“He had this consciousness of the Flow of Life which indwells each person as a Presence and which is forever bubbling forth through each person as a fountain.” — Eric Butterworth about Ralph Waldo Emerson
You Are Your Own Fountain of Youth
In their book, The Life We Are Given, co-authors George Leonard and Michael Murphy, the past presidents and the co-founder respectively, of the Esalen Institute in the Big Sur, California, said that the components that go into a well founded life/[transformational life] are exercise, mental imagery, affirmations, and meditation. I call the process Movement, Mindset and Motivation (“Body” and “Being”). No matter what you call it, the results are the same: Health, Fitness and Personal Energy, and that special feeling of “being alive”. When practiced by active seniors, it becomes the way of active aging and an illness resistant and independent life filled with energy and enthusiasm; a life that is ” . . . bubbling forth as a fountain”.
Most Seniors I know are active. They don’t fit the common stereotypes that we have of “old people” when they get to be “a certain age”. Most of them want to remain active and independent and don’t want to lose the energy and zest for life they have accumulated over a lifetime, just because of an old stereotype that doesn’t fit them anymore.
When today’s seniors keep their bodies fit, their minds active and their attitude positive. There is no saying how long they will remain active and independent.
Age is chronological, not mental. We are as old as we choose to think we are. As Maxwell Maltz, author of the famous bestseller, Psychocybernetics said, “You Think Yourself Old”
It’s all about the way you frame your approach your Body, Being, Lifestyle and Legacy as you age that gives you the means to amp up that Personal Energy and keeps you going. As Matthew Maltz also said: “Faith, courage, optimism, moving forward, bring us new life and more life. Futility, frustration, living in the past are not only characteristic of ‘old age’; they contribute to it.”
That’s a pretty darned good way to think about aging. Unfortunately, so many Seniors don’t. Be one of those who do.
Thank you for reading this SeniorFlow Moment.