Stop grumbling about getting older. It may just add seven and a half years to your life. We are told that if we want more good years; get plenty of sleep, eat well, exercise and learn something new. But many of us don't realize that a positive attitude can make us live longer - Professor Becca Levy (Yale University)
Do we want to live to a very old age? For many, ageing like winter weather does not comfort us. In modern society; youth, beauty and productivity is what counts. From a young age, we are told that grey hair and wrinkles are bad and that old age results in us becoming sick and frail and becoming a burden on Society. Around middle age, we start to feel physical and mental decline conveying a sense of the ultimate outcome: death. We internalise the negative stereotypes, accepting them as the truth. We risk becoming who we think we are: frail, boring and irrelevant, just marking time until death.
Optimism and resilience are key attributes for older people who are coping with hardships, but still actively engaging with life. Older people are not in prime health, sickness will start to creep in. But it is not the freedom from disease that is important. It's the self belief that despite ant hardship, they will be able to achieve their goals. Those who are optimistic will attend to the hardship and acknowledge the positive. They pay attention to information about their medical condition, they get medical treatment and do whatever exercise has been prescribed for them. The medical condition becomes part of the journey as they learn how to get back on their feet and move out into the world.
Older people who are optimistic also tend to actively engaged with the world. In a 2012 paper, published in the journal, Ageing Health, author Dr. Christopher Peterson and colleagues wrote that "Optimistic people who expect good things to happen tend to behave positively: they eat more sensibly, they exercise, they refrain from drinking and smoking, and seek medical care in the belief that it will make a difference to their long-term health". Resilience and optimism in older people means they don't dwell on their failures and setbacks. They focus on their capabilities and are disciplined to mastering new skills and engaging productively with society.