When we were young, we could adjust to changing comfort zones with ease - socialize with the homeless and beggars in the morning and be equally at ease at a formal banquet in the evening. As age crept down on us, the ability to adapt to wide-ranging comfort zones became more difficult. As our physical and mental faculties started to fade, we began to feel that we were quietly being pushed into the abyss of failing health.
Despite all
the medical advice from doctors, each of us must find our own way to remain
healthy. It’s up to us to decide whether to wither with age or take the effort to
remain vibrant and optimistic.
So, the first
order of business is to maintain the current status of your health. The only
sure way applicable to everyone is exercise.
As metabolism
naturally slows with age, maintaining a healthy weight is a challenge. Exercise
helps increase metabolism and builds muscle mass, helping to burn more
calories. When your body reaches a healthy weight, overall wellness improves.
·
Exercise reduces the impact of illness and
chronic disease. Among the many benefits of exercise for seniors
include improved immune function, better heart health and blood pressure,
better bone density, and better digestive functioning. Seniors who exercise
also have a lowered risk of several chronic conditions including diabetes,
obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and colon cancer.
·
Exercise enhances mobility, flexibility, and
balance in seniors. Exercise improves your strength, flexibility
and posture, which in turn will help with balance, coordination, and reducing
the risk of falls. Strength training also helps alleviate the symptoms of
chronic conditions such as arthritis.
·
Exercise improves your sleep. Poor sleep is
not an
automatic consequence of aging and quality sleep is important for your overall
health. Exercise often improves sleep, helping you fall asleep more quickly and
sleep more deeply.
·
Exercise boosts mood and morale. Endorphins
produced by exercise can actually help you feel better and reduce feelings of
sadness or depression. Being active and feeling strong naturally helps you feel
more self confident and sure of yourself.
·
Exercise is good for the brain. Exercise
benefits regular brain functions and can help keep the brain active, which can
prevent memory loss, cognitive decline, and dementia. Exercise may even help
slow the progression of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.
There's no
room for adventure and excitement in the comfort zone that has trapped you all
these years; in fact, as old age creeps up on you, you might feel overwhelmed
by boredom and fear.
So, let us identify the habits that you are not conscious of but are actually
running your life for you. Face the truth about your habits squarely. They
always come from past
successes. You have formed habitual, automatic behaviors because you once dealt
with something successfully, tried the same response, and found it worked
again. That is how habits are formed because you have found them to be dependable.
To get away from what are causing your unhappiness and discomfort, you must identify
and give up many of your most fondly held habits. Move on and try new ways of
thinking and acting.
Once you know what
habits are holding you back, get rid of them while retaining those that are
positive. Like clothing and fashion, dispose of your old set of clothes that
are way out of fashion.
When you face
your own truth, you’ll find it’s an enormous relief. The truth really does set
you free; free to finally understand the truth of modern living; free to work
on updating yourself about fresh developments in this digital world.
Above all,
you’ll be free to understand what this modern world has in store for you.
If you can
accept the truth about the world and yourself, change whatever is holding you
back, and get on with a fresh view on life, you’ll find that the future lets
you open the door of your self-imposed prison and attain comfort in your old
age. There’s a marvelous world out there. You’ll see, if you try it.
But
there can be a stumbling block: if you have been regularly exercising from
middle-age to senior age, but, for one reason or another, are suddenly forced
to stop your exercise regimen, you become subject to very fast muscle and
strength deterioration. It is at this stage that it becomes doubly difficult to
regain your preferred health status, because of the onset of age-induced
fatigue and consequent loss of muscle mass.
It is at this point where extra help to regain vitality and
self-confidence is needed. While muscle mass can only be regained through
resistance training, the easiest means to jumpstart vitality and energy for the
elderly is through what is now well known as Stem Cell Nutrition. With energy
regained, elderly exercise can continue towards comfortable aging.
Sangkusing invites senior readers to feel free to express their feelings and experiences covering these serious health concerns. Let's push back our expiry dates!
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