Renovate, revitalize and regenerate yourself
While we continue searching for the elusive fountain of youth, there are several things or changes you can do today to help yourself look and feel younger. The ancient Romans had already set the foundation of what many people seek today to improve their mental and physical health and attain happier, fuller lives. As Juvenal, a Roman satire poet, worded it: mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). Only a healthy mind leads to a healthy body, or equally that only a healthy body can produce or sustain a healthy mind. Pre-Socratic philosopher Thales wondered: What man is happy? He who has a healthy body, a resourceful mind, and a docile nature.
We can apply this universal advice to our current circumstances. It is a fact that mind and body are connected. Our brain is the most powerful tool we possess. I believe that changing your mindset about aging would be the perfect starting point for the renovation process. Aging gracefully is a mentality; it’s acknowledging there are things you can’t change but accepting that you can do something to improve the effects of intrinsic aging and deter extrinsic aging. Like beauty, youthful energy, radiance, and peace come from within. The way we think, the food we put in our bodies, and how we treat ourselves and others are paramount to our inner and outer health. In this blog post, I will focus on what things you can do or changes you should make to create the right mindset to look and feel younger.
Multiple studies suggest that longevity depends only partially on genetics (25%) and mostly on lifestyle (75%). Youth is not only a matter of genes but what you do with them and how you can help them work in your favor. Here are 9 secrets to help you rejuvenate:
- Create an internal coherence. Maintain the harmony between your feelings, your mind, and your body. The practice of connecting with the intelligence and the heart’s power improves your physical, psychological, and emotional life. Positive emotions stimulate your health and your wellbeing and promote longevity. Coherence is an inner state of peace, harmony, and the acceptance of the here and now. Negative emotions and thoughts induce cortisol production, the hormone that affects the human body on different levels. Negative thinking alters your state of coherence, causing disease and aging. Incoherence inhibits the capacity of reacting in an intelligent matter and drains your energy.
- Watch out for your inherited believes and change them if necessary. If you believe it, you create it. Disease will arise when the belief becomes biology. What you have in terms of health, relations, and abundance, is a consequence of what you have generated in your mind. Positive or negative thinking causes changes in the brain’s chemistry. The world is not physical; it is mental. The best way to mold the brain is to keep a positive attitude focusing on the present. Human beings are the only creatures capable of changing our biology and, therefore, our thoughts, beliefs, and emotions.
- Look for pleasure. Pleasure is a powerful medicine. Pleasure is the perfect remedy to maintain oneself young and healthy. Actions, thoughts, and emotions that produce joy trigger the production of the molecule “nitric acid” needed to experience a state of abundance and wellbeing. Pleasure should not generate guilt since it’s necessary to attain a daily state of fullness. Focusing on the big and the small allows you to identify what you love in life. To enjoy pleasure daily and mindfully is the best thing you can do for yourself.
- Wake up, live the present. There is not a better time than the present. The mind has trouble focusing on the present; it tends to ramble to other times, which prevents you from living the present moment. The current time is the only opportunity; only now can we change the state of things. Not the past, not the future but the present.
- Bolster your energy. All that exists in the universe is energy, including human beings. Expending energy at a personal level generates a feeling of wellbeing and plenitude. Contracting energy, on the other hand, creates discomfort. Resilience is the inner capacity to respond to problems in the best way possible. Internal energy should be balanced physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Energy increases resilience, and resilience increases energy. Hormones are the secret to eternal youth. Vitamin D helps to strengthen the immune system and increases energy levels. The outer order favors the inner order and harmony.
- Generate Oxytocin. Contact with family, friends, and lovers stimulates the secretion of the love hormone: oxytocin. The combo oxytocin and serotonin equal happiness. High levels of oxytocin make you more social. Faithfulness, generosity, empathy, and trust are also related to oxytocin levels. Positive and harmonic social relationships directly affect your health and longevity.Conversely, the lack of oxytocin produces stress, fatigue, discomfort, disease, and premature aging. You generate oxytocin when experiencing moments, situations, or feelings of connecting and love. Loneliness accelerates the deterioration and affects physical and mental health (particularly memory). In short, positive relationships are the reason that keeps us happy and healthy.
- The invisible factor: Attitude. Age is not what makes a person young or old; attitude is. Motivation and life purpose can be recovered following this mantra: “find the way.” It is paramount to get in touch with your soul to feel as young as ever. Have an acceptance attitude when it comes to the pass of time and never derail from that. Happiness is a personal decision. The outer appearance of a person is the reflection of its inner self. Be mindfully and purposely happy as a spiritual path. Abundance and happiness will come to your life when you can experience them inside you. All experiences, simple or complex, come with a gift. It is up to us to find it.
- Do you want to stay young and healthy? LOVE. Love rejuvenates you, makes you healthy, and provides vitality and energy. Love strengthens your immune system. It takes a long time for the body to recover its balance after experiencing negative thoughts or emotions. Emotions determine your perception of people, facts, and life itself. Emotions are the first filter through which you perceive the world, and reason comes after. Love acts are a daily experience in your life; you must be aware of them. Love is an endless source of generosity to the person who gives it and the person who receives it. The most important rule is that the more you love yourself, the more love you can give to others. The quality of the relationship you have with yourself determines your relationship with everything that exists.
- Open your eyes, be grateful. Gratitude is the key to be happy. When you are thankful, you stimulate dopamine and serotonin production, which makes us feel good. Gratitude increases emotional intelligence. 10% of the happiness we experience comes from external factors, and 90% comes from the brain. The internal strength that you were born with is a reason for endless gratitude. Abundance can be found in the spirit and the attitude; in the way you look at and accept life. Always ask yourself, what do I have to be grateful for?
In conclusion, mind and body are connected. We can make changes from within, and discover that each day is a big opportunity to grow spiritually and to keep body and mind in balance. Live mindfully, keep an open mind and heart, and a positive attitude. Love like you mean it, and appreciate every moment, and always, always, live life with pleasure. Let’s get inspired and lead a happy, abundant life!