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Why aging isn't all doom and gloom - Aging on Nautilus
Aging and stress
In older age, there is more stress caused by problems like physical illness, the deaths of dear ones, financial problems, retirement, and loss of a sense of purpose.
What matters is how you respond to that stress. With age, although there is a decline in physical health and cognitive function, psychosocial functioning progressively improves. Older people handle stress much better than someone in their 20s and 30s.
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Key Ideas
Three domains of aging
- Physical: Most people think of aging only as physical aging.
- Cognitive: After middle age, around 60, memory and other abilities decline.
- Psychosocial: It includes things like well-being, happiness, quality of life, control of emotions, socialization.
Successful aging refers to better well-being and greater happiness, even thriving and flourishing.
Aging and stress
In older age, there is more stress caused by problems like physical illness, the deaths of dear ones, financial problems, retirement, and loss of a sense of purpose.
What matters is how you respond to that stress. With age, although there is a decline in physical health and cognitive function, psychosocial functioning progressively improves. Older people handle stress much better than someone in their 20s and 30s.
We get wiser with age
Studies have shown that older people are better able to control their emotions; they know themselves better, make better decisions that require experience, and have more compassion and empathy toward other people.
Strategies for successful aging
There are strategies for successful physical, cognitive, and psychosocial aging that will make you happier. They include:
- Calorie restriction
- Physical activity
- Keeping your brain active by doing something that is reasonably challenging.
- Socializing
- Attitude and behavior
- Optimism
- Compassion
- Volunteering activities
Focus on prevention
Keeping a healthy diet, doing regular physical activity, keeping your brain active, and social engagement all need to happen from early childhood. If we focus on these things from early on, the prevalence of many diseases will go down.
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
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Key Ideas
Getting wiser with age
Some things do get better with age: the ability to make decisions, control emotions, and have compassion for others.
The challenge to aging well is to be an optimist, resilient and pro...
3 Components of Aging
- Physical;
- Cognitive - when memory and other abilities decline;
- Psycho-social: includes things like well-being, happiness, quality of life, control of emotions, socialization.
Successful aging mainly refers to better well-being, greater happiness, and not just arriving at old age, but thriving and even flourishing.
Strategies for successful aging
- Calorie restriction.
- Physical activity.
- Keeping your brain active: do something that is somewhat challenging. Not too stressful, but somewhat challenging.
- An appropriate degree of socializing.
- Attitude and behavior: resilience, optimism, compassion, doing things for others, volunteering activities.
- Other strategies like meditation for reducing stress.
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Key Ideas
Learning Slows Down with Age
Most aspects of mental processing slow down as we age. While we continue to accumulate knowledge of the world at a slower rate, we gain more experience that increases our wisdom.
Our minds tend to grow worse
Researchers disagree in their hypotheses about how our minds tend to get worse with age. What can be observed is the following:
- Older individuals do struggle more with Stroop tasks, where an automatic habit needs to be overridden by instructions.
- Older individuals have a harder time with multitasking.
- Older people find it difficult to bind information that occurs in a combined context. It impacts their ability to remember life events.
However, older people seem to be better at emotional regulation.
Cognitive Reserve
Some people seem to age mostly with minds intact and others notice dramatic slowdowns. The brain appears to have a lot of redundancy built-in - known as cognitive reserve.
Education seems to have a protective effect on aging, possibly because education contributes to cognitive reserve.
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Key Ideas
Exercise Benefits The Brain
Any kind of exercise, be it aerobic, walking or Yoga, changes the brain's composition, structure and the way it operates. The changes that happen to the brain:
- Brain wa...
Brain Waves increasing
The brain's electric impulses change, and the Beta waves increase during and after exercise, putting it in a better, more alert state.
More Sensitive To The World
Exercise makes our senses sharper and clearer, and we are more perceptive and have better sensitivity to our surroundings.
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