When I was 20 years old, I felt invincible. Even at 35, it still felt like I was going to live forever. As I passed 40 and then 45, life feels different. I’m starting to slow down. I’ve started to feel my frailties. I’ve been out to Kansas City doing chelation to keep my arteries clear. This past year I was put on two medicines – one for high blood pressure and one for helping me balance my hormones. As I age, I’m slowing down, and I’m going to guess I’m not the only one. I’m learning that my best today may not be my best tomorrow. And believe it or not, that’s okay – and yet it’s not.
Let’s Start the Discussion
It’s just a fact of life – generally, as we age, we start to slow down, sometimes develop chronic conditions, sometimes we get injured. All of these things will slow us down with age. While slowing down is fairly (not always) inevitable, it’s not something that should ignore or not think about or talk about. So let’s start the discussion.
How are you already limited?
Start by being honest about how you are already limited and where you’ve already started to slow down. Not just what are those limitations, but to what extent do you have those limitations. You might be like my daughter who has a rescue inhaler. She has that limitation, but she only needs her rescue inhaler once maybe twice a week and only then when she’s very active or it’s very cold outside. It’s limiting, but not debilitating.
Make a list of your limitations. Have you injured your knee in the past and it makes it hard to walk long distances? Are you unable to run? Are you hard of hearing or do you have bad eyesight? Do you struggle at math – I mean really struggle? Do you have an anxiety disorder that can stop you from time to time or is it debilitating? Are your arms particularly weak or could you chop wood? Take some time and figure out exactly what your weaknesses are.
Start working through how you can prepare for tomorrow’s slow down’s 
today.
Now, knowing your current limitations, ask yourself what ways you think they could change over the next 10 years. If you’ve really started working toward improving your health, where do you see it improving to in ten years? If you’re just letting life run its course, how do you see your limitations progressing over the next 10 years? Be honest – no matter which direction life is taking you. How do you see it improving or progressing over the next decade?
What Can You Do NOW to Make Life Better?
There is no right answer here.
If you are struggling with your weight – like I am – then look for your answers. I’m working on lowering my insulin levels (hormone, not injected) naturally by fasting 20 hours 5 days a week and 14 hours 2 days a week. The plan is to do this for a total of 6 months so that my hormone levels will be closer to norms so that my body may start to release the extra weight.
But that’s not all I’m doing. I’m walking. Usually, it’s 3/4 of a mile a day, but somedays it’s 1/2 a mile and some days it’s a mile. I’m not walking to lose weight. I’m walking to help my heart stay healthy and to perhaps also help my hormone levels, because it’s good for my brain, because it will also help me be better physically able to do the things that I need to do in the next 10 years.
What do YOU need to do? Do you need to get a small set of weights and work on upper body strength? Do you need to start taking yoga so that you can learn how to stay calm when life goes crazy? Have you considered how something as simple as breathing in a way that your body was designed to breathe can actually help you stay calm and lower your blood pressure and inflammation?
But let’s be honest, sometimes even with the best of intentions, we plan for things to get better, but we are unable to follow through. Last year’s New Year’s resolutions anyone? Maybe, a 20 pound planned loss turns into a 10 pound gain? Walking that 1/2 marathon didn’t happen as you planned? Maybe that shoulder just got more aggravated no matter what you did instead of getting better? What do you do then?
Plan for things to get better, but prepare for them in case they get worse.
Things can look bleak, but they don’t have to. Have you ever heard of Kyle Maynard? Kyle was born without arms or legs. While many parents would have given up hopes for their child to grow up and aspire to do great things as quickly as they started, Kyle’s parents didn’t. They made hard choices. They made Kyle learn to feed himself, dress himself, write, go to school. When he hit the 6th grade, they even allowed him to go out for football team, and believe it or not, he made it. As he grew, he became a weight lifter, a wrestler, and even a mountain climber. If Kyle – with no arms or legs could find workarounds for almost everything in life – including how to drive, so can you!
So what can you do as we start to slow down?
So what if your shoulder injury makes you slow down even further? Start looking now for things that could help. Would a brace help your injury? Whether or not you feel like you need it now get one. Does your injury mean that you can’t carry wood? Is there something you could buy to help you move wood like a tote meant to help you carry wood on your good shoulder? Some kind of a cart? When using hand tools in your kitchen, do you need some kind of a non-slip surface so that you can pull a cord with your good arm, and hold the device in place with minimal effort with your bad arm/shoulder?
Do you struggle with foot trouble? Buy the right kinds of shoes now. Experiment and find the best ones for your feet, and then stock up on them.
Do you suffer from a disease or a condition? Start with doing your best to reverse it now, but start looking into alternative treatments NOW. Then make sure you stock up on what you need or start growing what you need now so that you have grown it before. So that you know how to make it into a tincture – if that’s what it requires. Need a great book to help you find some of these alternative treatments now? I just finished reading a book called Preppers Natural Medicine. As I read through it – especially the chapter calls Materia Medica. As I read through that chapter, every other herb was one that I wanted to start growing now for either me or my family or my extended family. I believe it can make our health better.
So What About You?
What are your limitations? How do you plan to overcome them? What specific things do you plan to work on over the next 10 years to make your life better? How do you believe life will get harder? What are your plans to taking care of it or what are you going to do to adjust things to make them easier as life gets harder?
Together lets Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
There are links in this post. Some of the links may be affiliate links. Some of the links may not be. My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family. You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.
