Whether or not you believe you might live to be one hundred and that you still have almost
half of your life ahead of you, or feel you might fall somewhat short of that life span,
now can be a great time to begin a serious program of fitness. This is a critical phase of
life and what we do to take care of ourselves now may mean the difference in the way we
spend our later years. It can result in those years finding us able to utilize our life
force and energy level to give us the quality of life we'd like to have, or spending those
years in decline, mentally, physically and spiritually.
If this book has captured your attention because you thought it would give you an
exercise program, tell you what and how to eat, provide fabulous recipes for healthy foods
or reveal an exciting and innovative program for a long life, please put it down now and
don't waste your time. It will not provide answers, nor will it specifically address
questions such as "how can I ...?". It's not for those who are looking for
another form of instant gratification; how to get and stay in wonderful shape, look like
the models on magazine covers, be forever young. As a matter of fact, the thoughts
expressed here are in direct opposition to these concepts. Rather, it’s about
embracing and nurturing the best of who you already are without trying to replace yourself
with a new model. Often those ideas are not only unattainable and unrealistic, but focus
more on appearance than substance.
Approaching fifty often seems to represent a major milestone in our lives. Perhaps
it's because we feel we've completed the first half and are uncertain about what to do
about the next part. For many, it's a time of major re-evaluation and for some, a sense of
dislocation. For most people, growing older used to be understood as part of a natural
process. In many societies it was a time when work
and
struggle gave way to a more tranquil time to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor. In
many societies, the elders were actually revered!
If you've read this far, may I encourage you to celebrate where you are now,
approaching mid-life, or well into it. What a wonderful, exciting and joyous time it is
and how blessed we are to realize how much more there can to be, and how much better
equipped we are to recognize and enjoy it. Do you look into the mirror and smile at who
you see reflected there? Do you love those
same features you were so critical of when you were young and caught up in the way you
"should" look or would like to look? Can you see that the lines in your face
represent so many of your life's experiences, laughter and joy, sadness and grief, humor
and compassion, worry and fear, gentleness and, perhaps, a little hint of wisdom? Or do
you see hair that is graying that you think you should color, wrinkles that need makeup as
a camouflage, sagging muscles and loosening skin that tell you in no uncertain terms,
you're no longer thirty-five. How wonderful! I've
already been thirty-five. I've also been
twenty-five. Not only do I not have to be there again, I don't have to look the same way
as I did then.
Surely, by now, we understand that everything changes and in so doing evolves into
different forms. How exciting! How liberating
not to be tied into a fixed structure, but one that is in constant flux. Like many people
I know, I feel that I've lived at least several different lives already in this particular
lifetime and as much as I've changed on a physical level, so have I also undergone other
forms of transformation, and hopefully significant growth, on other levels as well.