Stephanie Staples (right) with her Auntie Rose.
How old are you going to live to be? If I live to be 94, then I am exactly middle age. This would mean I only have 47 more summers, birthdays and New Year’s Eves to enjoy – yikes that doesn’t sound like enough!
How about you? If all goes well how many birthdays do you anticipate having left? It may sound like a morbid question but there is nothing like a little shock about our eventual death to make us think differently about life.
This week we made the 8-hour driving trek to visit my Auntie Rose who lives all by herself in the same home she has been in for over 50 years. At exactly double my age (94), she is an amazing woman: strong, independent and determined.
I sure hope I inherited some of her genes and aspire to age as wonderfully as she has. Over the four days that we were staying with her I made some casual observations of what she was doing and came to the conclusion that her daily habits would benefit the majority of us who desire to reach an advanced age in above average mental and physical health.
Take a look at the list below and see how many of these things you do as regularly as she does. She…
- Does some thing active everyday (takes the stairs to and from her basement 4 x a day)
- Eats only when she is hungry
- Stops when she is full
- Gets fresh air everyday
- Enjoys her own company (she is not afraid to be alone and can amuse herself just fine, thank you very much)
- Treats herself well
- Doesn’t let other do for her what she can do for herself
- Listens to her body (stops when she is tired, something is hurting etc.)
- Talks to herself to shake off her negative attitude when it pops up
All in all, I think the things she does intuitively are the things that if we did purposefully, deliberately and intentionally would aid in the quality of our health and life in general.
How about we each pick one of Auntie Rose’s habit and make it our own? However many years we have left, let’s make them good ones!
