Welcome to this series of articles about ageing, and combatting some of the negative effects of ageing. Ageing is something that hopefully happens to all of us. It is a time of glory, and a time of challenge.
Everyone wants to look younger, unless they are in their early twenties. Very few believe that grey hair, wrinkles or age spots make them look more attractive. The unfortunate thing is once these things appear, they are difficult to reverse.
However, these things can be reversed. It just takes a long time. You would have been much better off trying to prevent them from arising in the first place, rather than trying to turn back the clock.
What if you don’t have the time to begin an entirely new skin regime? What if it’s too late for amino acids and antioxidants? Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do, instead, to look younger.
Change Your Hair
One of the easiest ways to quickly look younger is to change your hairstyle. This depends very much on your face shape and your preferences – but often choosing a shorter haircut will be the best way to look instantly younger, for both men and women. This can also make you seem slimmer. It shows off your neck – one of the thinnest parts of your body.
Exfoliate
Exfoliating is definitely one of the very best ways to make yourself look younger. This will remove dead skin cells, or dirt from the top layer of the skin on your face. This makes the level of your skin more even, thereby making your wrinkles shallower.
Another benefit of exfoliating is that it reveals the much healthier and youthful skin underneath. This has more natural glow, which makes you appear healthier and younger!
Whiten Your Teeth
Another easy way to instantly look younger is to whiten your teeth. Our teeth are one of the biggest give-aways when it comes to our true age. If you keep these looking fresh, strong and white, you will look younger and healthier.
Dress Correctly
Many people think that the best way to look younger is to wear younger clothes. In fact, the opposite is true. Very young-looking clothes risk making you look older. Dressing your age is surprisingly one of the best ways to appear younger.
Prevent your body from deteriorating
What does an old person look like? Hunched over? Slow? Doddering? Shaky?
How likely are you to see an older person in their 70s+ go running or performing gymnastics? Not likely.
Our assumptions about the elderly are generally fuelled by stereotypes, and perhaps those we know in our own lives. A lot of people lose their ability to move well as they age. You don’t have to.
Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, who are approaching their 70s, but are still more muscular than most of us every will be in our whole lives! There are old Grandmas in their 80s who can perform top-level gymnastics, and you will see a lot of elderly competitors at any marathon.
Your body does not have a ‘best before’ date. Your body should be more than capable of lasting your entire life. The problem is how we use it.
How Your Body Deteriorates
What do most of us do between the hours of 9-5, 5 days a week? We sit in an office, hunched over, and working.
No doubt most of us will pick up some kind of injury, which encourages us to slow down and stop being active.
We also spend our retirement sitting down. During this time, our bodies start to lose their flexibility, their muscle tone and their dynamism. This is when imbalances arrive and when we start to experience chronic pain.
Sometimes this is exacerbated by illness or inflammation, but often it is simply the result of a lack of use, improper movement and muscular imbalances.
How to Fix It
So how do you fix it? Simple: you start to move again.
Stop treating yourself as if you’re made from glass! Push your body for it to adapt and become stronger. This is how you avoid aging.
That doesn’t mean you should launch straight into an intense Cross Fit regime. Just introduce yourself to exercise gently with walking or swimming, and then build on that. Work with a trainer and find someone who understands functional movement. Soon, you’ll be moving better than you did in your youth!
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Nick Thorne is the founder of NicksDigitalSolutions Limited a company that specialises in Education, Training and Writing. He lives in Levin, New Zealand.