10 Habits To Maintain a Youthful Mind & Body For Life!

By Farzana Khan

Like many things in life, youth is a maintenance program and well worth all efforts. It is easier to maintain any healthy habit or commodity if you tend and build upon it each day. The younger you start, the younger you get to remain/look. It's hard to look thirty if you start at sixty! Right? Most importantly, remember that nothing ages, sickens and uglifies more than negativity, hatefulness and stress. Love, light and laughter, keeps you young, healthy and beautiful.

1. Simplify your life. Cut the fat, clutter and stress

• Get organized.
• Get rid of excess stuff.
• Get out of debt. Better still, never get into debt.
• Downsize (the house, car etc.)
• Low maintenance, baby!

2. Invest in your personal growth and evolution

• Take classes to develop and enhance your career skills.
• Take a course of study that advances you towards your goals/dreams.
• Hire a life coach to help you get motivated and inspired to create the awesome life you REALLY want.
• Keep growing, learning and improving.

3. Get rid of bad habits and situations

• Quit habits that destroy your health. Not sure how? Hire a life coach!
• Leave the dead end job that makes you feel unhappy and unfulfilled.
• Stop hanging around negative people, who don't believe or support your higher aspirations.
• Stop doing things that make you feel dead inside.

4. Improve your diet

• Cut back on the stuff that isn't good for you.
• Eat and drink more fruits and veggies.
• Drink more water.

5. Exercise and keep your body tuned-up

• Stay/get toned.
• Build strength.
• Build Endurance
• Increase Flexibility
• Mix it up with: Walking, swimming, yoga, dancing, biking, hiking etc.

6. Keep your mind alert! Learn something new.

• Read different kinds of books.
• Take a phone-in class.
• Attend a community college class.
• Start a new hobby.
• Teach a class or workshop.
• Try something new each day.

7. Expand and diversify your circle of friends.

• More friends = More love/laughter/life. Less loneliness.
• Join a meet-up for a new hobby/interest.
• Help out with a community group.
• Join social networking sites on the internet.
• Allow friends to introduce you to new people.
• Join professional groups.

8. Let go of grievances on a daily basis.

Holding onto and harboring negative feelings toward people and situations will only make you a bitter old person - so, who are you hurting and destroying by holding onto that stuff ? Forgive, forget and just move on – condemnation and resentment is a waste of energy that creates stress, destroys health and ages you. Release all negativity on a daily basis; do not carry it into the next day. Holding onto stuff from one day to the next creates baggage. Travel light—let it all go, none of it really matters.

9. Connect with your spirit, each day

Folks who feel a connection with spirit—a power greater than themselves, have a sense of peace, purpose, love and center, therefore live longer.

• Meditate.
• Do yoga.
• Pray.
• Spend time alone in nature.
• Breathe and be grateful with every breath.

10. Stay loose and chill.

• This is the main key here, folks—stay lighthearted!
• Don't get uptight. Hang loose, mongoose!
• Don't get too serious about anything—takes all the fun out of life and pushes away the very things you want.
• Have fun and laugh each day.
• Laugh at yourself.
• Be kind to yourself and everyone.
• Choose to be happy, regardless. The less it takes for you to be happy the better!

People do not quit playing because they grow old.
They grow old because they quit playing.
                                      —Oliver Wendell Holmes

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