Anti-Aging: Five Natural and Effective Ways to Roll Back the Clock

Anti-aging is not just about the outer look that most people tend to perceive, but more importantly about bringing the quality of life back to one's daily life. If you are more agile and supple, you are more able to do things that you want to do in life, and you feel good about yourself when doing it. If you are physically and mentally younger, you feel you are more capable of fulfilling your life goals. And so on. Anti-aging is a holistic concept indeed.

The best and lasting anti-aging is through natural means. Check out below for some of the most natural ways for slowing down the process of aging.

1. Build the inner health first and foremost: This is the most important one so it's on the top of the list. Our physical health builds upon our mental health. The inside always reflects on the outside. That's why study has shown that religious people and married people live longer and look younger, because they are happier. Finding a hobby helps too, as it provides the contentment and self-fulfillment. Finding a community helps too. Finding a suitable mind-body exercises such as yoga and doing it consistently is also a viable way towards building a better inner health.

2. Maintain regular exercise that you truly enjoy: This is like a cliché. But it has always been true that your body needs rejuvenation and it can be achieved through exercise regularly. Find an exercise that you truly like, so that you will more likely commit to it. Find an exercise that fits your age and physical condition as well. If golf is more suitable than basketball, then play golf. If walking suits your physical strength better than jogging, then do walking. Unsuitable exercises usually do more harm than good to yourself.

3. Eat balanced and healthy diet: More and more studies have shown that our diet is strongly linked to many health disorders such as childhood obesity. And at different age our body has different requirement in terms of the nutrition that it needs too. For example, when we grow older, our body needs more vegetable and fruits to "remedy" our impaired machine -- that is, this body and its organs and cells. Japanese people are known to have the longest life expectancy, and this certainly has to do with their diet. They eat more fish than red meat, and they eat lightly with minimum condiments and sauce.

To get tips for maintaining a balanced and healthy diet, see one of my previous post.

4. Get in touch with the mother nature: Rejuvenate yourself once in a while by going to the mountains or the beach. The mother nature has life force and energy that have sustained so many creatures, plants and animals alike. And this life force can slow aging. Everyone has experienced the freshness, relaxation and openness after getting close to the mountains or the sea. This is the life force at work on our mental benefits.

5. Join millions of people in meditation: Meditation allows us to sleep better, which slows aging. Our brain activities consume a great deal of energy, so it's important to let the brain get its needed rest. Sleeping well is the best way to let the brain rest. Besides, there are moments while we are awake that don't demand the full functioning of the brain. So it's not a bad idea to "turn off" the brain when you don't need it. Easy to say, hard to do. But through the single-mindedness training in meditation, you are more able to tame this monkey.

The breathing exercise used in meditation assists anti-aging too. Belly breathing is deeper and calmer; it replenishes the cells and organs better than chest breathing. Belly breathing makes you look younger because the chi (energy flow) in your body tends to be elevated with vitality. Belly breathing makes you live longer because the air extended to the abdomen can help remove unhealthy chi in the abdomen.

So, find your nearest meditation center and start to give it a try!