aging gracefully

Posted on Aug. 4, 2009 by Barb Northwood, Weekend Hospitality Coordinator.

On Thursday, July 30th Dr. Peter Yam spoke to an audience of 60 plus people in the chapel as part of the Passionate Lives Series.  He is an animated, energetic speaker who gave us information about aging gracefully and the process and "attitudes" of diseases.  He spoke of how our bodies work using understandable science to explain concepts told through simple stories. He gave practical advice on how to achieve and maintain "harmony" in our own bodies.  I have never thought of my body as an ecosystem before - like a "rainforest" Dr. Yam said - but it makes sense. He presented aging as a multifaceted event - aging measured in three ways.  First, there is chronological aging - the age our date of birth tells us we are.  There isn't anything we can do to change this number.  The second way is psychological and the third way is biological and we can have impact with those.  We can age more slowly or more hastily depending on how we live our lives; what we think, what we eat, how we move.    It is on these last two ways of aging that Dr. Yam gave his presentation on.

The presentation was like attending a class.  The theme of the evening was about aging gracefully.  Dr. Yam spoke of the necessity of keeping our "internal terrain" in as optimal a state as possible for a longer life.  He quoted an ancient Oriental Emperor as saying his reasoning for wanting to live a longer life was because he wanted to enjoy his harvest."  I have been thinking of how that relates in my own personal life - the seeds I have planted in raising my daughter, in my friendships, in the many kindnesses shared with other people, in my art.  And I realize that I would like to be able to, if possible,  see the growth cycle of all these things and I think I get a sense of what enjoying one's own harvest means.  Dr. Yam said that we all know we will not live forever but there are ways we can work at living gracefully until the last day.

As his lecture continued, Dr. Yam covered different theories of aging.  He used humour which seems to come naturally to him as he explained the pros and cons of different ideas.  And he has an interactive style of communication - he often asked questions of the audience and then waited for an answer, expressing a "well done" attitude to everyone who answered.  His talk narrowed down to information about antioxidants and free radicals, acid/alkaline diets, and food combining.  We were each given ten pages of material which he referenced and explained so that we would better be able to understand the information in order that our learning continues beyond his presentation.

One of the aspects of food combining that I am already working on changing how I think about the food on my plate is to avoid combining simple carbohydrates (sugars, in the end) and protein.  Dr. Yam explained that these two eaten together produces an effect similar to beef jerky which is made tough and chewy by combining sugars and protein.  This effect in the body can be a weave of connective tissues forming a tough barrier for nutrients to penetrate through.  I got the strong impression from Dr. Yam that this is not a good thing! 

Throughout his presentation were references to that which is more than our physical body.  He spoke of a positive attitude being of paramount importance to the health of our body and our ability to age gracefully.  I was surprised when he said that, on average, 90% of most peoples thoughts are negative.  Really?  But I guess reluctantly I can see a truth to that based on listening to the world around me.  There is a train of thought that goes something like, We create the world with our thoughts, so perhaps there is no better time than now to begin the process of thinking positive thoughts.  Dr. Yam emphasized that, "the brain affects all the rest of the body with negative thoughts.  It is mind controlling matter... Our mind and our body are in continuous communication.  They dialogue constantly."  He said that the way to begin to making change from a negative to a positive attitude is simple. And complicated.  It is, "Fake it until you make it." 

"We are surrounded by energy.  There is energy from the earth, the ocean, the trees, the air.  The whole world is energy.  Even wood is energy.  Our energy influences all that is around us.  The energy of all that is around us influences us."  Dr. Yam said this as he spoke to good aging being more than eating and exercising.  It is also about the energy we are and that we are surrounded by.  He gave us the simple exercise of holding the palms of our hands several inches apart and to feel the energy that goes on between the two.  Once this is felt, the idea of energy is not abstract any more.  It is what is.  Learning to work with it is beneficial to our lives and the lives around us.

Treating our bodies as a rainforest.  I like that.  Rainforests are sometimes referred to as the lungs of the planet.  Dr. Yam spoke to our need to breathe deeply - to breathe as though our lives depended on it by expanding our stomachs, in six second breaths.  Three seconds in, old, three seconds out.  Doing that, twelve breaths in a row, so taking less than two minutes, many times during the day is a life sustaining way to enrich our own ecosystems.

Dr. Yam finished with the advice to look at the whole of who we are.  We are physical.  We are emotional.  We are spiritual.  We are energy.  The work is to bring all the aspects of who we are into harmony.  He repeated harmony three times.  Finding ourselves in harmony is the success.  Within the harmony there is grace.