at what point did you realize you weren't getting any younger, that you'd never live forever?

Question

Did you make any lifestyle changes? How has life changed for you since? How do you see life differently?

Answer 1

2 1/2 years ago when my little brother died of a massive heart attack. He was only 29. He died 2 days before my 36th birthday. I didn't make major lifestyle changes, but I did become closer to my family. I started thinking of other people first...more often. I have become more sensitive to other peoples needs. I have stopped taking alot of things as serious. I still think of the future, but I have started learning to live for the moment at the same time. I have become a more relaxed, easy going kind of person. I have not become religious, but I have become more...I dunno, Spiritual? With Drew dying so young of a massive heart attack I stopped taking so many things for granted. I started realizing that nothing in life is easy and nothing is given to us for free. We have to remember who gave us everything we have, or the ability to have what we have. We also have to remember that there is no guarantee for tomorrow.

Answer 2

Last November after complications from a surgery I had.
My life totally slowed down and I am in some kind of pain every waking hour. Osteoarthritis does not make it easier. But, I'm still a happy person and no one lives forever so I'll take it one day at a time and get out of the fast lane and enjoy the blessings I do have.

Answer 3

Excellent question. I turned 58 in July. Age was never an issue for me; I've always looked at least ten years younger than my chronological age.

Eight years ago my then husband and I adopted an 8 year old girl. Within a year, my husband left us and I became a single mom.

Two years later, my employer downsized and I lost a job I loved and worked at for six years. A year later, I came close to death because of a septic kidney.

Adoption, divorce, loss of job, and major surgery..major life events.....after all that I was 56 years old, and I still felt young and was sure my body would heal itself as it had all my life except for that darn kidney.

I am still attractive and could date as much as I want.

About four months ago, in one 24 hour period, with no specific event happening, I felt a creeping recognition of my mortality. I couldn't ignore the feeling.

These were some of the things I realized: (1) my daughter will graduate next year and go off to college. (2) I accepted I have Type 2 Diabetes, which was diagnosed when I had my kidney surgery. Until this day of reckoning, I had refused to accept I had the disease & ignored my high blood sugar tests. and (3) probably the most important realization was that I didn't have time to make big mistakes and fix them.

So on one day, a few weeks after my 58th birthday, I realized I wasn't getting any younger. And that I was not immortal. In fact, because I hadn't been taking care of my physical health, I felt I might not live long enough to see my daughter fall in love, marry, and give me little chocolate babies to hug up and lavish with love.

Did I make any lifestyle changes. No, not at that time. I was in shock. I spent some time grieving my life, and all the time I'd wasted. I felt anger, resentment and fear. I wallowed in those emotions for about three months. I made everyone around me as miserable as I was. I felt sorry for myself: sniff, I was going to be alone, probably die alone in my bed, etc. etc.

But, I got tired of being so fricken miserable. I climbed out of that mud pit, and a month ago, I started to live again. My daughter and I have a strong bond. We got counseling so we could communicate about our future separation, and how we could face the coming change together. It is healthy, realistic and critical that our close bond will change. Not go away, but change.

Change is hard for me, so I decided I needed to start doing what I've always wanted to do for work, and that is write. I began doing that. It's my new career and something I can throw myself into. There's no retirement age for writing although I can retire in 8 years, on social security, if I choose.

My daughter and I are emotionally close again, and I have work I love to keep me occupied (altho fed is another issue). Now, I turned to my health. I saw my physician, and was honest with her about not taking care of myself. I have to be responsible for my own health if I want to hold my daughter's children.

And maybe that is what changed. I became a more responsible woman first, when I became my daughter's mother, and now I am responsible for my own health and joy.

I think I felt a victim because I was aging. So, that attitude made me feel old. Giving that up, I feel young, and full of life. The future has promise, which it can't have when I play the role of a victim.

How do I see life differently? I'm not a victim, I am responsible for myself, I don't like change, but I'm better for it, and while I feel young and strong, I need to take care of myself physically or I won't stay this way.

I've heard "age is a state of mind" and I agree. Getting set in my ways is a perfect way to get old. Or, I can lay in the backyard and watch bugs walk around at eye level.

Answer 4

on the day I found out that my father had died, on that day I became an orphan, proof that no one in our family lives to an old age. really found out that was mortal. I try to live each day as full as possible

Answer 5

will no life change and i am young at heart you only as old as you want to be

Answer 6

well first of all, you should never think tht and live you life fully as if it was the last day you live, life life with JOY