To stay young is the sweetest dream of everyone entering middle age, particularly women. What would a woman not give to look young? However, along with that, still more important than looking young is feeling young and not aging prematurely.
If you look around yourself closely you will observe that underneath his modern clothing, fine grooming, and facial make-up, the average person of today looks worn out and older than his age.
As early as in their thirties many people’s faces become set, immobile, haggard; their hair is thin, gone, or graying; their faces are covered with deep lines; their eyes are dull and tired-looking; their bodies are either flabby and fat, or emaciated. What could be the reason for these shortcomings? Are these people normal?
Evidently a condition of this kind cannot be normal. When we compare the span of life of humans of today to that of animals we see that the average animal lives five or six times as long as it takes it to reach full maturity. That should hold true also with human beings inasmuch as they represent the highest form of animal life. Since human beings reach their full physical development at about the age of twenty-five our span of life should be anywhere between one hundred twenty-five and one hundred fifty years. When we turn to the Bible we can read there tales of people who lived to ages as high as nine hundred years. No doubt there is some amount of truth in those stories. It may be taken for granted that barring accidents and cases of being overcome by wild animals the primitive man had a very long span of life.
To live a long life one cannot be old at forty and decrepit at sixty. For that one has to be healthy, strong, vibrant, and active until a very advanced age. Thus it may be safely assumed that primitive man was young until he got quite far advanced in age. He surely carried all his faculties and functions into old age.
Now what made him stay young in spite of his age, and why are we so different in that respect? Since nothing of basic character in man’s make-up has changed since primitive man roamed this earth except perhaps that his brain has developed into its present stage we must presume that it was his mode of living which kept primitive man in good shape — his surroundings, activity and food.
Whereas primitive man lived a healthy, natural life we, of today, do not. Our mode of living is highly artificial and for that we pay with years of life and the premature loss of our youthfulness. To regain our youth and enjoy longevity we must either revert to nature or else imitate natural living conditions as far as possible. We have seen that physical work and the daily exercising of our body are good substitutes for the outdoor life of primitive man.
However, as we have shown before, the most important factor in building health and longevity is our food. Primitive man, in most respects, lived essentially the way we do nowadays but he did not know the use of fire for the cooking of foods. He subsisted exclusively on raw natural foods. This is the secret of youth — when we put living foods into our bodies we build living cells in it; conversely, dead foods destroy cells instead of building healthy new ones, and as a result, the renewal of cells is sluggish; our elimination is impaired and the result is that we retain more of the old worn-out cells. This constitutes the process of aging – the inability to replace worn-out cells with new ones. When, on the other hand, we supply our body with living raw foods abundant with vitamins and minerals we are apt to build young cells, clear our blood of toxins, our skin of irregularities and blotches, get a sparkle of vitality in our eyes, and buoyancy in our legs. All functions of our body will be improved, including our metabolism. This will change not only our feelings of well-being but will actually make us look younger.
While all natural raw foods are beneficial for the maintenance of health and youth some are particularly excellent for this purpose. Citrus fruit — oranges, grapefruit, lemons — and pineapple are known to contain enzymes which promote a smooth pliable skin. Deep-colored vegetables like carrots and yellow corn are valuable for their carotene; spinach, celery, parsley, water cress and cucumbers, for their abundance of chlorophyll. For best results use large amounts of the juices of all these vegetables. Raw milk is another excellent source of life-giving enzymes out of which our body produces hormones.
Sex virility is a very important factor in maintaining youthful-ness. The older we grow the weaker our sex powers become. Many generations ago the Indians in this country had already known the secret of maintaining their sex power. Only recently we found out that what they called “the love apple” — the tomato — is rich in substances which develop into sex hormones in our body. Use the “love apple” daily —raw, if possible, canned, otherwise, and thus retain your sex power. For the same purpose use also an abundance of foods rich in Vitamins E and G: wheat germ, yeast, egg yolks, green and root vegetables and inner animal organs.
There is another very important aspect of longevity and youth-fulness — the will to live. We all know what tremendous influence our mind exerts upon all functions of our body. We have heard of many people who “gave up” on account of debility or incurable sickness and died prematurely mainly due to the lack of will to live. Very often people depart from this world after having reached their life goal — they have nothing more to live for and have neither the will nor the interest to go on. Others make up their minds to continue living only up to a certain occurrence in their lives — say to marry off their youngest daughter and, sure enough, they die soon after this task has been accomplished. On the other hand, we observe just as often, people who are deathly sick and who seem to be on the very verge of passing out any minute yet who continue to survive for many years and succeed in outliving people much younger and healthier than themselves. They cling to life by the sheer will to keep on living.
To attain longevity make up your mind that you are going to live a long life and stay young and then stick to this determination doggedly. Affirm to yourself daily — I am young, strong and healthy; I am going to live one hundred, one hundred twenty, or one hundred fifty years (set this imaginary limit for yourself, then stick around to see how this will come true). By these affirmations you will impress your subconscious mind by the determination of your conscious mind to live as long or nearly as long as you desire.
There is a true saying—”You are as old as you think you are” and another one “You cannot have a young body with an old mind.” By considering yourself old you act old and, thus, old age becomes a habit with you. By convincing yourself that you are young the reverse takes place; you begin to act young and feel young. Keep on telling yourself—I am young, I am young, I am young—until you really become young.
As to general information on the subject of staying young we can offer the following suggestions:
1) Have a goal in life—live for something so that you can always look forward to attaining it and meanwhile have an interest to continue living. After you have reached that goal, no matter what your age is at the time, set yourself another goal;
later on, still another one — never ending this process.
2) Develop enthusiasm. Do things with gusto and enjoy doing them. Do not grumble, sulk, or complain. Do only the things you believe are right—you will then gain faith and assurance in yourself and will enjoy the fruits of your labor.
3) Keep learning new things all the time, have new interests, meet new people and change places often by going visiting, vacationing, and traveling.
4) Associate with young people and people with interesting personalities, vitality, and humor.
5) Take interest in sports, cultivate hobbies, exercise, and do a lot of walking.
6) Wear light-colored clothes—they make you feel glad and young.
7) Carry yourself erect, chest up, shoulders back, and abdomen in.
8) Laugh and joke around with others and even with yourself; have a cheerful, relaxed attitude at all times; enjoy life as you have it; do not cultivate discontentment.
Associate with people who share your ideas, especially those on health and youth. Go to health lectures and hear the ideas of well-informed people on health and other self-improvement subjects.
Practicing all those suggestions will keep you busy and contented, and will leave no time for brooding, morbid thinking, self-criticism, or reproach. Don’t give up! Build your body of sound material and your mind of sound thoughts. Make it your goal to be young and live long. You will surely realize this ambition if you apply yourself resolutely to doing so. And youthfulness cannot fail to bring you happiness with it.
Comments on this entry are closed.