Aging begins the day we are born and everyday thereafter. Yet social media is trying to sell us anti-aging commodities hoping that we believe they will help us look and act younger. It tries to influence us to value youthfulness and beauty when there is more to life than being consumed about how to stop the aging process.

What is important is what is within us, our essence, our spirit of living life without limitations.

There are two behaviors we can do to look and act younger and live longer:

Change our narrative identity.

Avoid ageism beliefs.

We create our personal narrative identity by internalizing and labeling our physical and psychological experiences into an evolving story about life. Depending on the language, ideas and beliefs we use to create this narrative, our story may lead us to live a life of negativity and struggling times instead of a positive approach and belief in our self-worth. Negative emotions and environment are a factor in accelerating the aging process.

Ageism is the discrimination of the aged. Interpersonal ageism is when we believe we are not worthy or think we are too old to live an active life.

We accept whatever we continually feed our brain in words, thoughts and beliefs. Yet, we can be conscientious and make decisions to change the stories and beliefs we tell ourselves. We have the power to shift our perception of our world.

By connecting to what grounds and balances us, we’ll walk the path of healthy aging and self-healing. 

Ways to optimize our health and aging are:

Increasing physical activity
Adequate sleep
Managing stress levels
Consuming nutritional foods
Being with nature
Socializing
Laughter
Play