Old age, which was once considered an alternate of supreme blessedness, deep knowledge, precious experience, and human excellence, seems encumbered with despondency in present circumstances, and it appears as an unintentional deviation in God’s governing principles. In today’s scenario, most older people appear in deep mental anguish. Either they blame their destiny or God for being caught in this miserable state of life or feel their sorrow allayed by criticizing prevailing social customs. But facts are entirely different. The truth is that they are themselves responsible for their grief-stricken old age. They have fallen prey to premature old age due to impairment in their thought process.
In his book ‘Staying Young beyond Your Years’ (published by Funk & Wagnalls Company), Dr. H.W. Haggard writes
– ‘Aversion to work is the root of old age.’ One German physician Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland has mentioned in his book titled ‘Macrobiotic: The Art of Prolonging Life’ that ‘our emotional conduct hurries old age.’ Our sadness, depressed spirit, despondency ensure expediting of old age. On the other hand, he says happiness and cheerfulness are the clues to sustaining perennial youth.
Dr. Raymond Pearl conducted a survey in which he examined 5000 people above the age of 90 years. He found that they all had some common virtues – a peaceful lifestyle, an optimistic attitude, and a bright and cheerful state of mind, which helped them survive this age.
Explaining the causes of old age, Gelett Burgess writes in his book ‘Look Eleven Years Younger’ that predisposition to live in solitude also gives way to an apprehensive and distressed state of mind. Such habitual inclination to live alone indicates fast and steady movement towards old age. So long as one is obsessed with the loss of hope, sadness, frustration, all efforts of holding effective power can never prove fruitful. Those who want to live long and have a strong inclination to stay youthful should have a wide acquaintance with people. They should always live delightfully and participate in all sorts of works.
In the magazine ‘Living,’ a scholar named Andrews Allen had published a six-point program to shed old age, maintain a high level of spirit and enjoy youthful moments even in old age. They are as follows –
- Avoid losing energy in recollecting past events of life. Those were the youthful days of struggle to speed up progress in life. Now you are ahead of that struggle period. Pleasure does not lie in the past, but the present, and the present stands before you with a treasure of pleasurable moments in its lap. You just have to unfold them eagerly.
- Do not get depressed about your past failures. Rather learn lessons from those disappointments and utilize present opportunities with more proficiency. Express gratitude to the Almighty who helped you win over struggles in the early years of your life. The present time comes to you to enjoy life moments. Dissipate all your worries and enjoy exultant happiness in the abysmal beatitude of nature.
- There is no need to worry if you look a bit older in appearance. The wrinkles on your body signify your struggle during the early years of life and are symbolic of your seniority, which helps you earn respect from others. Feel pride in these signs of maturity and best utilize this time by sharing your experiences with others.
- Working out on excessive imaginary plans may expose you to harm in old age. It is better to steadily focus on one aim that you find appropriate in given circumstances instead of embroiling in many tasks at a time. Unnecessary riding efforts and worry result in exertion, which exaggerates the symptoms of old age. One should work commensurate with one’s capacity to work and not disparage taking short periods of rest.
- Never stop yourself from taking on new ventures in life. Instead, look out for new dimensions to energize yourself and pay attention to learning something new for personal satisfaction. Innovative ideas will energize you.
- Never feel apprehensive and distressed about your future life. Never sit worrying that people will start neglecting you only because you no longer look youthful. Such thoughts will demoralize you. The truth is that world needs the guidance of experienced seniors like you. Your growing age has bestowed upon you the wealth of these experiences. So keep your spirit high and never turn away from utilizing them.
Later years of life are highly important regarding ability, talent, and experiences. But this period of life of most people goes waste for no reason because old age starts dominating due to irrelevant concerns and apprehensions. Undoubtedly aging signs start appearing due to the passing of time. Greying hair, visual defects, impaired hearing are not the signs of frailty but symptoms of age-related transformations, which can be restricted to some extent, but this is not fair to regard them as a sign of infirmity. There have been hundreds of people who remained full of youthful energy for the entire period of their lives. No doubt age-related changes appeared to them also, but they did not get carried away with them. On the contrary, they utilized every moment with the same enthusiasm and energy as their youthful days.
Scientists who deal with mental processes and behaviour are fast believing that youth is more related to the state of mind than age. A steady and exquisite happy mental state can escape the man from old age forever. Gandhiji regarded himself as a young person even at the age of 80. His energy level at that age, too, was worth appreciation. Revealing this mystery, he once disclosed that – ‘I never allowed circumstances to dominate me. Proper utilization of every moment of my life and avoiding my mind from irrelevant thoughts is the secret of my perennial youth’. Churchill assailed old age with contemptuous words. He said – ‘Old age is like a ripened mango with more sweetness.’ George Bernard Shaw said that nature’s real pleasure could be enjoyed only in later years of life. Enriched with his past experiences and enjoying the benedictions of Almighty to this world, man can be very fruitful to society.
Akhand Jyoti Magazine 2022 Mar-Apr
