05 Apr Happiness comes with aging
Aging brings wrinkles, sagging bodies and frustrating forgetfulness. But getting older is not all bad for many people. Mounting evidence suggests aging may be a key to happiness. There is conflicting research on the subject, however, and experts say it may all boil down to this: Attitude is everything.
Older adults tend to be more optimistic and to have a positive outlook on life than their younger, stressed, counterparts, research is finding. The results take on more meaning in light of the ongoing increase in life expectancy.
In one study, the average number of years a 30-year-old in the United States could expect to live increased 5.4 years for men and 3.6 years for women between 1970 and 2000. During that same time period, men gained 6.8 years of happy life and shed 1.4 unhappy years. Women chalked up 1.3 happy years, but the number of unhappy years didn’t change for them, according to research published in 2008 by Yang Yang, a sociologist at the University of Chicago.
Her work suggests that an increase in years of happy life for the 65-plus age group accompanied the increase in life expectancy on average.
The big question, of course, is why seniors are happier…
…to find out more about happiness and aging, and to read the full article at MSNBC – just click here