Happiness and Wisdom As We Age
I am a baby boomer and feel that there is positive landscape for aging with so much new information and technologies on health, wellness and prevention.
In The 2021 May 4 issue of AARP by Christiana Ianzito, the title of the article says it all: Older Adults Give Their Mental Health High Marks, Polls Find. She writes, “In many ways COVID-19 has been particularly hard on older adults, who are more vulnerable to complications from the virus. But when it comes to their mental health, the older they are, the better they’ve felt, according to recent surveys.
Ianzito sites a newly released University of Michigan poll in which 2 in 3 adults ages 50-80 (65 percent) rated their mental health as excellent or very good, 27 percent as good, and 8 percent as fair or poor…. She says, “More than 80 percent said their mental health is as good as, or better than, it was 20 years ago.”
Studies have shown that resilience significantly contributes to exceptional longevity. This includes the ability to face loss which happen more as we get older, have a positive attitude and maintain our health through self care practices.
Some suggestions to expand brain health is to try something new such as volunteering for a worthy cause, taking up dancing, going back to school, joining a social club, taking up a new hobby, getting a pet and traveling
As we age and gain wisdom, we can add more value to our world and society and our knowledge and our experience can be passed down to influence the coming generations.
