Did you celebrate your last birthday?

Or was it one of those days you wanted to quickly slip under the carpet and move on…

… not wanting to think about your age for too long…

If so, you’re not alone.

Every man and woman wants to live long but no one desires to be old.

Some are even challenging it in the courts…

Last November, Emile Ratelband in the Netherlands tried to legally change his age from 69 to 49.

His reason: “He said he is a ‘young god’ and will find more women on Tinder if a Dutch court upholds his legal challenge.”

They didn’t.

He plans to appeal.

He wasn’t discouraged by the court’s decision.

“The reaction of the judges is fantastic, it’s great," he said. "You know why? Because we have a strategy," referring to his plan to appeal to the judges’ specific reasons.

What’s this got to do with living to and beyond 100?

Everything.

Turns out the more outgoing and optimistic you are, the longer you may live, a study of centurions suggests.

According to LiveScience:

“Researchers have found that personality traits like being outgoing, optimistic, easygoing, and enjoying laughter as well as staying engaged in activities may be an important part” in living past 100.

Another study of centurions in Italy found that personality attributes such as ‘resilience, positivity and having confidence in yourself’ were shared by those who live longer and are happier.

These are ALL things we can become better at every single day - by conditioning ourselves to respond differently to stress.

Chances are there will be many times this week when you’ll be faced with a stressful situation, either at work or at home.

Stress begins as a thought.

But as practitioners of NLP we can choose to change our thoughts and change our relationship to our thoughts.

We can turn stress into joy. Even growth.

One of the fastest ways is to condition ourselves to ask better questions.

Here are a few of my favorites that, when you use habitually, train your nervous system to be more resilient and optimistic:

• What’s one thing I can do differently right now to make this better?

• Who would I be being, if this were no longer a problem?

• What’s a point of view about this situation that I’ve overlooked?

• What do I appreciate about this situation/thought/challenge?

• What does success look like?

Apply one or more of these questions regularly anytime you feel stress and train your brain to respond differently – and feel younger.

But don’t stop there – you can experience far more fulfillment too by following some very simple practices.

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