OK, as far as we know, time travel isn’t possible. Although, that said, some scientists believe that time is just a concept that we’ve developed to help us stay sane and that all time (past, present and future) exists at the same time. Which is quite a spooky thought – I can almost hear the X-Files theme playing in my head.
But for everyone else, time is linear and only goes forward.
Which makes going back in time something closer to a magic trick – fortunately, one that we can perform ourselves.
Re-live your memories
Different times exist in our memories.
Some of those past events are real, others are fictional (even though our mind believes they happened like the way summers in your youth were probably always long and hot) and others have been embellished for the sake of our memories.
It’s OK to go back to your memories occasionally. And, for dementia patients, it’s been shown that their problem lessens if they live in a place that reminds them of when their memories were still functioning.
For the rest of us, there are photographs to look at as well as songs to listen to – music has an almost unique way of transporting us back to when a certain event happened – and food to taste.
So long as you’re not trying to live permanently in the past, these excursions are fine and are part of most people’s lives.
Look after your body and mind
We haven’t got a fountain of eternal youth but we can come a close second by looking after our body and mind.
You’ve doubtless noticed that some of your friends haven’t aged well whereas others don’t look anything like their age.
It’s not just luck that causes that although if you’ve inherited some unpleasant disease then that’s certainly not been a conscious decision.
Diet is important. Theories on what we should and shouldn’t eat abound. Often with promises to lose an unbelievable amount of weight in a short space of time – those are generally worth avoiding.
The common ground on diets is to eat less processed food and less sugar. Everything else revolves around how you cut out those two things.
Eating less processed food either means reading the labels of the food you’re eating or cooking more meals for yourself so you know what’s in the ingredients.
There are a couple of good, easy, rules of thumb for buying food in shops.
If there’s a long list of ingredients (you could count them but the length of the list is a very quick short cut) then put it back on the shelf.
And if there are ingredients you couldn’t buy or pronounce, again, avoid it. With the possible exception of some preservatives but even those can be controversial.
Sugar needs special attention – it has so many different names that it makes you wonder how honest food manufacturers are trying to be. But that’s a whole different discussion.
Getting down to your ideal weight can positively affect your biological age which is a good way of turning back time.
Exercise is also important.
Most of us don’t get anywhere near enough the recommended amount of exercise but the people who look younger typically exercise more than the ones who look and feel a lot older than they actually are.
If you haven’t got a fitness device on your wrist already, there are plenty of apps for your phone which will do most of the same things.
Don’t get too hung up on things like 10,000 steps per day – the figure has no scientific backing but it does sound good.
Choose an exercise regime that you’ll actually do. It’s pointless pretending that you’re going to turn into a gym rat unless that’s really going to happen.
High intensity interval training is a good way to get exercise without spending hours.
Mindset is the other factor involved. There’s a lot of truth in the cliche “You’re as young as you feel”.
Studies have shown that when your mind thinks you’re younger, it slows down the aging process. Which has to be win-win.
This could be as simple as mixing with people who are younger than yourself – volunteering to help with a youth group if you can cope with a probably large age gap, going to social events aimed at people younger than you if not.
Or you could use hypnosis to talk to your mind and get it to turn back time for you.
If your mind is open to that idea – and I hope it is – then listen to this hypnosis audio every now and then to help turn back the clock and feel younger.
Different times exist in our memories.
