No one wants to set themselves up for premature aging. But, as healing arts practitioner Marie Knoetig explains, there are many decisions we make without thinking that can lead us to grow old in the worst possible way.
Everyday choices such as as what shoes we wear, the quality of the living room couch we sit on and the mattress we lay down on can have dire consequences. These are all things that can help you grow old gracefully but no one gives them much thought.
We have programmed ourselves to read something, and if it serves our agenda, we stop there. We don’t become curious about the author, why he/she wrote it, and whether or not it’s reliable. And we certainly don’t do any further investigation. And it’s taking a toll on our health and healing. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is the fact that 42.4% of American adults are obese. Most of them take their blood sugar and cholesterol meds and maybe even try fad diets periodically. In other words, they settle for ‘quick fixes’ so they don’t have to become curious about what will happen if they do nothing.
In my book The Missing Piece to Health and Aging Gracefully, I write that “The foundation of good health does not involve going to the gym. No, the foundation for good health is living your life by keeping your body straight. If your hips and spine are out of position, then everything else is off—your economy of movement is off, cleaning is harder, you have no energy. The good news is that making simple changes can alter the outcome.”
Among my advice:
- Lifting, tugging and pulling requires wearing the best quality shoes, so don’t garden with old shoes just to avoid getting your good ones dirty.
- Replace your old mattress. Spending eight hours a night on a poor mattress impedes your body from healing and relaxing properly.
- Sitting eight hours a day hunched in front of a computer is like giving your body a bad workout. You need to counter that negative training with exercise.
- Your old comfortable couch may be the reason behind your hip and back pain.
- Even chocolate cake can age you under certain circumstances.
We can even take it one step further, beyond the realm of health and healing. Let’s take a moment to consider our relationships. A lot of people, especially in the younger generations, are so independent and strong in who they are that they tolerate very little from others unless it serves their own agenda. What if, instead of shutting people down when we disagree with them, we started getting curious about the reasons why others think the way they do.
