Aging and Osteoporosis

Focus on the Mental

• Stay optimistic. If you are negative and predict doom, doom will find you.  If you can create and maintain optimism, bright days will come your way.  Being optimistic creates a hopeful lens through which you see the world.  If optimism has never been your strength, spend time each day pondering and writing down good people, places and things in your world.  Think about situations in the past where things went your way.  People tend to dwell only on the times that things didn’t work out.  Choose to think differently and invite optimism in your life.
• Stay realistic. Being optimistic does not mean being naïve or ignorant to the world around you.  Just as being realistic does not give your permission to become overly critical and cynical.  Work to balance your new found optimism with realism.  A good method to complete this is to look at your past history.  Do you usually fall on the side of being positive or negative?  What have the consequences of this approach been?  Try to move towards the middle.  Aging is not fun just as osteoporosis is undesirable, but there is much to gain from accepting an accurate view of your state.
• Find purpose. As people age, they often have trouble finding a sense of purpose and direction.  Perhaps you have retired from your job or the kids are out of the house and on their own.  A life without goals is one that passes by slowly without enjoyment or accomplishment.  Being productive is a great way to feel energized and youthful.  Set goals that make sense with your physical state while pushing beyond your comfort zone reasonably.  A purpose gives you a sense of identity that may have been lost.  Allow what you do to define who you are.
• Keep in touch. Social circles grow smaller as you age.  People that you know die, move away or lose contact with you normally with the passing of time.  This, paired with a limited availability of new social supports, leads to less contact with people on a daily basis.  Feeling a strong sense of belonging and connectedness is associated with improved mood, self-esteem and energy.  These components will end with a happier, younger-feeling, less-stressed you.

Conclusion

Take steps that get results.  If aging and osteoporosis have you feeling down, do something about it.  Acknowledging the link between stress and aging is a great place to start.  From there, work to improve your physical body before moving to improving your mental well-being to lower stress.  Less stress translates to slower aging.  Even the greatest plastic surgeons cannot give you the anti-aging benefits of a life with lower stress.  Destress for a long, happy life.