How to Age Well in Your 20s
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Adopting healthy habits in your 20s significantly impacts how long you stay healthy into middle age, so it’s important to consider how to age well. However, it may be hard for you to take the time to focus on your own health while you are busy with the stresses of your career, relationships, and finances.
While you might not be concerned with aging or declining health yet, studies have shown that the habits and lifestyles we have in our early life has direct consequences on how well we age. You don’t want to wait until you’re in your 40s to start preventing aging!
Here are a few simple strategies to maintain good health in your 20s and beyond.
Take care of your skin while you’re young and wrinkle-free. Use good sunscreen every day, even on cloudy days to prevent sun damage such as wrinkles and sunspots. Look for ones with ingredients like zinc and titanium dioxide, and avoid sunscreens with hormone-disrupting chemicals such as oxybenzone, octinoxate, and avobenzone.
In your early 20’s, you may have been partying a lot in college and studying for exams all night. Now that you’re a working professional, or hoping to become one, you need to learn good sleep hygiene.
Exhausting yourself will not serve you in the long run. Prioritize getting plenty of sleep and maintain good sleep habits now. Make your room dark, cool, and quiet in order to get the best quality sleep possible. Aim for 7-9 hours a night.
When you wake up in the morning, do yourself a favor and chug a bunch of water before anything else. It flushes out your system, rehydrates your organs after sleeping, and helps wake you up. Before drinking a diuretic such as coffee or tea, drink plenty of regular water.
Getting physical activity is great for a number of reasons. It circulates your blood, gets your endorphins going, and relieves stress. If you start with an easy target of 10 minutes a day, it’s a pressure-free way to get in some movement. You might get started and feel motivated to stretch it into a 20-minute workout. Some days you might skip a day. That’s okay!
Grounding is the act of being barefoot on the earth and connecting to the energy of the Earth. As woo-woo and hippie as it sounds, the Earth emits negative ions which balance our bodies and create a relaxed, peaceful, and meditative feeling. Try walking barefoot on the grass for at least 10 minutes.
Throughout your 20’s it’s important to have a mentor to look up to, to be inspired by, and go to for advice. Whether it’s a professor, a boss, or an older colleague, it’s a great idea to form relationships with people who have a lot of experience and know how in your field of work.
As you age, you begin to learn what really matters most to you. Do some soul searching and figure out what values are most important to you and find people with similar values. You will strengthen those values and live in line with your highest goals.
You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Pick people with great characteristics and personality traits that you would like to exemplify yourself. You want to have positive people around you who support your goals, inspire you to do great things, and help you succeed.
Self care can look different for every person, but it’s often an essential step in many of the other things you can do to preserve your good health. Taking time every day to focus on yourself and your needs allows you to identify areas where you need to spend more time. Sometimes, you just need to take a break for your mental health. Or you may need to make more time for exercise for your physical health.
No matter what you do, it’s important to remember that taking care of yourself may lead to more happy, healthy years later in life.
Read on for additional actionable steps to age well in your 20s.
Follow these additional tips to improve how you age in your 20s:
Stress is an unavoidable part of life. Whatever you’re dealing with, there are going to be some challenges along the way. Managing stress in a healthy way is a good lifestyle practice to learn early on. The stress will never go away, but you can learn how to cope properly and become more resilient to future stressors.
Mental health is a huge part of our overall well-being. Do not ignore signs of mental health issues. Getting help is a sign of strength. You do not have to be at rock bottom to ask for support. Today you can even speak with a counselor, therapist, or support group online.
Writing down your goals ensures you’re that much more likely to achieve them. Picturing your goals on paper helps to make action steps towards the short term goals and intentions. Mapping out your bigger goals into short term goals and the smaller steps is a great tool to achieve success in your life.
Organizing the important things early on in life is a great way to minimize chaos and stress later. Make an Excel sheet full of your passwords, automate any bills, keep track of your spending, and get a great planner. Using a planner to keep track of appointments, work, and social activities is essential to staying on top of things.
Being organized and writing all of your appointments and important to do lists is awesome, but you have to account for days when life gets in the way. Having a general plan is great, but be flexible and be able to pivot or change direction when things don’t go as planned.
There is a lot of misleading and bad information out there about food, weight loss, and diets. Do not listen to them. 1,200 calories is not enough food for anyone. Do not cut out food groups, place morality on foods, or feel guilty for enjoying your food.
In addition to not participating in dieting, learn how to buy and cook healthy meals. Eat to nourish yourself. You need to eat to feel your best. Choose foods that are fresh and nutritious, but also choose the foods that make your soul happy.
Do at least one thing a day that makes you feel good. This does not have to be an hour long pamper sesh. It can be as simple as enjoying a face mask, or doing something good for yourself like tidying up because you feel clear headed with less mess. Spend time on yourself, whatever the activity is that helps you feel rejuvenated.
Discipline is a skill that is learned. When you have goals, develop trust in yourself to keep yourself accountable. When you keep promises to yourself each day and do the necessary work, you will achieve daily momentum toward your bigger goals.
Being grateful is a practice that will set you up for further accomplishments. Be grateful for all that is going right in your life, your blessings, and all the little positive things. You will feel more optimistic and open to life’s beautiful gifts.
Having a growth mindset is an integral part of maturity. No matter what age, you are naturally going to make mistakes. However when you have a growth mindset, you view those experiences as learning lessons instead of setbacks. Challenges are part of life, but it’s your mindset that determines how you overcome them.
It can be difficult to fully be yourself sometimes when you want to fit in and be liked by your peers. It’s important to be true to yourself and not change yourself in order to be accepted. The right people will accept you for exactly who you are.
Health and Wellness Coach
Chelsea is a health and wellness coach who helps women of all ages to find body acceptance, food freedom, and learn the joy of movement. She guides you to peace of mind, balance in your life, and she helps you find the healthiest version of you. Her 1:1 health coaching program is designed to be unique to you and your specific issues and goals. The program is 6 months, where you meet virtually with Chelsea twice a month for 50 minutes each session. The sessions are personalized and the program is client led. If you’re ready to take control of your health and fitness habits, get in touch with Chelsea.
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