The Power Of Positive Thinking & Healthy Aging
WHAT WORDS WOULD YOU associate with being old? In my case, I like to use words like positive thinking and healthy aging. Now positive thinking may seem like an odd choice but to me itís fundamental to getting the most out of the last half of our life. And healthy aging speaks for itself.
I really wanted to understand other people's perceptions of aging, so I asked a few people recently and here are just some of the words they used: fuddy-duddy, not fresh, decrepit, sad, wrinkly, tired, stiff, brittle, unhappy, invisible, obsolete, diminished, fat, fragile, cranky, and marginalized.
Wise and experienced were the two positive words that came up, but only after I pushed to see if there might be anything good about getting older. So much for my positive thinking and healthy aging!
What's wrong with this picture?
According to a report published in the Bottom Line Health Newsletter, by Becca Levy, Ph.D. from the Yale School of Public Health, it is not an idle question, and your perceptions of aging are clearly linked to your health.
In a variety of different kinds of tests, Yale researchers studied what effect perceptual issues about aging might have on health.
First, they asked a group of septuagenarians what words they used to describe an old person. According to Levy's article, they discovered that “those who had stereotypes like 'feeble' and 'senile' had significantly more hearing loss than those who had positive associations with age such as 'wise' and active.'”
In a different study, the researchers followed the recovery patterns of recent heart attack patients and found that those whose perceptions of aging were more positive, recovered more quickly and successfully.
In an activity as simple as walking, the Yale team's research revealed that even when playing with stereotypes on an extremely subtle level by subliminally flashing words like “alert” or “mature” to one group and “senile” or “decrepit” to another resulted in the participants in the positive group subsequently walking faster and with better balance.
Can there be any doubt about the connection between positive thinking and healthy aging?
Levy believes the negative perceptions of aging are so deeply entrenched in our culture that we are oblivious to them. And rejecting them is not a PC thing - it's a selfish means to living better. In other words, positive thinking is your way out of the trap of negative thoughts and puts you on the path to healthy aging.
Levy believes that “becoming aware of the presence of negative thoughts in everyday life is a first step toward questioning their validity.” She suggests that keeping a journal to become more sensitized to positive images and embodiments of aging could have significant health benefits.
Here are some further suggestions:
1. Become aware when you automatically default into a negative stereotype about getting old and switch into the mode of positive thinking about healthy aging as fast as you can.
2. Create a roster of older people whom you admire - Nelson Mandela, Toni Morrison, Jane Goodall, Paul Newman, Betty Ford, Madeline Albright, George H.W. Bush, Joan Didion, Maya Angelou, John Updike, Judi Dench.
3. Really understand that positive thinking can help you change your perceptions of aging in a way that can result in a latter-half-of-life built upon healthy aging.
(back to Selected Posts)
© Copyright - Anne Kreamer - All Rights Reserved.