“Your life is nothing but a reflection of your mind. If you want to change things, change thoughts.” - Liam Tinker
TOP VISIBLE SIGNS OF AGING
Our natural inclination is to look at wrinkles and sagging skin as the major visible signs of aging. However, the most difficult part of aging can be losing our freedom of movement and sinking into our most debilitating habits. These visible signs of aging appear as we start to lose the movement habits we learned as babies. Babies first learn the movement of front to back—for example, they see some food in front of them and bring it to their mouth. The next motor concept to develop is up-down movement as babies learn different ways to bring themselves to standing or sitting. Finally, infants learn lateral and spiral movements
—how to turn, sidestep, or reach left or right.
As we age, we lose these motor concepts in the reverse order that we learned them as babies: First our lateral movement becomes more difficult or limited, then our ability to get up and down becomes compromised, and finally our movement options shrink to just dealing with what is in front of us. Happily, we can reverse this deterioration by unlearning some of our most unconscious movement habits and relearning more youthful and vital ways to move.
Here are some of the most common signs that reflect the loss of motor concepts.
____ I have stiffness in my trunk and neck.
____ I take more time and more steps to turn my whole body while walking.
____ My lateral movement (being able to sway the pelvis or reach to either side) is lacking.
____ I cannot lower myself safely and quickly to the floor and cannot rise quickly and effortlessly from the floor.
____ I cannot rise quickly and effortlessly from a chair without pushing off with my hands.
____ I have difficulty running across the street when I want.
____ I have sore knees when climbing either up or down the stairs.
____ I have a tendency to knock into things.
____ I am no longer dancing or playing sports.
____ I catch myself raising or hunching my shoulders.
____ I feel awkward reaching up or bending down.
____ My movements and breathing feel heavy.
____ I feel hesitant or uncertain while initiating a movement.
StartFragmentThese signs of aging can also be divided into several different categories of habits—postural habits, movement habits, timing habits, and balance habits. Understanding your habits can be the first step toward reversing the signs of aging and changing your age. The questions in the mobility survey will help you assess your functionality and gain insight into how aging manifests itself in your body. Take the survey, carefully considering each question and scoring accordingly. Mark your scores for each section and add up the total.EndFragment
StartFragmentNever - 1 | Rarely - 2 | Sometimes - 3 | Often - 4 | Always - 5
POSTURAL HABITS
1. Do you have difficulty turning your head to look from side to side?
Example: When you try to cross the street/hear a noise, you can’t look around easily to see what’s behind you.
2. Do you have difficulty climbing up and down stairs?
Example: You have difficulty pushing through one leg to go up the stairs or it hurts your knee when you go down the stairs.
3. Do you have labored or shallow breathing?
Example: You notice, whether you’re sitting or standing, that you occasionally take a sigh or deep breath. Sometimes you catch yourself holding your breath. People have told you that you’re a shallow breather, and you seem to need these deep-breath breaks.
4. Do you have a protruding abdomen and an overly arched back?
Example: Sometimes you feel like you look fat, but you’re not. You seem to be a fairly thin person with a big round stomach. Your lower back hurts when you stand.
5. Do you have a slumped posture?
Example: Sometimes, when you’re sitting, you feel slumped in your chair. Occasionally you get pain in your neck just holding your head up. Sometimes when you’re working at the computer your head is so far forward that your neck and shoulders start to get tight.
Total -
MOVEMENT HABITS
6. Do your movements feel heavy, as if someone turned up the gravity?
Example: You feel like you are moving through molasses. When you feel tense in your gut and tight in your back, you realize that you are lethargic. When you are more relaxed, you feel much lighter when you move.
7. Do you complain of having a stiff lower back and tight hips?
Example: Your back feels stiff and your hips don’t swing, even if you dance or do other activities.
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8. Do you get anxious about your balance when you reach up or look up?
Example: You can’t seem to reach up to your higher kitchen cabinets anymore. When you use a step stool, you’re worried that you might fall.
9. Do you find yourself pushing off with your hands to get out of a chair?
Example: You always get up by pushing with your hands into the armrests of your seat or sofa. It just seems natural—until you’re in a situation where there are no arms to push off on. Then you have to use your legs, but you realize that your legs feel too weak or the movement is too uncomfortable.
10. Do you tend to stumble or shuffle when you walk?
Example: You shuffle instead of walk, hardly lifting your legs. You shuffle along so much that you often stub your toes.
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Total -
TIMING HABITS
11. Do you have difficulty speeding up your movements?
Example: Sometimes you’re concerned about crossing the street—worried that the light will change on you.
12. Do you find that your eyes move more slowly than they used to?
Example: It seems to take you a longer time to look around, as if you’ll get dizzy if you move your eyes too fast. Or sometimes when you’re walking through a mall you feel overstimulated, as though everything around you is moving too fast.
13. Do you have slower movements and a slower response time?
Example: You know you move more slowly than you used to, and you can’t catch a fastball or return a serve as well as you once did.
Total -
BALANCE HABITS
14. Is it difficult for you to jump?
Example: You like to play basketball, but you don’t land very well after a jump shot. Or perhaps even the thought of jumping seems impossible.
15. Is it difficult for you to hop on one leg?
Example: When you imagine hopping on one leg and turning in the air, it feels risky. If you are hiking, you feel uncomfortable hopping across a creek. Maybe you have hurt your knee while playing games with your kids.
16. Do you knock into things and even get bruises without knowing how?
Example: You often have bruises on your elbows and hands from walking into doorways or furniture, and you seem to sway from side to side when you walk. Or you notice that when you walk down a narrow hallway or airplane aisle, you sometimes veer left to right.
17. Is there a lack of sensation in your feet and legs, making you feel insecure about your balance?
Example: Sometimes you feel unsure of where your feet are; they just feel kind of fuzzy and like they’re a long ways away. You find yourself looking down toward your feet when you walk.
18. Is it difficult for you to walk forward and backward so slowly that it takes 10 seconds to complete one step?
Example: You feel hesitant walking forward slowly and insecure walking backward. You might find it hard to move from one foot to the other very slowly because of difficulties balancing. Even following your partner’s lead, dancing backward makes you feel uncertain.
Total -
StartFragmentLook at your scores for the different categories—postural habits, movement habits, timing habits, and balance habits—to get a sense of where you could focus your efforts. EndFragment
StartFragmentThere is a more extensive version of this survey on (www.changeyourage.net), where these questions are placed in the context of a variety of movement activities. EndFragment
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However you see your current fitness and health, before you begin, it’s important to really think about what it would mean to you to “change your age.” Remember, you probably won’t move like a teenager again, but almost anyone can move better than they did five years ago and learn to move more gracefully than they ever have before.
• What is your dream for a younger self?
• What would you like to do better?
• How would you like to feel?
• How specific can you make this dream of a younger self?
• How would you know if you had achieved this dream?
Perhaps you would like to have less pain. So ask yourself: How much less pain? What would be a marker? Then ask yourself: How much younger would it make me feel if I were successful?
It’s amazing how extremely specific people can get about what this idea means to them. One woman in a workshop wanted to experience less lower back pain. She narrowed her goal down to being able to stand on her feet for an hour without pain. She felt that this would take 15 years off her age.
Another woman wanted to be able to run for an hour at a time. It was her dream of youth. For her, that would take 12 years off her age.
A man with intermittent and cyclical problems with his knees and a nagging foot injury didn’t mind giving up long runs, but he wanted to know that he could do his basic exercise routine, including long walks and short jogs, whenever he felt like it. He felt that this would take 8 years off his age.
These are the sort of concrete, realistic dreams of a younger self that I am talking about. I can’t overstate the importance of thinking about your body and your age. It is your brain that tells you how you feel and how you experience your life. If you ignore your body and accept your aches, pains, and stiffness as unchangeable signs of aging, your beliefs will continue to limit what you do, how you feel, and how you think. As you begin to think about your body and physical health, you can begin to take control and live the life you want. If you know that you can simply and easily feel 5, 10, or 15 years younger, you have all the motivation you need to begin to change your age.
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