Here’s a fun experiment:
Name five words you associate with aging.
First five that come to mind.
What did you get?
If you ask a typical American this question, you’re going to get responses like feeble, sick, forgetful, and depressed.
If you ask a typical Chinese person the same question, you’re likely to get responses like wise, experienced, useful, and kind.
Why? Because China is a society with positive age beliefs and the U.S. is not.
But it doesn’t stop there. Positive age beliefs are connected to longevity. Those with positive age beliefs live an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative age beliefs. These age beliefs go above and beyond the influence of gender, race, socioeconomic status, loneliness, and health.
In the words of Becca Levy, who wrote the book Breaking the Age Code, “Age beliefs stole or added almost eight years to [life], conferring an even better survival advantage than low cholesterol or low blood pressure (both of which added an extra four years of life) or low body mass index (one extra year) or avoiding smoking (three extra years).”
Whaaaaaaat?
This is incredible, right?
Levy points out that if there was a drug that had such advantages, everyone would be clamoring to the pharmacy to get a lifetime prescription.
But alas, positive age beliefs take inner work, and that takes a lot more effort than opening your mouth, popping a pill, and swallowing.
But here’s a cool thing: Age beliefs can be changed.
Levy cites tons of studies that show just how malleable our beliefs can be, and that nudging our beliefs about aging into a more positive direction have tons of benefits on our health and our experience of life.
Indeed, positive age beliefs not only lengthen our life, they increase our enjoyment of that life. So it’s double benefit!
I had been looking for a book like Levy’s ever since I first heard about her 2002 study. Fortunately, she finally wrote and published her book Breaking the Age Code in 2022. I highly, highly, highly recommend reading it.
Not only does she talk about the power of shifting your beliefs about aging, she gives you all kinds of evidence to show that a lot of our negative age beliefs are based on absolute B.S.
For example, did you know that successful entrepreneurs are twice as likely to be over fifty than in their early twenties? That there are several areas of cognition that improve in later life, like taking multiple perspectives into account, solving interpersonal problems, and semantic memory?
Pattern recognition is another type of memory that improves with age, which is why neuroscientist Daniel Levitin is quoted in Levy’s book as saying, “If you’re going to get an x-ray, you want a 70-year-old radiologist reading it, not a 30-year old one.”
The idea that older employees drag down workplaces is another utterly nonsensical idea. Levy again: “Older workers take fewer days off for sickness, benefit from experience, have strong work ethics, and are often innovative. Teams that include older persons have been found to be more effective than teams that do not.”
My experience of reading this book is like getting truth serum injected into my mind and body. I have been seeing myself and my aging process radically differently ever since.
I read it once, and am now reading a page a day, just to keep reminding myself about all the Amazing Facts about aging.
I’m sharing this information with you because if you’re suffering under the weight of the nonsensical beliefs about aging that the U.S. – and other countries with negative age beliefs – promote, there’s a way out!
You can change your mind – and, as a result, your experience of aging.
To check out more about Becca Levy, go HERE. There’s a quiz you can take about your aging beliefs, and links with multiple places to purchase the book in both print and audio versions.
This is not a paid post. Just information from an extremely enthusiastic person who now knows how incredible and beneficial the aging process is.
Age up!
What’s your experience with positive age beliefs? Share your comments below!
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