Positive aging

We’ve noted it before and we can now say it again: Looking on the bright side of life may allow you to experience a better and longer life. Two newly reported studies seem to confirm that those of us who take an optimistic view toward life may be rewarded with…

The received wisdom is that the older we get, the happier we find ourselves. Known as the paradox of aging, there’s a “U” curve in the aging literature that seems to suggest that most people reach a low point of happiness in midlife but then begin to climb back up…

The Roman philosopher Seneca once said, “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” Yet in this day and age, kindness appears to be too often in short supply: we have divisive, brutish politics, brutal armies destroying innocent people, and cities and rural areas in…

Just in time to coincide with the arrival of spring weather (and perhaps even the beginning of vacation season) we have some new titles to recommend that address the experience of aging or are written by authors from their experiential wisdom (or personal life circumstances) they’ve acquired as they enter…

While perhaps not as overt as it was at the beginning of the pandemic (when politicians openly suggested that older adults sacrifice themselves for the good of the economy) ageism continues to be one of the few remaining “isms” that is openly voiced and often humorously bandied about in popular…

If you were to close your eyes and let your mind wander, how would you think about your current self? What age do you feel like you are? Does your sense of yourself jive with your actual birth date? What do you think people your actual age should look like?…