How Happy Is... 5 Positive Aspects Of Aging

Faith is the willingness to risk anything on God." -Dr. Jack Hyles



How Happy Is... 5 Positive Aspects Of Aging

There is a moment in all of our lives when the feeling that we are getting older hits us for the first time. It might be when you reach a significant age, when you have a child and move to a new generation or, when you catch yourself in the mirror and see those first lines appear on your face. But there are also many advantages to those feelings of getting older that often go unnoticed. So here are 5 positive aspects of aging that hopefully you can adopt.

1. Focus Your Time: Feeling older hopefully makes you prioritize what the most important projects in your life are, so that you can focus your time on those assignments and let go of the others that essentially you don't enjoy doing so much, or really don't have that much time to do. By doing this, you are essentially dovetailing your energy, rather than spreading yourself too thin. This will most likely help you to become more successful at the one or few that you decide to keep.

2. Who Energizes You: Feeling older hopefully makes you realize that your precious time is limited. So with that in mind, who would you like to spend more of it with? Would you like to see certain members of your family more, or allow a current friendship to develop to a new level? Get a sense of your energy after you have spent time with different friends. If your energy is lower after being with them, then maybe they are not so good for you to be around. If you feel energized after being with someone, then that is a nourishing friendship and you will really want to keep him or her in your life.

3. Leaving a Positive Legacy: Feeling older hopefully gives you a sense of urgency that will make you think deeply about what you are meant to be doing on the planet and how you want to leave a positive legacy behind. Not all of us have the opportunity to touch thousands of people's lives at once, like a spiritual leader, president, celebrity, rock star or anyone in the public eye for that matter. It actually can be just as powerful and even more meaningful to touch the lives of those around you i.e. your family, your friends, and your community. If you can make a difference in one person's life and give to them or teach them something, invariably they will pass it on to other people they come in to contact with and those others will hopefully, in turn, pass it on as well. So the affect of you making a difference is like a wave that reverberates out and can touch hundreds of people's lives without you knowing. Also, many of us think of waiting till we're older to be more philanthropic, but there is no time like the present to leave your mark, because you really don't know how long your life is going to last and looking back you want to minimize the amount of regrets that you think you might have.

4. Letting go of Grudges: Feeling older hopefully makes you appreciate every moment of your life more. Maybe now you have a sense that there is no longer time to waste on being at odds with anyone. If you have a disagreement, let go of your ego and patch it up as quickly as you can. Give as much as you can to your family, friends and associates, especially when they least expect it, and when you come in to contact with new people, please think about what you can do for them, how you can help them, not what they can do for you.

5. Living in the Now: Feeling older hopefully makes you realize that this is your life right now. You are in it. You can no longer plan for what might happen when your life begins i.e. when you grow up. You are grown up. For some, this can be a big shift from thinking, 'oh, I have plenty of time' and 'I'll do that some time in the future', to realizing that there is no time like the present.

source: huffington post