Our state of mind has a profound impact on all aspects of our life. In a fascinating article in the October 22nd edition of the New York Times, “You May Only Be as Old as You Feel”, Emily Laber-Warren explores the difference between chronological age and “subjective age”. We each have a chronological age. When we were children, we were often asked “How old are you?” Always being anxious to be older, we usually held up more fingers than our age. So our mother or father told us we were going to be that many fingers, but right now we were one finger less. This desire to be older in our youth is replaced, as we age, by the desire to be younger than our chronological age. The push to be older seemed to peak in college as our chronological age was an impediment to buying beer. This was usually the last time, along the aging continuum, that we actually wanted our chronological age to be higher than our subjective age.
We see in numerous articles, panel discussions and in marketing and advertising that 80 is the new 60, 50 is the new 30, and so on… convincing us that our chronological age is no longer the barometer of how old we really are.
When scientists ask, “How old do you feel, most of the time?” The answer tends to reflect the state of people’s physical and mental health. …Scientists are finding that people who feel younger than their chronological age are typically healthier and more psychologically resilient than those who feel older.
– E. Laber-Warren
Our attitude about what we can accomplish, both physically and mentally, has a profound impact on our actual ability to achieve goals that we thought unattainable.
There is no doubt that modern medicine has played an extraordinary role in our ability to believe our subjective age is considerably younger than our chronological age. Think about all the people you know who have had orthopedic procedures to replace knees, hips, shoulders and ankles. These amazing procedures have allowed us to continue to have very active lives through replacement parts. Some years ago, as a result of years of jogging six days a week, I was the recipient of a hip replacement. I can personally attest to the “miracles of modern medicine.” Rather than having this injury bring a halt to a very active workout program, hip replacement surgery has resulted in my ability to continue to be just as active; although the exercise regimen has changed to accommodate my new reality. However, it has had no adverse impact on my perception of my subjective age.
We watch our fellow seniors moving to more temperate and sunnier climates, either permanently or for the winter months. This move allows many who have maintained an active life to continue that active life outdoors. Yet for others, it has the reverse impact – allowing them to continue their sedentary life occupying themselves with a non-active lifestyle. I suspect that if you queried these two distinct groups of Florida residents and asked them each, “How old do you feel?” you would get a wide disparity between the group that maintains a very active lifestyle and the group with a more sedentary life.
Most of the research on subjective age is based on associations between how old people feel and their health status, so it cannot establish cause and effect. It’s not clear, for example, whether feeling younger actually makes people healthier, or people who are already healthy tend to feel younger.
– E. Laber-Warren
Our attitude about what we can accomplish, both physically and mentally, has a profound impact on our actual ability to achieve goals that we thought unattainable.
There is no doubt that modern medicine has played an extraordinary role in our ability to believe our subjective age is considerably younger than our chronological age. Think about all the people you know who have had orthopedic procedures to replace knees, hips, shoulders and ankles. These amazing procedures have allowed us to continue to have very active lives through replacement parts. Some years ago, as a result of years of jogging six days a week, I was the recipient of a hip replacement. I can personally attest to the “miracles of modern medicine.” Rather than having this injury bring a halt to a very active workout program, hip replacement surgery has resulted in my ability to continue to be just as active; although the exercise regimen has changed to accommodate my new reality. However, it has had no adverse impact on my perception of my subjective age.
We watch our fellow seniors moving to more temperate and sunnier climates, either permanently or for the winter months. This move allows many who have maintained an active life to continue that active life outdoors. Yet for others, it has the reverse impact – allowing them to continue their sedentary life occupying themselves with a non-active lifestyle. I suspect that if you queried these two distinct groups of Florida residents and asked them each, “How old do you feel?” you would get a wide disparity between the group that maintains a very active lifestyle and the group with a more sedentary life.
Most of the research on subjective age is based on associations between how old people feel and their health status, so it cannot establish cause and effect. It’s not clear, for example, whether feeling younger actually makes people healthier, or people who are already healthy tend to feel younger.
– E. Laber-Warren
o be philosophical about the discussion of age moves us to a core human sense of self. If we lead lives of productivity, lives of service to others, lives of accomplishment, lives of self-value, our subjective age will continue to decrease. We will continue to think of ourselves as much younger than our chronological age. It is when we cease to feel valued for who we are and what we do that we begin to age rapidly; and we may well then begin to feel older than our chronological age.
The bottom line in how old we feel is really up to us. The more we challenge ourselves (physically, mentally and emotionally), the younger we are going to feel. Boredom leads to depression and depression leads to aging. A story about one of my close relatives brings the reality of all of this into clear focus.
A man who had a productive and successful business career closed his business and moved to Florida. He began sitting and watching a great deal of television. He also began to lose his charm and vitality. A member of the family encouraged him to take up sculpting, which he did. He began to produce beautiful sculptures; some he sold, and some he gifted. His charm, vitality and energy returned; and his subjective age moved backwards by 20 years.
Our power to control how we age is amazing. It is up to us to make our chronological age merely a number we celebrate once a year. All the other days of the year we should celebrate our subjective age.
