How To Live To 100
Most Western thinking believes that it is inevitable that we will age badly: eyesight will deteriorate, balance will suffer, muscles will atrophy, coordination won’t coordinate, and reflexes will slow. This is surely what it means to age in this country. A sad state indeed.
But that was not the fate of Seikichi Uehara, from Okinawa. A Grand Master martial artist, he was still beating hotshot martial artists who were decades younger when he was 96 years old. Sharp, strong, vibrant, quick, flawless. A Grand Master at aging, as well. He lived to 101, lucid until the day he died.
Mr Uehara’s philosophy was to train every day in open air, near the ocean, if possible. Quoted, he believed that “daily training develops speed and power, and the air near the ocean contains minerals and positive ions, contributing to health.”
He liked to jog on the beach, and exercise alone, because he believed that solitary exercise taught discipline, another key to living a long, healthy life. As well as training alone, he challenged himself daily by training with his students. It kept him connected to the present, and it’s nice to beat hotshots.
The Grand Master believed that it is important was to exhibit a happy disposition, and have a defined goal worth working towards every day. Through training, the personality and character was developed. He believed that tension in the body shortened life. Learn to let go.
These are all notable traits for aging. It takes work, but aging well is it’s own reward. It takes forgiveness, for yourself and those who are non-believers in your aging philosophy. It takes determination and persistence. It isn’t easy, but it is simple.
Is it worth it? That’s a decision only you can make. The other side of good health (the bad side) is sitting in a chair, waiting for your family to come visit, hoping that what they serve for dinner at the well-care retirement center is what you enjoy eating. It’s waiting for someone to do something for you that you no longer trust yourself to do, like putting on your own shoes, or standing in a shower to wash your hair instead of using the roll away chair.
Think it won’t happen to you? Quit learning, sit more than you stand, don’t practice balance; it won’t take long before you notice that your “age is catching up” with you.
Or, like Seikichi Uehara, know that you have to work at it, constantly and consistently. He drank beer until he died because, he explained, it helped him sweat. Not bad reasoning. And sweating rid his body of toxins. Toxins can kill you. Better to drink beer.
That’s Aging Intelligently.