This week’s positive word

on our A-Z Inspirational Journey …

Y is for

YOUNG

In this blog I wanted to talk to you about how young you FEEL! Not how old you are? But how young do you feel?

You see, being young isn’t about age, it’s about how you feel. There are people who are in their twenties who live a very old life. There are people in their 50s 60s 70s and upwards who live an amazingly young life. Check out this video of a 96-year-old yoga instructor:

Ask yourself how old do you feel physically, mentally and emotionally?

Life can throw a lot of challenges at us. How you deal with these challenges or how you choose to see them in your life, can reflect how old you actually feel. Our challenges in life are relative to our lifestyle, for example, one thing that would give someone a nervous breakdown, may flow easily over someone else’s head.

Credit: Pintrest

The above is quite a depressing quote, not one that I would usually use for an inspirational blog. But I thought it was perfect for what I’m trying to say. People age because of what life throws at them. So it’s up to us to deal with the challenges and let little things go. Don’t dwell on stuff. Don’t let dwell on the small stuff … and don’t dwell on the big stuff … imagine everything is happening for a reason, look out for the signs and understand that if you let things go, you will age gracefully.

How old you feel is really a reflection on how you’ve viewed your actual life experiences, such as some people have been through so much and their way of dealing with things is to just to panic and feel stressed. While others could be going through the same but deal with it on a higher manageable level. Again, it’s all relative. If you think about the Law of Attraction, those who manage their thoughts to a positive outcome will endeavour to do so. Those who are stressing, will bring themselves more stress.

This is easier said than done, I realise this, hence the reason I write my blog, to inspire people to look at the bigger picture. To look at what you want even when it feels as if everything is against you. Look at the positive outcomes that can come from a bad situation, think about the reasons these things are happening and focus on good, the positive and don’t allow yourself to be swallowed up by the negativity. In cases where you find this hard it’s best to look at things you can be grateful for. Write a gratitude list. Even down to the fact you have clean running water keep you alive.

Imagine if you were to take these life experiences and learn from them, giving you the opportunity to feel young again.

Credit: Victoria J.Brown

There are a lot of factors that can make us older than we actually are. Not as young as we would like to. For example: perhaps you’ve had a stress in your life that has led to sleepless nights or you’ve gained bad habits that have led to a bad diet or maybe drinking too much alcohol as a way of coping. A coping mechanism that is actually aging you internally and externally. This is where your emotional age can add to your physical age and you don’t feel very young.

But we’re only here once, so let’s stop making excuses and start living young …

Here’s this week’s therapeutic creative writing exercise:

HOW TO FEEL YOUNG AGAIN

Sleep is a huge factor in making us feel older than we are. It’s proven that lack of sleep does affect your physical and mental age, you can read an article here from Healthy Sleep Texas.

So, do you feel you are not getting enough sleep? Do you find it hard to drop off to sleep? Do you wake in the middle of the night unable to get back to sleep? This is a great time to do some therapeutic writing. Well, actually it’s not an ideal time, earlier in the day is much better … but if you’re just getting started on this exercise and you’re unsure what is actually keeping you awake at night, it’s best to start this way for a few nights and then bring the writing earlier to the day to help wash away the thoughts before bedtime.

So to start with, if you feel you can’t sleep, start writing down what is keeping you awake. Whatever is going around in your head, write it down. Keep a notebook next to your bed and simply write until you feel you have released all your emotions.

The next morning, take a look at these notes, then try to bring this therapeutic writing to more a reasonable time of the day.

Writing a journal is an extremely relaxing way to de-stress. You can read here a great article from 2nd Story Counselling, that will give you 7 great tips on keeping a journal, which will hopefully help you sleep better.

So once you’ve started with some true self-reflection with your creative writing, you’ll start to see patterns of behaviour, emotions, feelings that could be dragging you down and making you feel older than you are.

If it helps write some sentences about how you would like to feel young and how you can help yourself feel young. What do you see when you see youth?

Here’s three tips to help you live a younger more vibrant life:

* Eat Healthy & Drink Plenty Of Water – This is a given. The healthier you eat the more energy you will have. Your skin will look fresher and revitalised. There is plenty of information out there to help you have a better diet.

* Exercise – This is another given. People who exercise feel younger, fitter and healthier, these tips really go without saying. Now maybe you’ve reached an age where you feel the aches and pains, it’s easier said than done to go for a 3-mile run, your back hurts, your knees hurt etc. One of the best exercises to help the aging process is yoga and pilates. If you haven’t viewed the video at the top, please do. Simple stretches can help you feel young again. Don’t give up on exercise altogether. Find something you can do and watch the magic happen to your body.

* Mindset – I believe this is the most important part in feeling young. This is the ultimate barrier to letting yourself feel old. Are you letting life drag you down? Are you letting stuff get on top of you? Mindset is a huge factor in helping to play a part in enabling you to feel young.

The mind is wonderful and powerful! More than most realise.

If you’re interested in finding out how you can change your mindset, you can read through my A-Z Inspirational Journey, each blog post has been designed to help you change your mindset from negative to positive. It takes work if you’re in a dark place, but it can be done. Please read back through the posts, take your time, each post has a therapeutic writing exercise and some tips on helping you become a more positive you. A younger you! This journey starts with Appreciation.

Wishing you love, happiness and fulfilment always

Victoria xx

If you’d like help in surrounding yourself with positivity, you can download your very own FREE inspirational guide here.