Facing up to Getting Older

Everyone gets older – it's a fact of life – but that doesn't make accepting it any easier! Facing up to getting older means acknowledging your own mortality and recognising you have to make the most of your life while you can. This doesn't necessarily mean you have to go skydiving or bungee jumping and to lead an 'exciting' life, but it does mean you should think about what you want out of life and making time for the people you care about. Just as you're getting older, you cannot ignore the fact that your parents, too, are ageing, and that at some point in the future they will no longer be there. Consequently, family may come to mean more to you.

There are definite benefits of getting older. You're more sure of yourself and you have a clearer idea of what your priorities are and should be. You may have built a successful career that you are able to build on further, or you may decide to pursue a different career, having plenty of experience under your belt. As you get older, you may come to realise that your career doesn't matter as much to you and that you would prefer to spend time with your family. Instead of being driven by ambition and your earning potential, you may decide to focus more on doing things you enjoy and spending time with people that matter to you.

There are also downsides associated with getting older and it is the negative aspects of ageing which you tend to focus on more as the years pass. As you get older, wrinkles start to appear and become evermore prominent, as you experience the stresses and strains that life throws up. Your hair starts to turn grey and you realise that you are perhaps not as attractive as you once were. It is not only your appearance that causes you concern, though, as health problems start to accumulate. You may find that your misspent youth catches up with you! When you're young, you may not pay much attention to your eating and exercise habits, but you have no choice as you get older.

As your metabolism slows down you can find yourself putting on weight, which puts you at greater risk of a number of serious health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. You have to make more of an effort to look after yourself if you want to avoid coming to a premature end. You have to make yourself eat healthier and exercise more, even though everything seems like so much more effort than it did when you were younger. Unfortunately, as you get older your body and mind begin to deteriorate, despite all your best efforts to halt the ageing process. It is surely better to face up to getting older and to embrace the benefits that age brings, rather than trying to pretend it isn't happening. After all, it is not as if you are alone in getting older!