50 Ways to Make Yourself Feel Young Again

There’s no way to reverse aging, but there’s no need to allow it to take away the fun from life. Read 50 things you can do to stay young at heart.

While we live in a sometimes ageist and youth-obsessed society, it’s important to note that not everything about youth is admirable. Young people often take excessive risks and lack the maturity and wisdom that comes with age experience. But there are aspects of youthfulness like playfulness, and humility that we can all aspire to at any age. This may have beenwhat Jesus was getting at when he called on his followers to “change and become like little children” or what Robert Fulghum meant when he wrote the famous, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.

With 2014 upon us, this is a great time revisit our lives and remind ourselves to have a little fun. In no particular order, here are 50 ideas of things that you can do to promote a youthful outlook. Many of the ideas we’ve listed could involve a grandchild or child and could be potential inter-generational activities.

Staying Young at Heart

1. Throw a coin in a fountain and make a wish.
2. Visit the nearest town you’ve never been to before.
3. Go to a drive-in movie.
4. Draw, color, or doodle for 30 minutes.
5. Have a snowball fight.
6. Tell a ghost story.
7. Write your spouse a love letter.
8. Make a tie-dye shirt.
9. Eat cookies with milk.
10. Go to the library.
11. Write the words to a new song.
12. Make a paper airplane.
13. Make a list of your 10 favorite animals.
14. Watch a sunrise or sunset.
15. Inhale helium and talk in a squeaky voice.
16. Make up your own secret code.
17. Write a limerick or a haiku.
18. Wear a funny hat.
19. Visit the zoo.
20. Volunteer to participate in the Big Brother / Big Sisters mentoring program.
21. Ride in a hot-air balloon.
22. Drink a milkshake.
23. Play hide and seek.
24. Tell someone a joke.
25. Introduce yourself to a new person.
26. If you own a musical instrument, improvise for 30 minutes.
27. Visit an art museum.
28. Play a board game.
29. Visit a performance of live music.
30. Do something that scares you.
31. Go to a baseball game or other another sporting event.
32. Propose to play rocks, papers, scissors to resolve your next dispute.
33. Go dancing.
34. Pose in a photograph with a statue.
35. Take a long bath.
36. Hold your breath the next time you drive through a tunnel.
37. Volunteer at an elementary school.
38. Recall your earliest memory.
39. Go on a boat ride.
40. Sing in the shower.
41. Learn a new language.
42. Make funny faces in the mirror.
43. Speak in a faux English accent all day.
44. Solve a puzzle.
45. Audit classes at a local university or college.
46. Try an unusual food you’ve never had before.
47. Start a blog about something that interests you.
48. Read the comics next time you buy a newspaper.
49. Make a snow angel.
50. Create a collage out of old magazines.

 Please share your thoughts, or add to our list in the comments section below.

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