“Don’t Stop Believin’” is more than an iconic rock song. It is one of the keys to living a happy and healthy life.
A recent study published by Oregon State University reveals that if a person is focused on becoming a healthy and engaged person at an older age, they are much more likely to experience that outcome.
“How we think about who we’re going to be in old age is very predictive of exactly how we will be,” said Shelbie Turner, a doctoral student in OSU’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences and co-author on the study.
She was joined by co-author Karen Hooker, the Jo Anne Leonard Petersen Endowed Chair in Gerontology and Family Studies at OSU.
Turner and Hooker measured self-perception of aging by having participants say how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements that included, “Things keep getting worse as I get older,” “I have as much pep as I had last year,” and “As you get older, you are less useful.”
They measured optimism in a similar fashion with respondents, ranking their agreement with statements like “In uncertain times I usually expect the best.”
Results showed that higher optimism was associated with more positive self-perception of aging.
The results echo previous research that “has shown that people who have positive views of aging at 50 live 7.5 years longer, on average, than people who don’t,” Hooker said.
Stereotypes are a significant factor in how people see themselves age, researchers noted. That included negative stereotypes — older adults are bad drivers, or suffer memory problems, or are unable to engage in physical activity anymore.
“Kids as young as 4 years old already have negative stereotypes about old people,” Hooker said. “Then, of course, if you’re lucky enough to live to old age, they eventually apply to you.”
It’s what we at Growing Bolder call: “what the mind believes, the body achieves” effect.
In other words, hit that reset button, kids, if you are feeling down. It will do wonders.
