October 22, 2025 l Business Mirror
I was reading the book “Ikigai” by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, and I came across this phrase “Active Mind Youthful Body.” I realized this speaks not only to the old people but to everybody since each day we are drawn closer to losing our younger days and slowing down our active minds.
Lately, I was struck by reality: that although “my spirit is willing, my body is weak.” For the past years (30 or more), except when I am sick, I either go to the gym or workout at home almost every day. I try to discipline myself not to miss a day, especially my weights training. But for the past weeks I have been experiencing back pain; and the other day I suddenly felt an excruciating pain at the left back shoulder and must get an X-ray so my doctor can determine the reason for the pain.
For me, it was not about nature telling me I could not have that youthful body anymore. This was due to the fitness program that I had been adhering lately, which requires a lot of bending and squats with dumbbells to go along. These could have resulted to bone injuries, which could have caused such muscle pain or bone irregularity. I also realized I had not been drinking milk or taking calcium supplements, which I had been taking for granted.
Whether you are at your thirties, forties or even a lot older you should be mindful of not only your workouts and exercise but also of your diet. The blue zone senior people mentioned in the book are taking life every day at a pace in rhythm with nature. They have strong bones because of their active lifestyle of farming, fishing, household and community work. They don’t go to the gym and strain their muscles by lifting weights more than what their body can bear just like me. But their work provided enough exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong as a youth.
According to a study posted on mayoclinic.org/, most people reach peak bone mass around the age of 30. After that, bone remodeling continues. But you lose slightly more bone mass than you gain. This is because the body is always in the process of making bone and breaks down old bone and this process is what they call remodeling. New bone is made faster when you are still young than being broken down making your bone mass go up.
The point here is we should take care of our body just as we take care of the assets in our business. The body when healthy can cope up with any kind of work no matter what age, just like the blue zone senior people in Okinawa Japan and Sardinia Italy which are two of the five places where there are significant number of centenarians.
Their tasks require much physical work which makes their bodies strong. But not only that, they have active minds. Dementia were not major problems among the centenarians even at their age because they have constant social interaction and fun activities, too.
In our working world, an active mind is much needed, but we also should not take for granted our physical strength and to have fun times.
A French population-based study (sciencedirect.com/) shows the older that one retires, the lesser risk of dementia. It further explains that the longer people stay professionally active such as greater years of work, the more it provides a reserve that act to compensate for the effects of age-related cognitive impairment and pathology. Compared to early retirees, those who are still active in their work or business have lesser risk of dementia than those who stop working. The risk of dementia was respectively 28-percent and 43-percent lower in individuals who retired between 60-65 years old and those over the age of 65 years old.
Having an active mind does not only require intellectual knowledge. It requires time for meditation and resting your mind regularly or even just spending 15 minutes to 20 minutes a day writing your thoughts in a journal (whether it’s a gratitude, prayer or introspection journal) or having a quiet time relaxing and listening to soft music. It involves social interaction and stimulating activities and managing stress.
We all long for longer and quality life—and if you have not been conscious of it—it is never too late, whatever your age, to start taking care of your body, mind and soul now.
***The views expressed herein are her own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of her office as well as FINEX. For comments, email wimiranda@inventormiranda.com. Photo is from Pinterest.