How You Perceive Aging Will Determine How You Age

How do you view aging?

I have a little exercise for you. Get a paper and pen/pencil.

Write down the first 5 words that pop into your head when it comes to growing older. Don't think about it too much. Just do it quickly. And don't read any further until you do this.

Look at your 5 words. Are they negative or positive?

In the United States, there's a mostly negative perception of aging. In other countries (Japan), aging is honored, respected.

What if I told you that your perception of aging influences how you age?

It impacts your hearing, your memory, your gait, your balance, and your speed.

I'm reading a remarkable book right now with study after study. ("Breaking the Age Code" by Becca Levy). The common thread through the entire book is that how we perceive aging is how we will age.

One example that's given is that a month of using positive words about aging (this is on a daily basis) showed physical improvements similar to that of someone of the same age after 6 months of exercise.

This is HUGE!

 I have heard from many of you that you feel overlooked, that doctors don't listen to you, that you feel disregarded.

"The geriatrician Louise Aronson shared a story about a meeting at a major US hospital where doctors were discussing the complicated case of an older patient who had been brought in from a nearby nursing home. Halfway through the meeting, one of the doctors- a department chief-stood and suggested that he had a solution for this complex case.

I figured it out. We just need to have nursing homes be a hundred miles away from our hospitals...

The underlying assumption was that older patients are a waste of time, care and money." ("Breaking the Age Code" pg 23) 

These beliefs also run in the job market. The median age of employees at Facebook is 28, 30 at Google and 31 at Apple.

I'm here to tell you that I see you and I'm working to change these beliefs.

I want you to use your voice to improve how you become more mature and age. I want you to prime yourself daily for the day ahead. It doesn't just have a mental affect. It will impact your physical body.

I know it's difficult in this country. I hear all the time about "senior moments". You know that's a negative association with aging, right?

Senior Moments actually have nothing to do with seniors or old age. Brief memory lapses have been around forever.

Becca Levy studied three different groups regarding memory and these "senior moments". She studied Deaf Americans, Hearing Americans and mainland Chinese. (Read the book to know more why these were the 3.) 

In the study, Becca studied the memory that specialists say declines the most with age: episodic memory. (This is used when you remember a person or object from a specific visual-spatial context).

Of the 3 groups, the Hearing Americans expressed the most negative age beliefs and performed the worst on all memory tasks. The Chinese elders, the group with the most positive age beliefs performed the best across the board and performed just as well as their younger counterparts. In other words, if you're an elderly Chinese person, you can expect your memory to work as well as your grandchildren's. The Deaf Americans performed better than the hearing.

All of this is to tell you, how you perceive your aging is how you will age...mentally AND physically. And I know how things are taught in this country and this is all conditioning from the time you're a child. But let's change the narrative. If ever there was a time where we can institute some change, it's now.

 So priming is something that you can use to start your day. It's taking positive words about aging and who you are and repeating them to yourself. It may sound silly, but there is truth and studies have shown this absolutely impacts you for the better.

Take a look at the photo. Emily was afraid of falling. She knew I was there, but she told herself she could do it. So she did it. Every time I asked her to get on that ball, there was hesitation, but she positively spoke to herself and did it.

This is something I want you to take time to consider and think about. I think you should all read the book as I think that's an amazing place to start the narrative and begin to shift your thinking.

If you have any questions, reach out to me. For now, I'm here to tell you that I think you're amazing and I don't perceive you as old. I perceive you as wise, as smart, as awesome story tellers, as great knitters, as fun pickleball players, etc...

Change your narrative.