One of the few certainties in life is that we’re all getting older and we’re all going to die.
That doesn’t mean we have to be afraid of those things – they’re going to happen. The fountain of youth only exists in movies and fairy tales. Modern medicine can do lots of things including making you look younger but it can’t stop them physically happening.
That said, there are some things we can do to get over being worried about getting older or at least reduce the impact those thoughts have on us.
Accept it
OK.
That’s nowhere near as easy as it sounds but ultimately that’s what we’re aiming for.
If you can even get part of the way to acceptance that you’re getting older and that, one day, you’re no longer going to be breathing, that’s a good result.
One of the problems with accepting that we’re nowhere near as young as we used to be is that our vision of ourselves is at odds with that thought.
In your mind, you’re still a lot younger. Your own voice probably doesn’t sound much different to you. But you also know that things that used to be easy are now more difficult or even impossible (cartwheels anyone?)
The path towards acceptance of getting older starts with just shrugging your shoulders (literally or metaphorically) and saying “so what”.
Work on your health
Our health is probably the most noticeable thing to suffer as we get older.
Aches and pains where they never used to happen.
Senior moments where we forget things – that’s normal at any age but because it often becomes more frequent as the years pass, we notice it more. If your memory really is functioning less well than it used to, put up some triggers to help you. Pill reminders, Post-It notes, regular alarms on your phone. They all help.
Eating better isn’t something that should be reserved for trendy youngsters. Whilst there’s probably no point in denying yourself the occasional treat, they should be the exception, not the rule.
Check vitamins and minerals as well. Glucosamine and chondroitin are a combination that’s generally thought to help ease aches and pains (check the reviews on Amazon for the product you’re considering). Vitamin C is something we can’t store and it’s difficult to get enough from natural sources to it’s worth taking at least a gram a day, ideally more. Vitamin D is another essential, especially if you live in a part of the world that doesn’t get much sunlight for some of the year.
The trick with healthy eating is to make it fun – the tastier the meal, the more likely you are to eat it. And you may need to make it super-tasty if your sense of taste is something that’s declining, as often happens when we get older.
Plan for things
This could be doing something like taking out a funeral plan so your loved ones aren’t hit with a massive bill when the time comes. Just be wary of the fine print which, like any legal agreement, flourishes. And make sure that your plan is mentioned to all relevant parties so they know it exists.
The same goes for your other affairs.
It’s really easy to lose track nowadays with everything being online. There’s often no paper trail and the your dependants need to know an account exists before they can get it closed. Otherwise it eventually joins the dormant accounts area and boosts the profits of the financial institution rather than benefitting people you’d want to benefit.
Keep a conspicuous file that contains all those important details, including your will (which needs to be updated regularly – a check every 5 or so years is a sensible thing to do).
Don’t be morbid
It’s easy to get pulled into a downward spiral when we think about depressing things like death,
Whether or not you believe in an afterlife or reincarnation, it’s unlikely that you’ll come back with all your current memories and other features. Certainly that’s not been proven to happen.
As and when your thoughts turn morbid, find something to distract you and bring you back to at least a slightly more cheerful version of you.
Fear of death is normal – it’s basically fear of the unknown on steroids.
And it’s something we really have no control over – we don’t choose the time and date the grim reaper will do his job. Otherwise we’d all live for the same length of time and have the same states of health as that process happened.
One thing you can do is implant better thoughts in your subconscious mind so you don’t dwell on your own mortality quite as often.
An easy way to do that is play yourself a hypnosis track.
It will help lift your spirits (not the ones you’d talk to via a ouija board) and help you come to terms with this inevitable event in all our lives.
You can play the track to yourself as often as you want – download it here and start the process of being less afraid of death.
