A few weeks ago, I attended my 40th class reunion. My high school (Kamehameha) is a private school that was established for the education of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian students so it has a long and proud history. Their alumni is very organized and active and they have developed a system of reunions where every class has the opportunity to gather every five years to reconnect, socialize and just plain party.
My class (1972) are all hitting 58-years old this year and as a group, we seem to be doing pretty well. We try not to spend our time delving into our problems, but we can see that some of us are having health issues and other challenges that are taking up our energy. But for the most part, the people who showed up seemed happy to be there, active in thier lives and anxious to catch up with each other.
But we're a group in transition. Many of us already retired from our primary careers and are now working on a second work phase or caring for grandchildren or pursuing interests that we never had the time to follow. It really is the "golden age" of our lives because we generally have more time, more income and less responsibility than we did 20 years ago. We have more time to concentrate on ourselves, our health and our finances.
It's a difficult transition for some of us because we've been taking care so many things (and so many people) for so many years that it seems almost selfish to devote time to ourselves. We know that we need to make lifestyle adjustments to the constant changes in our lives to live happily into our 70's, 80's and 90's. But our family structures are changing, our careers are ending, we're losing people who are important to us and our bodies are slowing down. We're facing the last 1/3 of our lives and there are lots of reasons to be depressed. We know we have to make changes, but where do we start? Everyone from Dr. Oz to Anthony Robbins has an answer, but it's all pretty much the same:
Change what you eat. Change what you do. Change what you think.
The science is already well-proven that our diet is the basis for chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and strokes. If you have NetFlicks, watch "Knives over Forks" and you'll get a very clear picture of how Americans are basically eating themselves to death. It's really tough here in Hawaii, where salty and fattening foods are the central point of every social gathering, but we're seeing more brown rice, green salads and non-carbonated drinks popping up on menus and on our buffet tables. Go to my friend Liana Honda's blog (www.soducksoup.com) for some great ideas on healthy eating using local foods. A plant-based diet can actually reverse many chronic health conditions. Watch the movie or read Joel Furhman's "Eat to Live."
We create habits and then those habits create us. My Mom used to say, "you got to get going", meaning that you have to move around and it helped her to live to 86 years old (and her mother to 94 years old). Where ever we are physically is the direct result of the habits we've kept. If we want different results, we need to create different habits. Easier said than done, but those who are stepping forward to change the way they do things are getting spectacular results that will make their days ahead happier and healthier. You don't need to run a marathon. Try some walking, use the stairs when you can, visit your local swimming pool or beach. Qigong or taichi is great for exercise and relaxation. Sign up for Zumba, hula or ballroom dancing. If you enjoy a physical activity, you'll tend to do it more. So much of the quality of our life is connected to our mobility, so we have to do everything we can to move around a little bit everyday to slow down the physical ailments that will limit our mobility.
After I survived prostate cancer in 2008, my classmate, Tommy Thompson sent me a book called, "The Anti-Cancer Book," a ground-breaking work on how to live a cancer-free lifestyle. A large portion of the book is dedicated to how positive thoughts strengthen our immune systems and conversely, how negative thoughts and stress can activate the cancer cells in our bodies. Not only can your thoughts make you sick, they determine the level of joy and happiness you'll experience. Philosophers have known for hundreds of years that the quality of our lives will follow the quality of our thoughts, regardless of our circumstances. Essentially, our life is whatever we think it is. Go to www.nightingale.com and start listening to their personal development programs, it's possible to change your life completely by simply changing the way you look at things.
Want a new life going forward? Eat better. Move around more. Expand your thinking.
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