Gently releasing our grip

As we age, we need to learn, and begin to master the “art of letting go” and releasing gracefully things and ideas we used to hang on to. 

Of course, this is a lot easier said than done, and it’s a process more than a series of individual, conscious actions, which means that there’s a learning curve and a few mistakes, plenty of learning to go through before we can claim mastery of this new approach to living. 

This act of letting go can apply to multiple areas, just like it can apply to letting go of positive as well as negative elements in our lives. For today, I’ll concentrate on the physical aspects of aging that force us to either abandon or curtail a number of activities we used to enjoy before we stepped into our seventh decade. 

As aging slowly creeps up on us, these acts of acceptance also manifest themselves slowly and take a multitude of forms. We can easily feel that our physical strength isn’t was it used to be, our Vo2max shrinks, we get tired more easily, don’t sleep as soundly, etc. 

There are also elements that we instinctively know about. We wouldn’t jump a height of five feet out of a whim. Instinctively, we know that it would be a dumb idea; our cartilage, tendons and tissues are no longer as limber as they used to be when we were in our 20s. 

We also tend to avoid the accidents and the injuries that come with them as we also know that repair time gets much longer and trickier. So progressively, we adapt to these new realities and have the luxury of time to accepting them. 

We then slowly release our grip from things we cherished and enjoyed doing, and if we think about it, we should feel extremely grateful that we once could do them without constraints and limitations. 

The good news is that there plenty of other things we still can do and enjoy, so look forward to these and feel privileged and fortunate that all isn’t closed to us!