Hello there and welcome to my 124^th blog.

A dear friend of mine died recently. Although he had a properly good innings (he was 105 years old), I was not prepared for how sad and upset  I would be. I had treated Jimmy twice a week, unless I was away, for almost 6 years.

Jimmy was amazing. Even in the last few weeks of his life, he was still keen to keep exercising. In fact, I treated him two days before he died, and his response to my asking if he would like to exercise, was a strong “yes”, accompanied by his regular and enthusiastic air punching.

Almost every time I saw Jimmy, he asked about my boys, my life, and my holidays. He was engaging, curious, and enthusiastic. He loved being with people, laughed a lot, and was the oldest member of his local country club.

He continued walking with a rollator (walker) until November last year. He managed the stairs despite his macular degeneration. He maintained his physical strength, his positive attitude, and a week before he died, I asked him how he was doing. His reply was “I really can’t complain”.

Jimmy never let the old in.

I believe this helped him live incredibly well to a very ripe old age.

I started thinking and explored this a little further.

How can I try to ensure that I live well and live long?

 

1. Keep Moving

Movement is not optional; it is essential. Movement is medicine and works at any age. I can truly attest to this witnessing my patients. It improves your strength, enhances your balance, and optimises your posture, as well as having a number of cognitive benefits. Morning movement is even better, as it boosts your circulation, releases those feel-good neurotransmitters, and sets a positive tone for the entire day.

Interestingly, in the animal kingdom in the wild, movement equals survival. If animals lose movement, they lose life. We may prolong life with medical care, but without movement we lose function, freedom, and quality of life.

I maintain that movement is one of the easiest and most beneficial ways of keeping the old out.

 

 

 

2. Keep Physically strong

As you get older, great strength gives you and your life so much. It gives you the freedom as mentioned above, to stand up from a chair. It allows you to walk outside confidently, climb stairs, carry groceries, and may even help you to get up off the floor if you fall. It is this strength that allows people to stay in their home for longer, be less of a burden to those around them, and keep looking after themselves. Every time you choose to strengthen your body, you are choosing independence. Even a few minutes a day can helps to keep you strong. I need to work on this.

 

3. Maintain that balance

Balance can be trained at any age, and it really does improve and gets enhanced when we do targeted exercises for it.  Ironically it is often the fear of falling that sets folk off on the downward spiral to getting old horribly. So, let’s prevent this!  I have seen how well the body responds to proper training with, many of my patients. Muscles can still get stronger which then improves balance, confidence grows, and all is good! A few exercises done, whilst standing at the kitchen counter, can be the very thing that prevents you from falling and maintains your fabulous balance. Not sure how top notch mine is. Some more work for me.

 

4. Challenge yourself

I seem to have this habit of unwittingly taking myself out of my comfort zone quite regularly. I challenge myself often, and I am hoping that this will hold me in good stead as time goes on. Give it a a bash… try new stuff, take on a project, learn a new exercise regime. Be courageous, be bold, and be brave. It honestly is super rewarding.

 

 

5. Create routines and rituals.

I have been doing this for a few years. Ninety eight percent of my mornings begin with freshly squeezed lemon juice, followed by a coffee, during which time I do my daily French lesson. Following this, I check on social media to see whose birthday it is, and to wish them happy. Five days out of seven, I do some form of structured exercise. This all sets my mood for my day, and even if I have had a bad or late night, I still go through this routine and these rituals. Consistency is key and seems to work for me.

 

6. Keep learning

This is beyond important for me and seems to be an integral part of my life now. Choose to stay open, interested and engaged with the world. Be curious. Keep your mind active. There are so many ways to do this and aim to do it for the sheer joy of discovery and enhancing your life.

 

7. Stay socially connected

It’s not about having 1 000 friends and gazillions of followers. It’s about having a handful of good close mates with whom you can share, have fun, laugh, cry, have a glass with, and enjoy life. Connection with other people is seen as one of the keys to longevity, as it stimulates the mind and enhances relationships. It still is okay if you have lots of friends, though!

 

8. Sleep is sacred

7 to 9 hours of the quality sleep is a great way start to the day. Often spoken of, not always that easy to achieve, but worth persevering. Many of you will have seen that Discovery Health is pushing sleep and quality of sleep – some very clever actuaries agree that sleep enhances quality of life! A work in veritable progress for me.

 

9. Have a purpose beyond yourself

I witness this both on a personal level, and then with my patients. The folks who keep busy, volunteer, care for their grandkids (but not 24/7), mentor, or just have awesome hobbies, and are genuinely kind, tend to experience optimal longevity. Those who do not, are sad and grumpy, and can be very mean and nasty. Find that purpose, and very importantly, make sure it gives you joy.

 

10. Laugh often and hard, and at yourself

This is one of the things that I believe most strongly in. I laugh all the time, and I honestly and truly believe that this will be a biggie in helping keep me youthful! I love Milton Berle’s word “laughter is an instant vacation”. Laughing at oneself is also the berries! It releases tension, keeping perfectionism at bay, and may may help you live longer.

 

11. Age is but a number.

Remember Clint Eastwood’s sentiment of “don’t let the old person in”!  This came from the movie called the Mule and was sung by Toby Keith. My 60 years feel like 35 and long may that last! Thought provoking takeaway is “How old would you be if you did not know when you were born?”.

 

12. Do the things that bring you joy

Read that book, binge that series, eat those chocs, revel in those bubbles, have some vitamin D time whenever, and take an afternoon nap. Say no to things that do not serve you, don’t engage in family drama (easier said than done!) and aim to never waste your very precious time on anything other than that which makes you happy.

 

13. It’s about your mindset

This has become so very important to me. Enjoying the beauty around us, will inevitably help us to appreciate the good things that life has to offer. Sure, there will always be the good, the bad and the ugly. However in between, we must revel in the awesome world that we live in. We cannot stop the inevitable clock, but we can enjoy and make the most of every day that we are blessed to have here on earth.

 

14. Trust your body

Your body has carried you this far. Listen to it, move with it, and work with its wisdom. Notice tiredness, pain, weakness, and hunger, amongst other things. Energy rises and falls, work with this. Your body will not fail you; it will chat to you. Be present and listen to it.

 

15. Let experience in

The hedonistic days may be over, thankfully. The wild child days of my youth are long gone, what a relief! This does not mean I cannot still have the very best time. It just means that my experience brings perspective, resilience, and some necessary calm where once the hecticness and loudness prevailed.

 

16. Be grateful and thankful

Perhaps this theme has been a little overdone, and there appears to be a bit of a backlash against the, at times, superficial and overused, so called “gratitude industry.”  However, I still believe that it works for me. I can reflect, often, on the things that I am grateful for, and especially when I am feeling “woe is me,” and It really does help most of the time.

 

17. Eat properly and drink loads of water

Eat the macros:  the carbs fuelling brain function, the proteins which are building blocks for your cognitive health, and the fats, balancing brain protection and risk. Don’t forget about the micros which are particularly helpful with optimal ageing, these being vitamin D, the B vitamins, and vitamin K.

 

18. Protect your skin, wear the sunscreen and a hat

However, as alluded to above, vitamin D is great for cognitive function, so a moderate helping of sun is fantastic! Yay! This is my thing!

19. Keep that stress at bay

Sometimes a great deal easier said than done. We need to understand that our poor and long-suffering nervous system deserves a lot more kindness than perhaps we are giving it. Mine certainly does. Meditation, journalling, yoga, chatting to a professional, prayer, and breathing exercises can assist with this. A sense of calm certainly seems to support so much of not letting the old person in.

 

20. Don’t sweat the small stuff

With age comes wisdom (hopefully).  I have started to realize that every single person has issues of some sort, and each one is going through his or her stuff, and its, mostly, not about me. Still a work in progress. Sensitive Sadie seems to love to dash from the recesses of my mind and make herself present at the most inopportune of times! A travail that is evolving.

 

21. Be your authentic self

Becoming your own awesome unique self gives you the freedom and self-confidence to live life on your own terms, rather than following the crowd. For me this links to being a people pleaser, which I have become so much better about (not being).   I am trying my best to choose to be me.

 

 

22. Physical beauty becomes so overrated.

This one I struggle with, but it’s worth working on. I must be honest, I do not enjoy watching my face and body age. I long to let this not be important to me. A work needing some help.

 

23. Be kind.

I hope I never lose this. Even if sometimes I fail dismally, I just hope that the more I aim for this, the easier it will be, and the more ingrained it will become in me.

We do not have to let the old in.

Let us rather keep choosing life, every single day, no matter our age.

With thanks to Chat GPT and Naturalistico with whom I am studying dementia.

 

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