Are Your Thoughts Making You Old?

[Guest guest]

Dear Elders and Youngsters in TBP,

 

Love and Love alone....

 

An interesting article. Must read. Please read and enjoy the power of

positive thinking.

 

Love and Love alone....

 

P. Gopi Krishna

 

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Are Your Thoughts Making You Old?

 

What words would you associate with being old? I asked a few people

recently, and here are just some of the words they used: fuddy-

duddy, not fresh, decrepit, sad, wrinkly, tired, stiff, brittle,

unhappy, invisible, obsolete, diminished, fat, fragile, cranky, and

marginalized.

 

Wise and experienced were the two positive words that came up, but

only after I pushed to see if there might be anything good about

getting older.

 

What's wrong with this picture?

 

According to a report published in the Bottom Line Health Newsletter,

by Becca Levy, Ph.D. from the Yale School of Public Health, it is not

an idle question, and how you answer it is clearly linked to your

health.

 

In a variety of different kinds of tests, Yale researchers studied

what effect perceptual issues about aging might have on health.

 

First, they asked a group of septuagenarians what words they used to

describe an old person. According to Levy's article, they discovered

that " those who had stereotypes like ‘feeble' and ‘senile' had

significantly more hearing loss than those who had positive

associations with age such as ‘wise' and ‘active.' "

 

In a different study, the researchers followed the recovery patterns

of recent heart attack patients and found that those who thought

about aging in a more positive way recovered more quickly and

successfully.

 

In an activity as simple as walking, the Yale team's research

revealed that even when playing with stereotypes on an extremely

subtle level by subliminally flashing words like " alert " or " mature "

to one group and " senile " or " decrepit " to another resulted in the

participants in the positive group subsequently walking faster and

with better balance.

 

Levy believes these negative stereotypes of aging are so deeply

entrenched in our culture that we are oblivious to them. And

rejecting them is not a PC thing - it's a selfish means to living

better.

 

Levy believes that " becoming aware of their presence in everyday life

is a first step toward questioning their validity. " She suggests that

keeping a journal to become more sensitized to positive images and

embodiments of aging could have significant health benefits.

 

Here are some further suggestions:

 

1. Become aware when you automatically default into a negative

stereotype about getting old.

 

2. Create a roster of older people whom you admire - Nelson Mandela,

Toni Morrison, Jane Goodall, Paul Newman, Betty Ford, Madeline

Albright, George H.W. Bush, Joan Didion, Maya Angelou, John Updike,

Judi Dench.

 

3. Really understand that a balanced view of aging can help you

change your attitude in a way that can make a difference in the long-

term quality of your life.