Ever since Man knew the meaning of Immortality has he been searching ways to elongate his life span! But he has been so obsessed with the idea of Immortality that he neither does not know what he would do living so long nor would he realize how to stay healthy that long. The idea of living forever might scare you if you came to know that you might have an ugly deformed and nasty body, but you can do all non-sense, and still keep yourself alive.
The ideal situation for a man can be life his life and die soon without worries of living long or live the life with no concern as to how long he might live. What we are going to see further are the secrets of living a long and complete life.
Secret 1 - Don't pretend to live but live
One has to live each day fully and actively. This means life is full of experience. This is important to keep oneself healthy, flexible and strong. If a person works towards extending their lives unnaturally, then that action also severely limits life by not living to one's nature. The chase for immortality comes at the cost of reducing the experience of life itself.
Secret 2 - Eat well
Any computer geek would know the meaning of 'garbage in garbage out'. This is applicable in our life style too. What we eat gets burned down by the body. The more junk the body is loaded with the hotter the system burns. Likewise antioxidants are a good means to help the body slow the burn rate within the cells. However, there needs to be balance, as too much antioxidant is also bad. The body is designed to run at a mid level burn rate. Foods like Green Tea, Bok Choy, Plums, Cabbage, Yogurt and Brown Rice are good that doesn’t mean they carry the perfect balance necessary for an everlasting life. We need to needs to listen to the body and provide what it needs.
There has always been the discussion about being vegetarian. It is not what goes inside but how the food is prepared. Eating meat is not always in-humane. However, the meat if prepared by in-humane methods that is harmful for the system. If an animal or plant was tortured during its growth process, then the fear, stress and imbalanced it encountered in its upbringing would be pushed into its cells. Eating such food will develop fear, and the accumulated stress hormones or illness are fed directly into the body. Eating such food doesn't promote a long life: rather it promotes a life of fear and increases industrial inhumane practices in man.
Everything is connected and part of the Chi. No action is fully independent of another. Longevity requires treating food with the same respect given towards our own body.
Secret 3 - Listening to our own nature
Listen to what you want and what you are. If you are always busily moving to the tune of a larger world you are living their life not yours!
It's hard to follow our own nature, to live a long life, when being taught to be someone since childhood.
How much of your life has been spent being yourself rather than another person?
Longevity is pointless, unless you are your own person.
Secret 4 - Exercise
It's important to have a physical practice and to keep the body moving and subtle. Exercise practices such as Qigong, Tai-Chi have been optimized to help keep a person strong and moving for an entire life time. But one must not resort to extreme efforts in the name of exercise. A moderate level of effort in exercise practice is the key. We are not here to be Mr. Atlas. An ordinary outer appearance with well toned muscles, a flexible and strong body is the key. The secret is that we need to dance through life, never to fight life or our own body.
Secret 5 - Attitude
As told earlier we need to dances through life and not fight life or the body. If the body is treated as an opponent or as something to be dominated, then it limits life. The more we resist the world, the more the world will resist back. The world is larger and more powerful than any one of us. So we will lose upon making life a fight. Excessive resistance wears a person down. It's fine to fight occasionally, it's fine to stand up for yourself, as resistance is part of any exercise. However to stand excessively against the world means the world will erode us away.
A granite block, however strong it is become sand at the sea's surf.
In other terms it means to live life with low stress. So many researches have proved that stress is a major factor that contributes towards premature aging. A man with good humour and low stress is sure to live long.
Secret 6 - Spiritual Practice
We are not just the body and mind but a trinity of mind, body and spirit. Spirit can also be defined as the actions of our living. Spiritual practice keeps both the mind and body in balance with each other.
A Spiritual practice is a combination of intent within actions and the exploration of mysteries of our life. There is no defined practice exists for spiritualism. Each person needs to define and refine over time their own practice. A spiritual practice provides motivation for enjoying a longer and happier life.
Secret 7 - Avoid addiction
Addiction is a process of self destruction. It is defined as the empty space with something external to our nature. To live life, is to live as you. Addictive substances could seemingly solve problems temporarily but in the end all addictions erase a person's unique nature.
- If you live 100 years and only watched television, have you lived at all?
- If you drink yourself dead at 50, have you really lived anything except an alcoholic haze?
To live a long life is to live it as you intend. Life is not about being easy. Life is a challenge and the struggle is an edge which defines our shape. Being tempted by various addictions could appear as a path to make life less difficult; however, all addictions are a dead end in the path of life. It is about embracing life.
Secret 8 - Is the secret that you should search
This article was intended to enlighten the practice that leads to a longer healthier life. However, much more exists. It’s a life long journey that takes time, to enjoy figuring out secrets of living. Once the above ideas are put into practice, they lead to other mysteries. More importantly our health will improve, our mind will slow down and sharpen, we become clearer of the true path and new wisdom appears. It is something earned by your practice and humbleness. In time, we will discover much more than longevity. We can both fulfil and reveal the meaning of life.
Finally
The nature of our life is eternal. The true point and secret of the longevity practice is 'To live well'. In living well, we live longer, more importantly, a healthy body and mind to enjoy a long life. Living to 75, 120 or even past 200 would be to drag life if the mind and body can't dance anymore.
And if you already are 80, it is not too late? Living boundlessly within "now" is always assessable even unto the last breath. The truth of this practice is just to be open to acceptance; acceptance that you are complete, which we all are, every moment of our life.
The root answer to longevity is to take the time to explore and live to our nature.
