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You have helped settle your kids. You have also experienced the joy of playing with your grandchildren. The idea of living a full-life is something that you feel you have achieved. The next step is to think about ‘what should I do now’.
Should I just wait for a peaceful goodbye from the world, or are there areas that I can work on before the final goodbye. We sometimes tend to forget that it all stops mattering after a period. All the anger, resentment and regrets stop bothering you after a time. This is where you start to begin a life where you age gracefully.
In this article, I will look at some advices that can help you lead the final leg of your life in the best fashion possible. Always remember, that there is no defeating you, even when you are old. You have chosen your life until now; you are going to do it in the future as well.
Why Peace and Happiness is all that matters in Old Age
I have often spoken to many senior citizens who have one major complain. Even though they have fulfilled their material responsibilities on the planet, they have yet to find peace. Firstly, material benefits do not equate to peace and happiness.
Peace and happiness are emotional virtues that come from within. No matter how big a house you have built, or how well settled your children are, will not guarantee peace. The key word that seniors need to look for is ‘contentment’. Like peace and happiness, contentment is a rather spiritual and emotional feeling.
If you are content, happy and enjoy mental peace, you are in the best position in your life. This is the basis of aging gracefully. One of the key actions that you need to take to feel contented is to give up on issues and problems that bother you.
Holding grudges because your daughter married against your wishes, or your friend defaulted on a loan promise will turn you grumpy and angry. The key is to let go of such issues and embrace everyone for the love that you felt for them before problems arose.
Few people would deny that the world is going crazy right now. Some might argue that it has always been going crazy, but it’s just now that certain people recognize the degree of madness. Because of this, it’s important that everyone finds their psychological place as soon as possible, and can reconcile whatever is required to get there.
Especially as you get older, it can be a challenge to try to age gracefully. However, you can follow some practical advice to help you out!
Three pieces of Advice that can help Age Gracefully
- As you get older, you will eventually need some care for your situation. Bodies and minds breakdown. You should accept your best options without reservations.
- You can adopt stoic attitudes. Stoicism as a philosophy can run concurrently with all of your other beliefs, but it just makes life feel better.
- As you get older, if you want to be graceful, learn how to meditate on forgiveness. If you are harbouring any resentment into your twilight years, that only affect you negatively – it does nothing to harm the people you are resentful about.
Accept Care Options
As you get older, various options for personal and medical care will open up to you. For example, you can get in-home care. In this case, charismatic if nonmedical people will help you with some of your day-to-day activities. There are many different options depending on what your care needs are.
Maybe you want someone to cook and clean for you. Other times, it’s more about companionship. The point is that you find someone with the skills and personality to meet your needs. Cribbing about kids who are working in other cities or friends who have new distractions is just going to make you sad and unhappy.
The key is to understand the situation and act maturely. If you need help, so be it. There is no harm in that. By taking help, you will be able to free up time to do things that you enjoy. For example, if you are too old to cook you can hire someone. The time you free up can be used for spending more time with your retired pals.
Adopt Stoic Attitudes
Things don’t always turn out how you want. As you grow older, you can either resent this or figure out how to accept it. If you choose the acceptance path, then study stoicism as a way of life.
Some brilliant philosophers throughout human history have promoted the idea of stoicism, and they have had very meaningful and powerful lives. Stoicism will not prevent you from having any other belief system that is currently in your life, as it is more of an additive theory and philosophy rather than a replacement of something else.
Stoicism is often wrongly equated as being rigid or headstrong. In fact, this is far from the truth. Stoicism means holding on to beliefs that you have lived your life by. All the actions and decisions that you have taken in your life have been more correct than wrong. Stoicism helps you reinforce belief and confidence in yourself and your abilities.
Meditate on Forgiveness
Meditate on forgiveness. Every day, pray that the people that you are angry with will be released from their suffering. It is the single best way to get rid of any underlying resentment or anger you may have that negatively affects your day-to-day life.
Forgiveness does not mean you ask people for more punishment or bad behavior. It simply means that you have found a way to let go of the past so that it does not have an iron grip on your present.
You might not forget everything that has happened. This is alright. What you can do is forgive people for what they have done. Forgiveness not only makes you the bigger person, it also helps in giving peace and contentment.
Conclusion-
Old age can be both- a happy period or a sad one, depending on how you would want to lead it. A few years back, literature on how to age gracefully was not present. People who could offer advices were not there.
This might have prevented your parents to live out the finest years of their lives in the best manner possible. However, in 2019, such services and advices are readily available. If you are planning to lead a peaceful, happy and contended life, you can follow the tenets of this article.
I wish you all the best with your future endeavours.
