Get Your Heart Young Again

Are you tired of having to deal with old age syndrome, feeling worn down, when you have plenty of years ahead of you? Wouldn't you like to let loose and enjoy life for a change? Being young at heart will allow you to live a spontaneous, carefree and exciting life.
courtesy:breezewriter, eHow.com



Follow these four simple steps and you will be on your way to having a younger heart:

> The first step to getting your heart young again is to forgive. Forgiveness is crucial in releasing those who have offended you. Holding on to past hurts keep you chained to a mental prison that you share alone, while your offender goes on happily with their life. Without opening your heart to forgiveness, you actually cultivate the root of bitterness to grow into a weed that will one day choke out what little love left you have in your heart. We all know that love makes the world go round.

> The second step to getting your heart young again is to not waste time meditating on the past. Why cry over spilt milk? You cannot go back and change the past, but you can appreciate the lessons learned from it. As Paul of Damascus once said, "this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before." The future always holds great things in store for those who dare to believe. Learn to be hopeful and anticipate good things to come your way.

> The third step to getting your heart young again is to laugh and laugh often. A merry heart makes one glad. Laughter is one of the best medicines around to cheer you up. The true young at heart enjoy life and find the humor in things. I once read a story about a man with a disease, who was determined to cure himself by watching comedies everyday for three months, and he laughed himself healed.

> The fourth and final step to getting your heart young again is to give thanks. Adopt an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude keeps you from sweating the small stuff and you will not be burdened down with the heavy stuff. Being grateful keeps the channels from heaven open for blessing to flow to you. Be appreciative of life and all it has to offer while incorporating Thanksgiving Day as a part of your everyday life.

Stop Worrying and Start Living

Everyone worries to various extents. It could be about something little, like what you think you got on a test, or something big, like getting a major surgery.

Do you worry so much that you worry about worrying too much? In the end, if you just worry about what's going to happen tomorrow, when will you have the time to live today? These simple steps could make you relax.



Live in the moment, most of the time. Worrying is something we do when we think about bad things that might happen in the future. So the less you think about the future, the less you'll worry. Immediately stop the thought as soon as you recognise that you are worrying. The more you worry, the more worried you'll feel. Take out time for yourself. Take a shower and fix yourself up for the next day of school or work. You'll feel better about youself and you'll stop worrying. Still, it's impractical to not think about the future at all, if you have any sort of responsibilities. The next few steps will address that.

Tackle your worries head-on, and swiftly. You can still anticipate problems and plan for them without necessarily worrying. The key is that when the worry enters your head, you immediately address or resolve it somehow, and then let it go. See How to Be Proactive. Let's say you worry a lot about a house fire. Sit down as soon as you can and make a plan to implement all the steps in How to Prevent a House Fire, maybe one or two steps a week.

      If a worry enters your head at an inconvenient time, designate another time to address it. If you start thinking about house fires during your child's school play, for example, you might think to yourself "I'll go home and make a plan at 10p.m. when the kids are in bed. There's no use in thinking about it until then."Another approach is to make a list of all the fears that worry you. Go through them, one by one, and make plans. Then...

Move on. Once you develop a reasonable plan, and commit to following it, there's no need to dwell on the worry anymore. Let it go. The danger in worrying is when a scenario that you dread lingers in your head. Sure, you could always do more, like anticipating every possible outcome and taking every possible step to prevent each unwanted outcome from happening, but you'll spend your life preventing bad things from happening rather than enjoying the good things that have already happened. And you won't even be able to stop all bad things from happening, anyway!

      Maybe you need to learn to be comfortable with risk. If you believe you've done enough to decrease the chances of something happening by, say, 85%, accept that as good enough. There are simply no guarantees in life.

Don't recycle the past. Many of the worries we have about the future are fears that the past will repeat itself. Whether it was heartbreak, or an injury, or a natural disaster, it haunts us and we want to do everything in our power from preventing it from happening again.

Stop trying to save the world. If you feel like it's your job or responsibility to stop bad things from happening (perhaps to your family, your business, or at all) you're placing too much pressure on yourself. There is such a thing as a hero complex, and you might have it. The thing is, you're only human, and to set yourself an unattainable standard will only cause pain and disappointment.