Every situation has a silver lining – discover a mindset that heals and enlightens.

August 18, 2021 · 7 min read

fear of aging
Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. - Samuel Ullman

What type of thoughts slide over your mind before blowing candles on the birthday?

 

Do you always ignore the question when someone asks about your age?

 

However, birthdays always bring happiness to the table, but deep down the saddest thought looms over your happiness. Of course, you might start thinking about your increasing age that will lead you to the doors of old age.

 

With the fear of aging, growing forward in life with happiness seems a challenging task. If you’re also undergoing this fear, then don’t worry, it’s quite natural.

 

Undoubtedly, life is a series of changes and proceeds from a single cell to a complete individual. As time proceeds, everything starts growing and comes to an end after a specific time duration.

 

I would love to assure to everyone that no one will age and everything will be fine, but the reality is different. You have to accept the aging factor into your life.

 

So, if you’re willing to stay young for the whole life, then that’s unachievable. Indeed, every phase of life has its charms, but you can’t command your life to stop at a certain phase.

Why Do People Have Fear of Aging?

People fear of aging usually because of fear of missing out, becoming ill later in life or due to the older looks and wrinkles. People believe that all these criteria will stop them from doing the activities they love. However, this doesn’t mean that you should stop enjoying your life all at once.

 

Are you one of them who is scared of aging?

 

If yes, then what type of fear is dominating over your peace of mind?

 

 Does your fear of aging have an indirect connection to death that will drive you towards a mysterious world?

 

As a result, you will lose your connection with this world permanently.

 

Your fear of getting old may be due to changes that may occur in your body and life.

 

Undoubtedly, accepting changes in the body is one of the back-breaking tasks. For that purpose, you have to change your mindset rather than manipulating your fears. As a child, I always wished to grow up as early as possible because I had many dreams that should be fulfilled.

 

After entering my teens, I got excited and desired to enter my 20s to fulfill all my goals. Although, living in my 20s was a good experience but when I stepped into my 30s, life seemed different at that stage. From noticing grey hairs to wrinkles, I was afraid of growing older in life.

fear of aging

Most of the time, I use to portray my old age when the body becomes weak and depends on others for simple tasks. The phase of life when beauty fades away and you’re more concerned about your medicines rather than your beauty products.

 

Old age seems a period of dependency to me where you’re retired from your job and incapable of enjoying the real colours of life.

 

Do these thoughts roll over your mind continuously and you’re unable to find accurate answers? Surprisingly, I have visited different therapists and researched thoroughly to solve this puzzle.

 

Fortunately, I got success in this journey and from now I am no more afraid of aging or growing old. If you’re also willing to know that how to deal with the fear of aging then walk through the eight easiest steps below.

8 Easy Tips to Deal With Fear of Aging

1. Aging is a natural phenomenon

If fear of getting old is cultivating in your mind, then here’s the easiest step that will be helpful for all. Understand that aging is a natural phenomenon and you have no control over it.

 

Human beings are complex organisms and have complicated inner systems.

 

Indeed, every organism has bundles of cells that are arranged in a specific way. Like all things, cells have a time frame for existence. After a certain period, cells start degenerating and new cells come to existence and the process continues.

 

Human beings also have a specific time limit to live a life. Whenever that time limit expires, you have to give up your life like cells (due to apoptosis and necrosis) and new beings will come to life.

 

This cycle of life is quite complicated, but we need to understand the process of aging. In this process, every cell is playing a pivotal role.

fear of aging

Young cells will turn to their old age in one day. Everything new will lose its freshness on a particular day. Moreover, plants also go through this process of aging like humans. Every living thing has to endure aging at a specific stage of life.

 

However, just because you will age doesn’t mean that you should be afraid of getting old and stop enjoying all the things.

 

You should concentrate on your present, because fear of aging or death is a thief of happiness. Therefore, live a life of your choice and cherish every moment without giving further thought to all fears.

2. Age is just a number

Before making your mindset for old age and becoming helpless, remember that age is just a number.

 

For instance, if a person is telling you that you’re incapable of a certain task because you’re over 40, then what would be your response?

 

Will you give a try to that task or believe that you can’t do it due to age? That’s a completely wrong concept that has no scientific basis. If a person is willing to do anything, then nothing could restrict him except his willpower.

 

How could the person next to you predict your inner potential? This is because people have categorized individuals into groups and decide by themselves.

 

Moreover, it’s obvious that your body changes with time but that doesn’t mean that you should leave everything and start depending upon others.

It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone. - Andy Rooney

If you’re a fan of football or cricket matches, you will encounter many athletes who continue their training after retirement and achieve all fitness goals. Due to their dedication and struggle, they still look fit and ready to manage multiple tasks.

 

For them age is just a number that they can’t change but live a life full of liveliness and excitement.

 

So, before breeding fear of aging in your mind, remember that age is just a number that will increase with time and that’s completely fine.

 

Age is just a number and you shouldn’t be scared of getting old.

 

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind it doesn’t matter” Mark Twain.

3. Set your positive mindset

Before old age approaches you, set your mindset to a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset.

 

Of course, a growth mindset is capable of thinking about growing in life beyond limits, whilst a fixed mindset will only grow according to the limitations set by people. On the other hand, multiple marketing companies are convincing people to change their perspectives regarding old age.

 

Most of them advertise anti-aging products and treatments that claim to turn you younger and ten years less than your original age. The anti-aging products are diverting the mindset of the people that they must look younger than their genuine age

fear of aging

Old age has its charms, but most people relate young age to beauty and old age to ugliness. Wrinkles, grey hairs, fine lines, delicate bones, weak eyesight, and poor memory are all signs of elderliness. But, who has fixed that these all will turn a person to look unattractive and ugly?

 

Being afraid of getting old sets you further from enjoying the life.

 

Besides this, enjoying free time is one of the best parts of declining years. During this age, you can seek new skills and invest time in yourself that was quite difficult to invest during young age due to hectic routines.

 

Undoubtedly, each of us always wants to look younger. Using multiple products can change the way you look to the younger side.

4. Old age has it’s perks

A lot of people start losing spirit to live in old age and only pretend to survive. Does old age mean to die before death?

 

Of course not, because getting older with time is one of the laws of nature and everything has to turn old. Therefore, focus on living a life that was always your dream rather than considering yourself a poor and helpless soul.

 

If you have the spirit to live a happy life without depending upon age, then you will experience the happiest moments in elderliness.

Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength. - Betty Friedan

Most people leave the spirit to live and consider themselves unhealthy because a person in their 60s always has diseases according to the fixed mindset.

 

But thinking beyond this will help you to realize the perks of old age where you can meditate, exercise, eat healthy, adopt a new hobby, and much more. You shouldn’t be scared of getting old because you will unlock a lot of new exciting activities within time.

 

So, overcome this fear of aging by thinking that every day of life is worth living.

5. Practice self-love

The key to living a successful and peaceful life is to practice self-love. In every phase of life and every day, practice self-love, because nothing could compensate for the power of self-love.

 

If you’re loving yourself, then people will ultimately love you. But, if you’re degrading yourself and yearning for love from others, then you will find nothing except sympathy.

fear of aging

Most importantly, old age demands a tremendous dose of love every day. Your love will support your poor bones and all negative thoughts that strike to mind every day.

 

So, this step will become your helping hand during every phase of age.

6. Accept mortality as reality

Most of us are afraid of getting old due to death. Death is the end for every living creature, but humans are more afraid about death.

 

This is because we do not want to leave this planet as we have to build a strong relationship with people living around us during our whole life.

 

We invested our time and energy to fulfill the dreams that are reaping benefits for us, but death will depart us from these fruitful consequences.

 

Therefore, we should pay attention to the laws of nature and according to nature, everything is mortal. There’s no magical instrument that could switch mortality to immortality.

 

So, accepting this reality will save us valuable time rather than overthinking about old age and death.

7. Welcome all changes in life

If you’re scared of getting old, then you must be living in a fantasy world where changes always seem terrible to you.

 

And no, this is not the typical view of youngsters that you have to adapt to changes all the time.

 

Especially in our modern days we have to keep adapting to new technologies and keep up with the trends. Although at some points it might seem frustrating to learn something new, but at the end it is worth it as it can save more time.

 

Imagine drilling a hole in steel with a hand. That would take hours and hours. Now take an electric screw – it will take a minute at most.

 

Life is another name of change; you can’t be stuck to a certain phase in life. Everybody needs to grow and change according to the situation.

fear of aging
We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing. - George Bernard Shaw

If you’re good at adopting changes, then old age will do nothing to you. But, if you’re incapable to deal with changes, then old age will seem a burden to you where helplessness becomes a basic part of life. 

 

So, to overcome the fear of aging, you must accept changes in every phase of life, because without changes we can’t move forward.

8. Invest time in learning skills

Your struggle to cope with the fear of getting old is real but consider old age as the precious gift of life. Imagine, you’re in the last part of your life where you have enough time to invest in yourself.

 

Each of us tries to spend our youth by struggling to save money for life after retirement. In that phase of life, we forget to cherish all moments and then remember them when they become memories.

 

Learning a productive skill that will enable you to spend old age happily is the real investment.

 

So, all of us should have a skill set to deal with fears of old age.

Final Verdict

Has the fear of aging become a nightmare for you?

 

If you’re still struggling to overcome the fear of getting old then accept it as reality.

 

After acceptance, you will realize that life is a series of changes and we need to adopt all changes happily.

 

Cherish your life and be grateful for all blessings of life.