Positive Living and Aging by Connie Webb

I want to age gracefully and hope I am on that path. I gave up makeup years ago and am okay with that. My gray hair is really coming in now. I don't usually notice it, but last night the lighting was such that it was really noticeable. I started to think about hair dyes and realized that is not so healthy. Then I thought of henna and then said it would just be another chore to add onto my life. So just going natural seems the easiest. It is mostly the media that portrays aging as a bad thing. So we are told to use this makeup, use this hair color, buy these certain clothes, look this certain way. Well, I can only be me and natural it is. What you see is what you get.

It is fun at times to dress up and look our best. Nothing wrong with that at all. The thing is to just be happy with who you are inside. Part of being happy inside does depend on what you put into your body and your mind, too. If I was to fill my mind with all the bad news stories or sit around and talk about a lot of dark depressing things, then I can't think that I am going to be so happy. Filling my mind with positive stories and talking about uplifting things helps me with my happiness. My physical well being is important too which includes healthy eating, exercise and good sleep. So I try to make sure those things are happening, too.

Another thing is spirituality. I am not talking religion here. Just a spiritual sense that we are not all alone and that there really is some kind of a Power helping us and guiding us daily to positive and constructive things if we allow this Power to help us. I think we all will come to our own understanding of some kind of a spiritual nature. It doesn't have to be anything we learned in a book or it can be. But trusting that we are not all alone is really helpful. It can help calm any fears we have and when we reach out to something greater than us it helps us with any stresses we have and can comfort us. So spirituality is a good thing to implement into positive living. 

I think being outdoors in nature is a good way to see that there really has to be something behind all the wonders that are out there in this big world. I love walks to the beach and seeing whale spouts and backs of whales. Love seeing deer and all the different birds. Love the beautiful flowers that bloom almost year long where I live in Northern California. This all helps me with a better spirit and helps me to a better mood when I appreciate all the good things there really are in this world.

Other things like hope and an optimistic outlook on life are all good at helping you with your aging process. Laughing is another great tool at helping you to a lighter mood. Love watching comedy movies and comedians.

Love is the greatest with helping me with a good mood, too. I think of all the people I like and love and that helps me have a good mood. I also think back to times when I was depressed and didn't feel like I even liked or loved anyone due to the dark depression I was in. So I am so grateful that I can now like and love many people. I had to learn to like and love myself, too. I kind of think that liking and loving others, helped me to learn to like and love myself more, too.

Another thing is forgiveness. There are many things I have had to forgive in this lifetime of mine. Staying with forgiveness and letting go of anger has helped lots. I just can't control everything. Bad things have happened, but I don't have to allow them to wreck my day or my life. I can learn to let these things go from my mind and just concentrate on all the other good things that are in my life. That makes for more positive living, too.

An important point about forgiveness that I learned was that if I can't forgive someone to just ask some Power greater than me to forgive that person for me. That helped me lots. Now I don't have to feel bad if I truly do not have it in my heart to forgive someone. Instead I just tell the truth to this unseen Power and say something like, "Look, I can't say I truly forgive this person for all the hurt they caused me, so will you please forgive them for me and I trust you will." This relieves me and helps me to let go of hurt and anger. I am grateful I learned this at a young age from a very dear friend.

Learning new things - This is by far the best thing for aging. Continue to learn new things. Continue to study. Continue to be open-minded. This all keeps life interesting and fun.

Hope you have a positive day no matter what your age. Keep taking good care of you and I will do the same here.