In it for Life: Maximizing Longevity
By Tim Lybarger
“We are sometimes, truly going to see our life as positive, not negative, as made up of continuous willing, not of constraints and prohibition.” ~Mary Parker Follet
The Enemy Within
Ageism is the stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination against people on the basis of their age. For instance, if you have personally complained about “the younger generation’s shortcomings,” that is ageism.
We also tend to think of ageism as something that is imposed on us from the outside.
However, the powerful influence of self-stereotypes, or our own limiting beliefs about aging, was introduced in a paper, Eradication of Ageism Requires Addressing the Enemy Within, by Becca R. Levy (November 2001).
According to Levy, ageism is often directed at one’s self and can be implicit. It occurs with very little awareness or intention and literally impacts the social interactions and life of each and every one of us.
Psychological Priming and The Florida Effect
In a 1996, psychologist John Bargh conducted an experiment that became known as “the Florida effect.” Students ages 18-22 were provided words on flash cards and asked to arrange them into a sentence. One group of subjects was given random words while the other group had words that could be associated with the elderly. “Florida” was one of them, along with “forgetful,” “bald,” “gray,” “wrinkle,” “retired,” “one-month vacations,” “grandchildren” and “mortgage payment.”
Once they had finished setting up the words, subjects were asked to walk along a small hallway to another room to fill out a form. The researchers timed how long it took to go through the lobby and found out that people who had the old-related words walked more slowly than those who had neutral words. They walked slowly even if in the previous interview they said that they do not feel old in any way. Also, none of them noticed a specific theme (old related) among the words they have just arranged. This is how the Florida effect was born.
Freedom and the Power of Choice
We live in a world that seems to revel in focusing on limitations and the negative aspects of life; in our case, aging.
It does not need to be that way for us. By exercising our own freedom of choice, we can instead focus on the reality that, despite what constraints we might face, the boundaries of what is possible are limited only by our own imaginations.
How do we see the possibilities of our lives?
Are we willing to challenge the assumptions imposed by others and subconsciously accepted by ourselves? A good place to start is to seek out the examples of others who have done it differently.
Try searching “Amazing Older People” on YouTube for some inspiration!
