Thinking Positively About Aging is Good For You
Plus: Why pursuing happiness makes us miserable, and why thinking hard all day is so exhausting
Welcome back to Age Wise, exploring the science of improving physical health and mental wellness at every stage of life. And welcome to all you new subscribers. Let’s begin with some important reasons to think positive about aging, no matter how old you are now:
New research, presented in a story on Psychology Today, confirms something I’ve written about before: You can choose how to view getting older, either as a time to gain things (like wisdom, perspective and free time) or a time to lose things (like perfectly functioning knees), and thinking positively about aging actually helps your mind and body stay younger (though, yes, the years will roll on chronologically). On that note, thinking positively about aging, or about life in general, is also linked to living longer. And on that note, you should also know…
Why the Pursuit of Happiness Makes Us Miserable
It’s not news that the pursuit of happiness “is ingrained in our minds… even though it fuels materialism and overconsumption, leading more often than not to disappointment and even depression,” as a new study points out. But why? Researchers put some math to existing ideas to conclude the following:
Happiness depends on evolving expectations. “A positive lifestyle produces a ‘boost’ in happiness but the boost often does not last long and one rapidly habituates to the higher standard of living,” the researchers write in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. In a nutshell, we adapt to amazing and wonderful things, so that they become mundane, expected.
Happiness is measured against relative comparisons. “Beyond the absolute level of what they have, people are often concerned with the difference between what they have and a desired level that they wish to achieve.” Because of all the Joneses out there, no house is big enough, no car cool enough, no new shoes hip enough.
If you’re generally happy in life, shuffle joyfully along. But if you’re unhappy, check out my story (the linked headline above) for suggestions for how to approach all this in a way that’s better for you and the planet.
Why Thinking Hard is So Exhausting
You might want to think long and hard about thinking long and hard about things. It can leave you exhausted mentally and physically. But why, exactly?
Lots of continual, intense thinking generates a buildup of a toxic chemical messenger in a part of brain area responsible for making decisions and solving problems, new research finds. The buildup can alter how effectively we think, and serves as a circuit breaker to prevent overload.
“Our findings show that cognitive work results in a true functional alteration — accumulation of noxious substances,” says study team member Mathias Pessiglione, PhD, a biologist and psychologist at Pitié-Salpêtrière University in Paris. “So fatigue would indeed be a signal that makes us stop working but for a different purpose: to preserve the integrity of brain functioning.”
Quick Takes
Over-the-counter hearing aids expected this fall in U.S.
A long-overdue decision from the FDA to allow over-the-counter hearing aids will benefit many of the 35 million Americans who suffer hearing loss and others (like me) with tinnitus, by making hearing-aid technology widely available at lower cost. This is huge.
How Awe Helps You Overcome Anxiety
“Nowadays, most people’s working energy is increasingly devoted to intellectual tasks. Meanwhile, our leisure time is too often consumed by staring into screens. Perhaps now more than ever, then, it makes sense to carve out time and space for awe.”
— Brad Stulberg on Medium
Is the High Protein Diet Healthy?
Most Americans eat twice as much protein as they need, and that can prevent them from getting enough of other important macronutrients. Or they simply ingest too many calories. “Our focus should be on healthy foods and portion control.”
— Ayala Laufer-Cahana, MD on Medium
"Regular physical activity is linked to a lower risk of Covid-19 infection, severity, hospitalization and death," based on analysis of available evidence, a new study finds.
—The Guardian
One Last Thought
“Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging.”
—Maya Angelou