“Well, I guess that’s worth a look.” -Loki, Thor

Just found this post on the web that talks about anti-aging tactics. I find it amazing that Dale Carnegie included all of these in some form in his book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”.

Here’s the list of 11 things you can do to slow down your body’s aging:

  1. Change your perception of time. Don’t be in a hurry.
  2. Get restful sleep.
  3. Eat fresh, nutritious food.
  4. Take at least two multivitamins with minerals every day.
  5. Practice a mind-body technique such as yoga or tai chi.
  6. Exercise regularly.
  7. Don’t put toxins in your life, including toxic food, toxic emotions, toxic relationships and avoid toxic environments or toxic relationships.
  8. Have a flexible attitude to minor hassles.
  9. Look at so-called problems as opportunities.
  10. Nurture loving relationships.
  11. Always have an attitude of curiosity, learning, and wonder and spend time with children.

You can find the updated and revised anti-aging post here at Deepak Chopra’s blog, IntentBlog.

What’s insightful is that Dale Carnegie reviewed these same topics to help people manage the stress in their lives and keep it under control. Practices like eating healthy, regular exercise, changing your perspective on challenges, and resting when you are tired.  You think when people get a better handle on managing and controlling their stress, they live longer?

A little food for thought.

The Dale Carnegie Principles for Controlling Stress and Worry

Back in the 1930’s, Dale Carnegie saw a need to help business people focus their attention on things that they could do to prevent stress and worry from keeping them from being effective (and affecting their health in a detrimental way). Some of the principles that correspond to the list above are as follows:

  1. Live in day tight compartments.
  2. Rest before you get tired.
  3. Fill you mind with thoughts of peace, courage, health and hope.
  4. Don’t fuss about the trifles.
  5. Profit from your losses.
  6. Create happiness for others.
  7. Keep busy.
  8. Protect your health and appearance by relaxing at home.
  9. Remind yourself of the exorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health.
  10. Count your blessings – not your troubles.

This is just a sampling of the worry principles. There are 30 principles covered in Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” as well as in the Dale Carnegie Course. We’ll talk about some of them in a future posting.

As an instructor, I’ve always talked about the effects that stress and worry can have on our health. However, I don’t recall ever conducting a session where I tied these principles to the effects that they could have on our longevity. Nor can I recall hearing any other instructor do the same.

But, what if…

But what if you could raise your life expectancy by 5 years simply by applying just one of these stress and worry principles?  Well, that would be worth a look, right?

Which principles have you successfully applied in the past week?

And which ones will you apply in the coming week to increase your life expectancy?