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"Optimists associate aging with wisdom. The rest of us associate it with wrinkles. Leading experts offer their wisdom on erasing lines, staying sexy, and looking your best at every age.\\n\\n\\n\\n__In a dog-eat-dog world, Deepak Chopra looks an awful lot like the cat who ate the canary. A pioneer of alternative medicine, he's a doctor, a spiritual philosopher, a best-selling author\u2014*Ageless Body, Timeless Mind (Harmony); Peace Is the Way* (Random House)\u2014and he just opened the fourth Chopra Center and Spa at Dream in New York City's Dream Hotel. He also radiates beauty and calm. Here, he reveals how he manages to keep it all together.__\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat is beauty?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  There's a poem that says, \\\"When I see beauty I know it as truth.\\\" Beauty is being natural. Having real self-esteem. The freshness that comes from good sleep, from exercise, from nutritious living, from being flexible, from enjoying the company of people who are vibrant, youthful, energetic, and fit, and by nurturing compassionate love relationships. One that's less obvious but no less true is flexibility of consciousness, meaning not having rigid attitudes. Rigid attitudes make for rigid bodies.\\n\\n\\n\\nSo many of us struggle to look younger on the outside. Are we misguided?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  The biological markers of aging are things like blood pressure, bone density, cardiovascular conditioning, and the wrinkles you have. Psychological age is your attitude to life. If you have a youthful mind, then your biological markers will reflect that, including your looks. Outer beauty\u2014say, how fresh your skin is, how many wrinkles you have, do you look old or young\u2014reflects what's happening inside.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat would you say to someone who claims plastic surgery makes her feel better? What's wrong with that?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  It's not true. Real self-esteem means to be independent of others' opinions. Not to see yourself as superior or inferior to anyone, and to have no fear of approval or disapproval. Or rejection. If your self-esteem is based on a social mask or plastic surgery, it's not real. It's at the whim and mercy of every stranger on the street.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat about people who say looking beautiful is important to their success or career?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  Really successful people are independent of what people think of them. People like Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King Jr. Even Bill Gates. And a lot of people who aren't famous!\\n\\n\\n\\nYou advise living in the moment\u2014but what about people who use that as a way of ignoring consequences or as an excuse to indulge?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  You live in the moment, no matter what; you can't help it. Now is the moment that never ends. It's healthy to be in the moment, to be aware of and attentive to what's happening\u2014living in reality, not imagination. Running to McDonald's or having a cigarette or going to a bar, that's not living in the moment, it's camouflaging the moment with instant gratification.\\n\\n\\n\\nWhat do you do to stay healthy?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  I wake up at 4 o'clock. I meditate for two hours. Then I write for two hours and exercise for an hour. The rest of the day, I do what needs to be done. At 4 or 5, I meditate for 20 minutes. And I sleep from 10 to 4\\\\.\\n\\n\\n\\nHow do you feel about spas that throw around the word \\\"Ayurveda\\\"?\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n\\n  I'm a purist. But you can't control how people use names\u2014look at yoga."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.allure.com/story/body-soul?currentPage=2>