Resilience TIPS: For Aging Mortals Only
By Sandy Davis, a.k.a. "The Resilience Guy" Are You an Aging Mortal? The short answer is YES. All of us are mortal, and from the moment we are conceived until the moment we die, all of us are constantly aging. Both conditions are integral to the human condition. Neither can be denied, nor altogether avoided. The more interesting question is whether you are aware that you are an aging mortal. How Easy It Is to Forget When you are in good health, good spirits, and good company, it is easy to forget that you are in fact mortal. In good times, life has a way of appearing to be both boundless and endless. Even though you know intellectually that your life is finite, you are able to keep thoughts about your own death so far off in the distance that the reality of your mortality can have little or no bearing on how you comport yourself day-to-day. The more you fend off this undeniable reality, the easier it is to remain unaware that you are aging day-by-day. The Aging Process from Conception to Death In your early years, the process of aging takes the form of developmental growth. This is when you are learning necessary new life skills, new cognitive skills, and new ways of navigating your way through all the challenges that day-to-day life inevitably presents. These early years are generally our most formative years. They naturally offer each of us countless stimulating opportunities to make life-affirming experiential discoveries that usually prove to be both exciting and rewarding. For some individuals, this period of rapid developmental growth ends as early as one’s late teens. For others, this enjoyable process of discovery can be extended almost indefinitely. All it takes is a determination to become a life-long learner. When you develop an insatiable appetite for personal growth, you can keep on growing for a very long time. When Growth Subsides At some point in your life, your developmental growth will slow down, then stop, and then begin to reverse itself. Sooner or later, you will reach a point of inversion when you cease to grow (as in moving uphill) and start to “ungrow” (as in moving downhill). When this finally happens, you will begin to fall apart, slowly but surely. Your body, your mind, and your spirit simply start to degenerate—although usually not in synchrony. Normally, one or another will start to devolve first. And the others will eventually follow. Unless you have been forced to reckon with your own mortality by dint of injury, illness, hardship, or other personal misfortunes, you most likely will not become fully aware of your own mortality until you reach this predictable point of inversion. The Moment of Rude Awakening Only when you discover that you can no longer do some of the things that you used to do effortlessly, are you likely to start accepting the reality that you have aged significantly. You begin to realize that you may have passed your own inversion point, and that your life may have started to slide down “the back side of the curve.” When you finally recognize that things have started to “trend downward,” the onset of your own process of gradual degeneration has a way of “slapping you upside the head.” When this disappointing realization finally sinks in, it may take you by surprise. It can be a rude awakening. All of a sudden, you can no longer plausibly deny the reality that you are in fact mortal, and that you are aging continuously. Even though you have known this all along, the moment when you finally have to embrace your own mortality can be a frightening one. It can shake you to your core. In that moment, however, you may suddenly discover that you have the power to make some long-overdue changes in how you take care of yourself, ones that can serve to reverse your downslide and fend off your mortality. How to Forestall Reaching Your Point of Inversion While most of us are already well into our forties before we recognize that we are starting to reach our own point of inversion, some of us have figured out how to forestall reaching this inversion point until we are in our fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, or even nineties. Sometimes this forestalling is a product of foresight and ongoing proactive, intentional action. Sometimes it is a product of suddenly being forced to respond to unforeseen challenges that endanger either our life or our quality-of-life. In stark moments when you realize that your life or quality-of-life is at stake, it’s natural to become highly motivated to take quick positive action. Discovering the Power of Intentional Positive Action Once you fully accept the fact that you are an aging mortal, you are poised to discover the power of intentional positive action. You can start to explore some proven ways to rekindle, extend, protect, and enjoy your own vitality. There are a variety of simple self-care daily structures that can enable you to slow down your aging process and thereby extend both your life and your quality-of-life. All you have to do is choose one of these readily-accessible structures and get to work. Call to Action What one small behavioral change could you make right now that might serve to increase your vitality and extend the quality of your life? What is calling you the loudest? Lose some weight? Get more sleep? Exercise more regularly? Treat yourself to some “down time” so that you can re-center yourself? Take some personal time to pursue mastering something you love to do—just for the fun of it? Maybe something else? Once you commit to taking one small, intentional, positive action over and over and over again, you can open up a door to making positive personal changes that can become so sustainable that they will change your life—and even your destiny. All you have to do is practice your chosen positive action faithfully, day-in and day-out, for long enough to wire it in. As you start to take better care of yourself, you can rekindle your own vitality in such a way as forestall your eventual shift from personal growth to personal decline. Are you ready to do this? Do you dare? Can you afford not to? Finally, remember that what I have just told you is for aging mortals only. If you are not yet mortal or if you haven’t yet started to age, please disregard all of the above. Relevant Quotations “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which, in prosperous circumstances, would have lain dormant.” – Horace, 65-8 B.C., Poet & Satirist “The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.”– Bernard Baruch, 1870-1965, Financier and Government Advisor “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson “When it’s all over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.” – Mary Oliver, Poet For More Information If you would like to know more about how you can forestall reaching your own point of inversion by systematically rekindling your vitality, check out the instructional manuals available at: http://www.resilienceworks.com/instructional_manuals. They offer you concise information and precise instructions on how to methodically increase your own personal resilience—even in the face of your own aging process and your own mortality.
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Copyright © 2010 Alexander M. (Sandy) Davis. To find out more about Sandy Davis and the resilience-related guides and services he offers, visit www.ResilienceWorks.com. To subscribe to his free monthly e-newsletter, send an e-mail to Subscribe@ResilienceWorks.com. FYI, he’s “The Resilience Guy.”