CHOOSE YOUR AGE!

Have you come across some ads, movies, serials, series, or documentaries, which have been made a few years ago, but go viral only now! Well, Flipkart made an ad in 2018, which is going viral now! The title of this ad is – CHOOSE YOUR AGE! It is a beautifully made ad, which nudges you to think that age is just a number!

Whenever someone asks us the age, the immediate calculation is – current year minus the year we were born. The answer is what we call as our age!

What if something like calendar was never invented? Would you ever think of your age then?

Don’t we have our grandparents who don’t even know how old they are. They just know that they were born on a Guru Poornima, or on Dussehra, or Holi. Ask them their age and they will not know what we are talking about.

Hence we see so many elderly people doing things by themselves irrespective of their age. We can comment – my granny is 80 years and she still does everything by herself. But she doesn’t know that she is 80! She just knows that she has to do this work! Ironic, but true!

Would we not agree that they lived a happier, peaceful and content life? One can argue that their times and our times are different. You are spot on! But have we ever thought that the facilities and gadgets we enjoy today were never available to them? When they were young, they too had issues, maybe different kinds.

The only thing that remains constant throughout the evolution of humanity is – THE MIND! It can keep pestering you about things that are not okay in our lives. Or it can tell innumerable reasons why we are so blessed.

With time, we tend to let our mind epoch too. That is when AGE comes into the picture. Haven’t we made these statements –

• I am already 50. I can’t think of starting something new
• Ironman is out of question for me as I am past my prime age
• Though my married life is horrible, I can’t think of a new relationship at this point in my life
• I can’t study in college after having two kids
• My fitness can never be like when I was in college
• After 40, we definitely need to use number glasses for near vision
• A country can’t have a prime minister who is less than 60 years of age
• If only I had started a hobby when I was a teen, I would have something else to do now
• With my age, I can’t work full time now
• I can’t even think of having kids now. It’s too late
• I am too old to learn new technology

There can be multiple reasons why we can’t do certain things in life. It could be financial, physical, emotional, etc. I am not against these reasons. But I am definitely against reasons which make the CALENDER AGE an issue.

Arpita, my wife keeps telling me – you will be 40 this birthday. My answer to her always is – how does it matter? Age is just a number!

Though medical science doesn’t talk about it much, there are two kinds of AGE – Body Age (also called as Metabolic Age) and Calendar Age (also called as Chronological Age). Usually when we talk about age, we talk about the calendar age! But the important thing is – what is your body age. It will define how healthy you are from inside. There are ways to measure your body age. Talk to anyone who is in fitness and they can help you find your body age!

I know people whose age according to the calendar is 20 years, but body age is 40 years. One of my friend named Vikram Agarwal is 46 years by the calendar, but 18 by the body! He did the Half Ironman (1.9 km swim, 180 km cycling, 21 km run) in November 2017 and Full Ironman (3.9 km swim, 90 km cycling, 42 km run) in July 2018

 For those who are interested our ancient scriptures have devised ways to reverse the body age through various kriyas and lifestyle changes!

Actually, age is more in the mind than anything else. If you allow your mind to dictate that with a particular calendar age you can or cannot do something, so will it be. But if you decide to focus on your maintaining or reducing body age, you will be surprised with what all you can still do.

The Flipkart ad sums it up beautifully. Instead of talking about your age, it would be great to say, I AM – 20 pushups old today; two painting classes old; 15 laps old; 7 Sanskrit classes old; two treks old; 1 month online classes old; two cakes old today; and so on! Afterall, it is just what you tell yourself!

I think it is time we chuck this concept of how old are we! Instead let’s be young at heart, focus on exercising, take care of diet irrespective of your calendar age, and most importantly feel that you will do everything that you wish to do! It is time we CHOOSE OUR AGE!