Young-hearted People, Close To Me In Old Age
Keeping the heart young is synonymous with well-being and health. Surrounding yourself with important people helps keep this organ in the best possible condition.
Despite this, we all know that getting old is not always a pleasant process. First of all, becoming old, contrary to what the school of optimism and lovers of exalted positivism claims, means losing a certain quality of life.
Knees hurt and hip osteoarthritis limits many of our projects. Nor can we forget the effect of the “empty nest”, that moment when the children leave and the house remains quieter than ever.
Furthermore, when we comb white hair, we see the wrinkles reflected in the mirror and accumulate more than one ailment. Sometimes this is compounded by an even more complex situation: the loss of one’s spouse.
It is possible to age with dignity, to be strong and optimistic, yet the years leave their mark. For this reason, we can never forget that one of the best medicines against this inexorable advance of time is to surround ourselves with people with a young heart.
We speak, of course, of good friends. Those friends who accompany us when we passed 60 or 70 years are key.
People with a young heart: our allies in old age
The “third stage of youth” can be experienced in many ways. As soon as the time comes for you to retire, many people see this phase as a moment to take full advantage of.
However, while some begin to organize their own outings or their afternoons of dance and social gatherings, others feel the undisputed emptiness of loneliness. If we add to all this some health problems, the mood worsens even more.
According to a study conducted by the University of Rochester (United States), the number of social interactions an elderly person has and their quality have a direct effect on their health and life expectancy.
For this reason, as we all imagine, reaching seniority surrounded by good friends is a guarantee of well-being.
Friendship in the third age
Friendship in old age is the best anti-inflammatory for arthritis. A friend is also the best vitamin for drawing smiles on faces covered with wrinkles caused by time.
Having people with a young heart next to us is a privilege in which we must invest right away. Despite this, there are several aspects that we need to take into consideration.
Today we propose that you reflect on this concept.
During youth, love and friendship come in a simple way. They appear like those intense and refreshing summer storms that we can enjoy with all five senses. Nevertheless, sometimes, just as they arrive, they leave.
- Everything changes when the calm of autumn arrives, accompanied by the first maturity. It is then when we really know what we want and what we don’t want in our life.
- There comes a time when we understand that, next to us, we want noble people, authentic and full of empathy, respect and reciprocity.
- Maturing and adding years to our personal maps implies having made many internal journeys, being lost and found. It is obvious that this is an intimate journey that everyone experiences in their own way.
- Despite this, it is in this moment that we realize that investing in the present means investing in our destiny.
If life only lasted two days, it would be necessary to economise and pay attention to what is really important: love and friendship.
The secret of authentic quality of life
Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse, skilled in palliative care, who in 2011 published a very successful book titled I Wish I Did. The five biggest regrets .
In this book, Ware collects what her patients revealed to her before they left for good. These are those five aspects that most of us regret and that, if we had done so, would have given us a fuller and happier life.
Let’s see what the five biggest regrets are:
- Not always doing what the heart suggested.
- Not having expressed what they really felt in every moment of their life.
- Having worked too hard, without prioritizing the simplest things.
- Many of the people who are about to leave this world regret not taking more care of their friends, of those young-hearted people who, at a certain moment, have taken for granted.
- They also regret not having been happier with the person they loved.
How to identify people with a young heart
People with a young heart don’t care how old they are on their shoulders. What matters is the desire to do and one’s attitude.
Arriving at this advanced age in the company of people who always give us optimism and vitality is, without a doubt, the best privilege that can be obtained.
- We cannot forget that these people give us, above all, great support.
- They will be the help we need when difficult times come.
- People with a young heart will want to get us out of the house. They will not want to see us alone, immersed in the daily life of a home. For them, the outdoors, laughter, music continue to be important… Feeling alive.
Because, after all, wrinkles are on the skin, certainly not on the heart, and that is why we should never lack the desire to embrace life, at any age.
