your­self dur­ing Sep­tem­ber Is Healthy Aging® Month:

1. Do not act your age or at least what you think your cur­rent age should act like. What was your best year so far? 28? 40? Now? Pic­ture your­self at that age and be it. (Tip: Don’t keep look­ing in the mir­ror, just FEEL IT!)

2. Be pos­i­tive in your con­ver­sa­tions and your actions every day. When you catch your­self com­plain­ing, check your­self right there and change the con­ver­sa­tion to some­thing pos­i­tive. (Tip: Stop watch­ing the police reports on the local news.)

3. Have neg­a­tive friends who com­plain all of the time and con­stantly talk about how awful every­thing is? Drop them. As cruel as that may sound, dis­tance your­self from peo­ple who do not have a pos­i­tive out­look on life. They will only depress you and stop you from mov­ing for­ward. Sur­round your­self with ener­getic, happy, pos­i­tive peo­ple of all ages and you will be hap­pier too. (Tip: Smile often. It’s con­ta­gious and wards off naysayers.)

4. Walk like a vibrant, healthy per­son. Ana­lyze your gait. Do you walk slowly because you have just become lazy or, per­haps, have a fear of falling? (Tip: Make a con­scious effort to take big strides, walk with your heel first, and wear com­fort­able shoes.)

5. Stand up straight! Look at your­self in the mir­ror. Are you hold­ing your stom­ach in, have your shoul­ders back, chin up? Fix your stance and prac­tice it every day, all day until it is nat­ural. You will look great and feel bet­ter. (Tip: Your waist­line will look trim­mer if you fol­low this advice.)

6. How’s your smile? Research shows peo­ple who smile more often are hap­pier. Your teeth are just as impor­tant to your good health as the rest of your body. Not only is it the first thing peo­ple notice, but good oral health is also a gate­way to your over­all well-being. (Tip: Go to the den­tist reg­u­larly and look into teeth whiten­ing. Noth­ing says old more than yel­low­ing teeth!)

7. Lonely? Do some­thing about it now. Pick up the phone and make a call to do one or more of the fol­low­ing: vol­un­teer, take a class, or invite some­one to lunch, brunch, din­ner, or cof­fee. (Tip: Vol­un­teer at the local pub­lic school to stay in touch with younger peo­ple and to keep cur­rent on trends, take a com­puter class to keep up with tech­nol­ogy, and choose a new per­son every week for your din­ing out.)

8. Start walk­ing not only for your health but also for socializing. Have a dog? You’ll be amazed how the dog can be a con­ver­sa­tion starter. (Tip: If you don’t have time for a dog, go to your local ani­mal shel­ter and vol­un­teer. You will be thrilled by the puppy love!)

9. Make this month the time to set up your annual phys­i­cal and other health screen­ings. Go to the appoint­ments and then, hope­fully, you can stop wor­ry­ing about ail­ments for a while. (Tip: For a list of rec­om­mended annual health screen­ings, a great resource is the My Health Finder: www.healthfinder.gov/myHealthfinder/

10. Find your inner artist. Who says taking music lessons is for young school children? You may have an artist lurk­ing inside you just wait­ing to be tapped. Have you always wanted to play the piano, violin, or tuba? Have you ever wondered if you could paint a por­trait or scenic in oil? What about work­ing in wood? (Tip: Sign up now for fall art or music classes and dis­cover your inner artist!)