CHANGE YOUR SAME-OLD FOR NEW-YOUNG.
When I need a pick-me-up, one of my favorite things is to go down to Chinatown for a bracing hit of foreign culture. The exotic sights, sounds, tastes and smells blast me out of the familiar into another world, replenishing, reinvigorating, and rejuvenating me. By the time I leave, all five senses have had a party, and I leave with a goody bag of strange new veggies, fruits or finds from the candy store. This is the power of the new.
Want to be youthful? Do the same. Embrace the new. Again and again.
Think of the young, and how their lives are enlivened with endless “news.” Their frontier extends forever in front of them, a vast world to explore, an unlimited adventure to experience.
When things get old, we get old.
Try something new every day. When you walk through a department store, let them spray you with new scents. Don’t order the same thing you always have at the diner — why, you’ve ignored that huge menu for years! Try a new piece of equipment at the gym. Instead of your speed walk, pull up a YouTube video of Tai Chi. Put on blue mascara. Change your hair. Buy a piece of clothing you wouldn’t usually wear, but have been secretly dying to. See a movie in a language you’ve never heard. Go to the zoo. The nice thing about news is, there’s a never-ending supply.
Travel, outwardly. Travel, inwardly. Whether taking off for an adventure in Bali or taking off in meditation, it’s all new territory.
But it’s not just about the new. It’s also about doing the unexpected. Keep it fresh, surprise yourself, be spontaneous. Do something you hadn’t planned. Spur of the moment. Suddenly.
Keep moving — forward march.
Life à la Hot is so not Life à la Rut.
Yours truly,
