How to age well

It is a sad fact that for many of us the prospect of getting old is quite scary. We look around and see old people hobbling slowly along the street and we look away. We think of retirement homes with distaste, if not with outright horror. Is that what will happen to us? Will we become old and sick and unable to function normally? We can hardly bear to think about it.

Of course, if we do think about it we can all identify old people who are mentally and physically active and lead satisfying lives. But it seems a matter of chance - some are lucky, some are not. Better not to dwell on it.

However, it is not a matter of chance - it's not about genes or bad luck, or being born into the wrong family. Studies by George Vaillant (2004) of the same people over 60 years show that aging well can be attributed to certain controllable factors, and they are not the ones we might think that they are.

He defined positive aging as consisting of six dimensions:

1. absence of objective physical disability as rated by a doctor
2. subjective physical health as rated by the person themselves
3. length of undisabled life - whether the person had lost any years before age 80 to actual or perceived disability
4. objective mental health as rated by success in work, love, play, and avoiding psychiatric care
5. objective social supports - good connections with wife, children and grandchildren, siblings, playmates (eg golf, tennis, sailing) and social networks (clubs, etc) as rated by others
6. subjective life satisfaction as rated by the person themselves

He used these dimensions to classify over 500 subjects from different class backgrounds (college and inner-city) along a continuum that ranged from "happy-well" to "sad-sick" at age 70-80. The happy-well tended to have high ratings in most or all of these dimensions; those with low ratings were more likely to be sad-sick, or had died before age 70-80. Then he looked at factors that had been measured earlier in their lives to see what contributed to this rating.

First let's look at what did not predict positive aging. The happy-well did not have longer-lived ancestors, higher cholesterol, higher social class, warmer childhoods, more stable childhood temperaments, or higher stress than the sad-sick. Contrary to what we would believe, better genes, low cholesterol, social class, upbringing, temperament and stress-free living do not contribute significantly to a healthy and happy old age.

So what did contribute to a happy and healthy old age? Each of the following variables were shown to lead to a positive old age, regardless of social class or other factors:

1. Not being a smoker or stopping smoking before age 45. Not smoking heavily before age 50 was the single best predictor of healthy aging, but if they quit smoking completely before age 45 the effect at 70-80 was much the same.
2. Using adaptive coping styles. Coping styles involve the use of defense mechanisms to deal with stressful situations. We all use them, but some, such as humour, altruism and stoicism are "more mature" than others such as denial and passive-aggression. It is more adaptive, and healthier, to laugh at misfortune than to deny it is happening.
3. Not abusing alcohol. Alcohol abuse was defined as "the evidence of multiple alcohol-related problems" with family, work, health, and the law.
4. Healthy weight. Weight was measured using the body mass index (BMI). Being overweight (BMI> 28) or underweight (BMI<22) class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">positive aging.
5. Stable marriage. Getting to age 50 without divorce, separation or serious problems contributed to positive aging.
6. Exercise. Regular exercise of more than 500 kilocalories per week was required.
7. Years of education. Those with higher education tended to stop smoking, eat sensibly and drink in moderation because they were higher in self-care, future orientation and perseverance.

This is great news for all of us. All of these factors are controllable - we can ensure that we remain healthy and happy into old age just by controlling our smoking, alcohol consumption, weight and exercise, and by working on ourselves and our marriages to cope better with stress and setbacks. The fact that a higher education makes us more likely to do these things should not stop us just because we didn't go on to college or university.



Sources:

Christopher Peterson. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Vaillant, George E. (2004). Positive Aging. In P. Alex Linley & Stephen Joseph (Eds.), Positive psychology in practice (pp.561-578). New York: Wiley.

How optimistic are you?

Optimism has been broadly defined as the expectation that things will go well in the future. It can be broken down in terms of how an individual explains the causes of good and bad events. Optimists explain bad events as having external, unstable and specific causes (This exam was really hard) and good events as having internal, stable and global causes (I'm really good at this subject).

Pessimists are the opposite - they explain bad events as having internal, stable and global causes (I'm no good at exams) and good events as having external, temporary and specific causes (The exam was easy this time). Optimism has been shown to have a positive effect on health, sporting success, work success, avoiding depression and other mood disorders. You can test your optimism and pessimism yourself at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/.

We can also distinguish between Little Optimism and Big Optimism. Little Optimism is about the small things in life, like whether I will be able to find a parking spot. Big Optimism is about broader, more general things, like whether the world will solve the greenhouse gas problem. Little Optimism may directly influence your behaviour and lifestyle choices, whereas Big optimism may influence your general mood, and perhaps your immune system.


It is possible to have different levels of the two types of optimism, and different expectations about different types of goals. You may be optimistic about the future, and so don't see the need to recycle, but pessimistic about whether you will get a parking spot or get the promotion at work.


Are optimistic people happier? If you are working towards your goals in the expectation that you will achieve them then I would argue that you are. If you consider all effort to be hopeless then you won't aspire to reach goals and you won't even try try to achieve them. I was at uni in the early 1980s when we all thought there would be a nuclear war at any moment, and I'm sure that expectation did nothing to help us do well at uni.

We can learn to be more optimistic. Martin Seligman advocates disputing your pesimistic beliefs and expectations, and if you do this enough it replaces the habits you learned when you were younger. He also recommends teaching optimism to your children by letting them master tasks on their own and showing them that their actions have consequences - not just negative consequences, but positive ones as well.

Seligman gives a lovely example of the gales of laughter his daughter produces when they play the game of banging on the table - she bangs once on the table, everyone else at the table bangs on the table. She then bangs three times on the table, and then so does everyone else. She is learning that she can have an effect on the people she loves, and that that she matters to them.

Surely optimism, and general happiness, is made of stuff like this.

Sources:

Christopher Peterson, A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism. Sydney: Random House, 1992.

Martin E.P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness. Sydney: Random House, 2002.

At least you have your health....

I've been ill lately, and it was like my life had fallen apart. I couldn't get things done, I felt bad about myself, I wasn't getting anywhere in life. It wasn't a serious illness, just one of those nasty infections in the head and the chest. Coughing, sleeplessness, blocked-up head.... I'm sure you're familiar with the story. It seems like it has been going on for months, but I think the worst is over now, and I'm feeling like I can get on top of things again.

Have I been happy? I'd have to say no, I've been fairly unhappy. Health - 5-6 out of 10; Happiness - 3-4 out of 10. I've been rereading Harry Potter instead of writing blogs and being productive, and as much as I've enjoyed Harry Potter it's not making me as happy as I am when I'm achieving goals and doing constructive stuff. No blog, no business-building, not much of anything really. And things that I really dislike doing are not being done, like housework; and looking at the carpet that needs vacuuming and the kitchen floor that needs scrubbing makes me less happy than I am when I look at it after it has been cleaned (no matter who does the actual cleaning!).

And I've been relying a bit on that old fallback stress-reducer - retail therapy! It's a while since I've fallen for this, making myself feel better by acquiring stuff on eBay or in the local shopping mall, and I'm sure it's related to being ill, since I didn't have these cravings earlier in the year. I've been craving chocolate as well, another sure sign of unhappiness. The story of how I had previously managed to reduce my chocolate cravings are another story...

Now that I'm feeling better, I've been getting some work done, which makes me feel better about myself, and I've been getting out and about and seeing other people. No longer locked in my house seeing nobody but my husband, I am a social creature again, and I'm sure that this is making me happier as well.

So I'm convinced, as if I needed to be, that bad health means less happiness. Not only do I feel physically terrible but I can't do the things that make me happy - working on something I enjoy; seeing other people; being useful and all that; and even the chocolate and the shopping doesn't really help except in a short-term, superficial way. Today I did something I enjoy that I haven't done for months - I repotted some neglected plants - and I feel so pleased with myself that I've come inside to write a blog about happiness, something I haven't done for weeks. So as my health has improved my happiness has increased as I've been able to do things that make me happy.

Does it work the other way around? Can happiness make you healthier? Apparently, yes; if you are happy you will live up to 9 years longer, according to my current favourite TV program The Happiness Formula on BBC World. I'll be looking into that one more thoroughly in a future blog.

Health and Happiness

I haven't been well lately, and that's why the blog hasn't been forthcoming. It's harder to write about happiness when you are not happy! And it is amazing how unhappy being ill makes you feel. It's just a headcold, but it has been going on for so long that it is affecting the way I feel about myself.

Interesting, isn't it? I feel ill and unable to concentrate, and I start thinking about how I am unable to do things, and I feel worse about myself, and I start feeling worse for real, and I go and sit in front of the TV and watch Buffy instead of writing a blog or any other of the worthwhile things I could be doing. It's all connected - my thoughts, feelings, actions, and physical wellbeing and situation all affect each other.

This is a basic tenet of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. If I can change one of these things then all the others will be affected, hopefully for the better. If I can get up out of my armchair and turn Buffy off and go for a walk I will feel better about myself, and when I get back I can do something more constructive. If I'm doing something constructive with my time I feel better about myself, or at least a bit less useless than I did before. If I feel a bit more useful then I will be a bit more useful, which will make me do more useful things, and I'll feel better and better. Try it, it really works.

Your feelings influence your thinking, and what you are thinking influences your feelings. If you keep telling yourself how useless you are you will feel bad and you will be useless. So take the cold-and-flu tablets and do something when you feel ill, especially if the illness is going on for a long time. That's what I'm doing!