Fitness Matters More than Weight
It’s crucial that we stay active, especially as we get older. Being physically fit is associated with longevity as well as social, emotional and cognitive health, but keep in mind…
How to Develop Your Joyspan
I was surprised to realize recently that it’s been 10 years this month since I published Optimistic Aging: from Midlife to the Good Life. It’s been a delight to connect…
The Paradox of Aging: the Happiness U-Curve
When imagining aging, most middle-aged people look ahead with trepidation. But take heart: the best is likely yet to come! Satisfaction surveys have found that happiness increases after middle age,…
Choose Your Family
If you could hand-pick your family, whom would you include? Would your birth family make the cut? If the answer is yes, cherish these relationships. Having kind parents, siblings and…
Waypower versus Willpower
Optimistic Aging requires us to rally willpower to make healthy choices, but of course this is much easier when we have clear pathways to invigorating options—“waypower”—compared to when we face…
Brighten Your Aging Filter
Your perceptions of aging impact your long-term outcome. The World Health Organization identified ageism as a “prevalent and insidious” health threat based on research demonstrating how negative expectations about aging…
Hope: the Ultimate Superfood
You already know that it’s important to eat your leafy veggies and blueberries, rich in antioxidants. But did you know that hope is the ultimate superfood? A superfood is defined…
Walk Your Way to Wellbeing
I was fortunate to spend this Independence Day hiking in Golden, Colorado. While delighting in our purple mountain majesties, I was reminded that taking frequent walks is one of the…
Take the Rocky Path for Longterm Mobility
One of your most important senses is one you’ve probably never heard of: proprioception. You can experience your proprioception by closing your eyes and trying to stand balanced on one…
Dementia of the Preoccupied
By the time you walk from one room to the next, you’ve forgotten what you intended to do once you got there. You meet someone new and have lost track…