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Everyone ages. We all grow older, and that's to do with time, about which we can't do anything. But we can change our attitude about how we age. We can simply sit on the front porch from morning 'til night, thinking about the 'good old days,' until in the not-so-distant future, we wake up dead!
On the other hand, we can live the lines of that famous poem; "Age shall not wither." Even if the years do try to condemn, our attitude must be such that we don't even consider how old we are in years. It just doesn't matter.
It's interesting to note that the ideas that young people have towards older people, and to old age generally, will affect their own health when they, too, become older.
The University of Texas carried out a study of people that showed those who were upbeat and positive showed considerably less frailty and other signs of aging which are assumed to be inevitable, than those who saw aging as something which was bound to happen and to be expected.
Frankly, these results are really pretty obvious. Older people with plenty to do, don't have time to sit around thinking about how old they are and whether this particular ache is worse than it was yesterday.
However, some years ago, Helen Langer, a Harvard psychologist conducted a test that was really very interesting, even startling.
She took two groups of elderly men, all in their late 70s and early 80s and used one as the control group.
She found an isolated old New England hotel, and fitted it out as it would have been twenty years previously. It didn't matter where you looked, therefore, you'd think you were living twenty years before. The second group she settled into the hotel.
These men were told not to dwell in the past, not to sit around a swap stories of the Second World War, etc., but to simply enjoy the hotel, which had full amenities, just as it was. The idea was to see if altering their mindset by placing them in such a situation would have any affect on them physically.
In only one week, the men in the hotel, as compared to the control group, showed more flexibility in their limbs, increased energy and less arthritis in their hands. They walked better and had much improved mental abilities.
Outside people who knew nothing of this experiment were shown photographs of these men in the hotel, along with photos of the men in the control group. The people examined the photos and considered the men in the hotel to be very significantly younger than those in the control group.
This experiment has tremendous implications on the way we ourselves live. You could say with very little exaggeration, that the old men in the hotel shed upwards of twenty years.
This mix of the psychological with the physical is absolutely fascinating
About this Author
Mike Bond wrote this article in the hope that it'll prove really useful to people, give them a fresh perspective on aging without being old. Please do give it some thought, especially Helen Lander's study. You can find 2 free downloads on Mike's Website, as well as lots of other personal improvement programmes through hypnosis. Simply click on The Hypnosis Attraction
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