the vitality of being & looking young

                                      
       (Diana Moran, British fitness celebrity, aged 78)

Movement is youthful

Children have lots of energy, for sure. They move constantly, they look vital. To feel & look young/youthful, a quick way is to emulate this: move, a lot....don't just sit. I write 2 blogs, so unfortunately I'm often sitting....! I am going to set up somewhere in the house where I can stand whilst using the computer. Standing uses up more muscle movement than sitting, & this in turn is better for the workings of our body.

Every little bit helps

• get up & move
• walk to another room to get a drink of water if you are at home
• if you actually do get a lunch break at work, go for a quick brisk walk
• dance when you are alone. 

I met a very youthful & glamorous solo mother of 5, who got up every morning & cycled on her wee stationary bicycle for 30 minutes in her bedroom. When she was at home & got bored, she would do aerobics with light weights in her lounge, go for a quick jog around the block, or garden.

And there are other ways too

No doubt about it, movement makes us look & feel vital. As a yoga teacher I can tell you that there are other ways too. Yoga breathing exercises, called pranayama, increase our life force. Prana is life force & its main transport vehicle is the air that we breathe. When we raise our levels of prana, we get more definition. This is similar to when we get a tan - we are more visible, our outline is stronger. When our prana reserves increase, our eyes are brighter, the skin is rosier, we are emulating some of the characteristics of youth. So we look younger. The opposite is true for when we reach the end of our life, the life force level, the prana, starts to slowly decrease. And our "definition" seems blurred.

Without this life force, allied to the breath, we cannot live. Sometimes, our internal prana gets blocked from flowing freely, due to:

• illness
• difficult emotional happenings
• or just from general loss of vitality...you know, those times when you feel heavy, & a bit down. 

When we are "up":

• we appear to have more of this vitality
• we have more physical energy
• we are nicer to others
• we like ourselves more

So we could say that being "up" is one of the attributes of youth.... & at these times:

• we love life
• we love people
• we love ourselves

Affirmations for vitality

"I believe in life, I believe in love,  & I believe in myself." I have personally used this affirmation for decades.

When we are "up" we do whatever we need to do quite happily:
"I do what I have have to do willingly & cheerfully".

Another long time fave. The opposite of this is, of course, resentment. Resentment is ageing.

So it looks as though emotional vitality is also youthful. When I'm talking about youthfulness:

• I"m not talking about being like a child
• but rather, the attributes of youth & youthful people. 

I once completely changed my life using the above two affirmations (I had other ones too), they carried me through a very difficult time in my life, & for me have worked very well.

Enthusiasm gives vitality too

Another youthful vitality attribute is enthusiasm. It goes back really:

• to having prana
• to being active
• being positive
• living & loving
• and having something/s to look forward to. When we are young, the excitement that we have when we are doing something that we love, or find exciting, that enthusiasm, it is contagious. 

As human beings, we all need things to look forward to, & sometimes we actually have to figure this out: what makes us enthusiastic? 

• a cause
• a passion, 
• ideas
• Something to pin our heart on.

The Spirit of Youth

The spirit of youth, therefore has:

• a youthful attribute
• has dreams for their life
• and desiring, wanting to achieve those dreams, now

So, it's having the vitality, being "up", having dreams, being enthusiastic.....NOW!

These are some of  the aspects of the vitality of being & looking young.