At any moment in time, you are either aging or rejuvenating.  There is not standing still.  You are either going one way or the other depending on the choices you make:

Food choices – do you eat vibrant live food or processed dead food?

Do you make the effort to drink clean water and breathe clean air?  In former times we could just take it for granted that the air and water were clean but today the situation is different.

Do you have a grateful attitude towards life in general; about the life that you are living, in particular; and about all the potential truth and beauty it can unfold?  And if not, are you willing to cultivate a grateful attitude?

Do you choose to think life affirming, life sustaining, uplifting thoughts or negative, pessimistic and life depriving thoughts?  Thoughts, feelings and emotions create chemicals in the body just as surely as the food you eat does.  Depending on the impact of the specific thought or emotions, the chemicals created can be beneficial or damaging to the body.  Inharmonious thought and feelings create an acid condition in the body.

Have you allowed yourself to be burned out by life’s troubles (challenges)? Or do you still face each new day with the expectation and fresh hope of uncynical youth?

Exercise and breathing choices – do you find a way to include physical activity in every day or are you sedentary?  And when you do exercise, is it done perfunctorily or with exuberance and fun?  Do you find time each day for deep pranic breathing to offset the shallow superficial breathing we engage in most of the time?

Do you get out into the sunshine regularly and let the natural light enfold and caress you with its healing brilliance?  Sunshine and natural light are tonics to the body.

Lifestyle choices – do you choose clean living with no addictions to smoking, drinking and drugs (and sugar), no bingeing on food and no “burning the candle at both ends?”

Do you surround yourself with positive, uplifting people or negative people who bring you down and sap your energy?

Do you choose to worry about situations or, confidently and delightfully, visualize what you want to occur?

Do you choose to be happy or unhappy?  Happiness is not something that happens to us but results from an attitude we consciously or unconsciously adopt.

Are you happy or unhappy in your chosen work or profession?  And if you’re unhappy, do you have some hobby or a vocation you regularly engage in, which brings you joy, satisfaction and fulfillment?

Can you depend on yourself and on your word or do you let yourself and others down a lot?

Do you hold a clear and pleasingly youthful image of yourself in your mind’s eye, or do you find fault with your looks and put yourself down?  If we see ourselves as youthful we move towards youthfulness; but if we see ourselves as getting old, we inevitably move towards that.

Whatever thou seest, that too become thou must;

God if you seest God and dust if thou seest but dust

Brother Angelus

Do you choose love (or at least tolerance) over hate?

Do you choose admiration over envy?

Do you follow through on the things which are really important to you, the goals you set for yourself; or do you let them fizzle out?  When you don’t follow through, unfulfilled goals and unfulfilled longings become as debris in the body.

Do you act on the knowledge and wisdom you have acquired in life or do you try to ignore it, living as if you did not know?  It’s been said “Ignorance is bliss,” and the reason this is so is because once you know something, once you truly believe something to be true and you then go against that belief by your actions and your words, your body and soul are adversely affected.  Along with the acquisition of knowledge and wisdom comes responsibility.

Do you take advantage of life’s invariable opportunities to cultivate a sense of humor?  Do you choose to see the light side of things and not take yourself so seriously? Laughter is a great healer.

Do you choose to find joy in each day of your life or are you waiting for everything to be perfect first?

ALL of the above impact our rate of aging.

Why would these things contribute to our rate of aging?  Because when you’re on the positive side of all the above, you are nourishing yourself in diverse ways.  Food is nourishment, yes, but we also receive (or fail to receive) nourishment in many other ways too.

In our world, it seems verboten to go against the established norm of believing in a progression of aging.  Most people believe aging is inevitable and so the process of aging becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.  It is difficult to break out of the prevailing mind-set.  Harnessing the mind then becomes easier for you.