How to look and feel younger

The most important tool for use in anti-ageing is the mind. Marisa Peer, author of You Can Be Younger explains how the most important change you must make in order to look and feel younger is to change your thinking, and how you can start today.

I am passionate about anti-ageing and living a longer, better life, but all my work and research is backed up by data that shows us the mind’s ability to create physical changes in the body. Every step you take in the anti-ageing field must be accompanied by a belief that you can slow down ageing and become younger. Using vitamins, diet and exercise can only work, and indeed will work much better, if you also use the power of your mind and your belief system to become younger.

Our bodies are in a state of constant change, and each tissue within the body is renewing itself according to its own timetable. Your stomach lining is renewed every five days due to constant use. The surface layer of your skin renews itself approximately every two weeks. The only reason we age at all is because our bodies contain so many specialised cells that over a very long period of time they can no longer undergo the rejuvenating influence of cell division. We age because of eventual wear and tear within the un-dividing cells that repair the damage. When you learn, through this programme, to influence those cells, you can slow down ageing and its effects.

We can all take charge of programming our cells and minds, because the way we feel from one moment to the next is a result of only two things: the pictures we make in our head and the words we are using. The mind especially responds to thoughts, words and images that are symbolic.

Here’s an exercise to show you the power words have on your body.

1. Hold one arm out in front of you and clench your fist, making that arm as rigid and as strong as you can. Now get your helper to push down on that arm to test your strength while you use all your strength to resist them. As they try to push your arm down, resist them as much as you can.
2. Now you have established your strength, think of the most negative words you use about yourself in relation to ageing. Repeat these words out loud ten times or just think them silently ten times. An example could be ‘I am old and weak’ or ‘I am constantly getting older and less desirable’.
3. While thinking those words, make your arm rigid again and repeat the strength-testing process with your helper. Amazing isn’t it? When you think those negative words you are losing all the strength in your muscles and your arm is becoming weak; you are weaker while thinking or saying those words.
4. To prove further that thoughts and words are even more powerful than effort in tests of strength, and to see for yourself the powers of your language on your body, this time think of some positive thoughts about ageing yet remaining young; repeat them out loud or silently ten times. If, like many of us, you have been led to believe that there is nothing positive about ageing, then repeat this ten times: ‘I am remaining young, healthy and vibrant. My body and mind are always young.’
5. Now, thinking these words, make your arm rigid again and repeat the strength-testing process. Isn’t it great to see that as you think positive thoughts you become physically stronger? I mentioned earlier that every thought you have creates a physical reaction in the body, and you have just proved it to yourself.

Marisa Peer was named Best British Therapist by Men’s Health magazine and features in Tatler‘s Guide to Britain’s 250 Best Doctors.  She has spent 25 years working with an extensive client list including royalty, rock stars, actors,  professional and Olympic athletes, CEOs and media personalities and has developed her own unique approach, which is frequently referred to as life-changing. Marisa is a best-selling author and appears extensively, as an expert, on television and radio, including Channel 4’s Supersize vs. Superskinny, ITV’s Celebrity Fit Club UK and Celebrity Fit Club USA. She is the nutritionist for Men’s Fitness magazine, the therapist in the Sunday People’s Heart to Heart column and has her own weekly Mind column for Closer Magazine.