I was flipping through the channels the other day and saw that the movie “Big” was on. I started watching and ended up being mesmerized for a full hour!
It had been years since I’d seen it, and it got me thinking about our beliefs about age, and how they affect health and vitality.
As a culture, we define “young” so narrowly that we tend to stop calling ourselves young relatively early.
In recent years, I’ve noticed more and more friends in their thirties and forties joke about “not being that young” any more. That’s crazy, especially at a time when life span is increasing faster than ever!
(According to The National Institute on Aging, the number of people who live to 100 years old and beyond is expected to increase 10-fold globally between 2010 and 2050!)
So what if the only obstacle to feeling young again is overcoming our limiting beliefs about age?
This Research Study on How Our Beliefs About Age Affect Health and Vitality is Pretty Telling…
In his latest book, You Are The Placebo, Joe Dispenza shares a research study that highlights the importance of beliefs about age. In that study, eight men in their 70s and 80s attended a 5-day retreat organized by Harvard University at a monastery in New Hampshire.
Throughout the retreat, the men were instructed to pretend that it was 22 years earlier. They were surrounded by old issues of Life Magazine and Saturday Evening Post, TV shows from the late 1950s, even the radio was playing musicians from that era, like Nat King Cole and Perry Como. The men were also asked to discuss current events from that time, like Fidel Castro’s sudden rise to power in Cuba, Eisenhower’s historic meeting with Nikita Khrushchev, home runs by Mickey Mantle, etc.
At the end of the retreat, the researchers took the same physiological measurements of the men that they’d taken at the beginning of the study: height, weight, gait, etc. Amazingly, the men had grown “taller” and their weight, hearing, eyesight, grip strength and mental cognition had all improved. During the five days of the retreat, their posture had also straightened, and their joints had become more flexible. Some of the men were even playing touch football by the end of the five days! Wow!
So imagine that just by believing that you’re young, your body, energy level, and emotional state could change…
For a little inspiration, take a couple of minutes to watch one of the most playful scenes ever, the piano scene from “Big”:
Now, Let’s Take a Look at Your Beliefs About Age…
We’re going to do a quick exercise to explore your own beliefs about age.
First, grab a piece of paper, and then read each of these sentences to yourself OUT LOUD. As you read each one, write down how you feel emotionally and in your body. Make a note of any resistance – or positive emotions – you feel as you read each one:
I am young.
My body is young.
I can be as healthy and energetic as I used to be.
I’m not that young any more.
I’m too old to call myself young.
My body can’t do what it used to do.
I will never be young again.
I feel old.
Your experience reading those aloud should give you some clues about what you really believe about your age. Be sure to tap through any limiting beliefs you discover. (If you’re new to tapping, learn the basics here)
As we’ve seen, positive beliefs as well as limiting negative beliefs can become self-fulfilling prophecies. As just one example, I often notice how people who believe they’re “not young any more” begin to change their behavior without even realizing it. For example, they might injure themselves while playing sports, and decide the injury was a result of their age, rather than from falling down.
Because of their limiting belief that age is making their body more prone to injury, they then begin exercising less often and less vigorously. As a result of those changes in their behavior, they have less energy and their body grows even weaker. Not realizing how much less active they’ve become physically, they then blame decreases in their physical strength and vitality on age, which confirms that they’re “too old” for vigorous exercise. Their health, strength and energy levels continue to decline. And the cycle continues.
Let’s Tap in Some Positive Beliefs About Our Age…
The same idea applies to taking on positive beliefs about age and youth, which is what those eight men experienced during their five-day retreat. So let’s do some tapping now on overcoming limiting beliefs around age. Feel free to use your own words, if mine don’t ring true for you:
KC: Even though I have all these limiting beliefs around age, and what it looks and feels like to be young, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
KC: Even though I have all these limiting beliefs around age, and what it looks and feels like to be young, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
KC: Even though I have all these limiting beliefs around age, and what it looks and feels like to be young, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.
Eyebrow: All these beliefs about age…
Side of Eye: I don’t feel as young as I used to
Under Eye: I have responsibilities now, and they’ve taken a toll over the years
Under Nose: I don’t feel as young as I used to
Under Mouth: and I don’t look as young as I used to
Collarbone: It’s hard to think of myself as young again
Under Arm: All these limiting beliefs about what it looks and feels like to be young
Top of Head: They run so deep
Eyebrow: They feel so true
Side of Eye: It’s hard thinking of myself as young again
Under Eye: It’s hard to imagine I could feel as young as I used to
Under Nose: I don’t have time to play like I used to
Under Mouth: I have all these responsibilities and they’ve taken a toll over time
Collarbone: It’s too late for me to be young again
Under Arm: I can’t turn back time
Top of Head: My age is my age, and that’s all there is to it
Eyebrow: But what if it’s just a number?
Side of Eye: What if I started to play, laugh and have fun more often?
Under Eye: What if I began moving my body more often?
Under Nose: It would be fun to feel young again
Under Mouth: It would be fun to have more energy
Collarbone: Maybe I could make more time for fun
Under Arm: And for doing things that make me feel younger
Top of Head: And then feel younger physically and mentally as a result
Take a deep breath, and keep tapping on your beliefs about your age and what means it to be “young.” You can always be young again!
Until next time…
Keep Tapping!
Nick Ortner
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