Were your 20s the best years of your life?
We didn’t think so.
That’s just one myth worthy of debunking, according to an interesting article in Prevention magazine. In an interview with Laura Carstensen, Ph.D. ,the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, the magazine takes a look at four common misconceptions about aging that cover everything from wisdom versus creativity, living in the moment, retirements that last too long, and unrealistic happiness agendas.
The article covers a lot of ground without getting too deep in the weeds (I love using two metaphors in one sentence).
Carstensen’s take on happiness agendas is a good example:
Making happiness a priority “puts too much pressure on meeting an unrealistic goal, and can be surprisingly harmful to mental health: “Seeking happiness is almost doomed to fail,” she says in the article.
“It’s constantly hurting people when we tell them they should be happy and making happiness a goal,” says Carstensen. The real key to happiness is learning to process mixed emotions. According to her research, Carstensen says “the richest emotional states we have are the ones with mixed emotions.” People at older age are much better equipped to do this than younger people. They can appreciate the whole experience for what it is, all the good and all the bad and everything in between. As we age, we can feel things such as bittersweetness with a much higher level of understanding.
Read the entire article in Prevention magazine.
Linda Perog
Hi Marie,
I love Boomer Magazine. We both do. I believe that a common misnomer is that most older adults are grey, fat, and barely able to walk. Olivia Newton-John, Dolly Parton, Jaclyn Smith, Kathy Smith, Goldie Hawn…are any of them grey, fat, or unable to walk? Sure, the obesity rate in this country is off the hook, like 40-45% of adults are obese, and that responsibility falls on the person making food choices. I believe that anyway. There are so many programs to help overweight adults get healthy – NutriSystem, Weight Watchers, Noon, Jenny Craig, etc. etc. And look at children – fat parents produce fat kids. It’s really a crime, but it’s true. We were in Italy a year ago and the only overweight people were the American tourists. I asked a tour guide, and she said that Italians don’t live on fast food and sweets. Fruit is their ‘go to’ dessert. And Italians walk everywhere. Have you seen the sky high steps even older Italians walk up to get to their apartments?? Incredible. I hope Boomer will focus on getting slim and healthy and walking, walking, walking everywhere!