Over 50? The Best IS Yet To Be… Science Says So!

Aging?
Losing that adolescent gait? Hair thin and tending
to snow?
Got aches and pains in body parts you never knew
existed?
Feel like you’re pulling time’s winged chariot uphill?
There’s no doubt about it:  you’re getting older.
Hate it?
(Drum roll)…………..
WE DON’T!
Results of a most important MASSIVE survey
(340,000 people nationwide) have produced an
astonishing conclusion: as we age, we get
HAPPIER!
Here are the facts:
* People start out at age 18 feeling pretty
good about themselves. (No surprise here for
those with self-inflating teen-agers around the
house.)
* Stress declines from age 22… until (first
important finding) age 85. These octogenarians
are the least stressed among us!
* You worry a lot until age 50 … when it “sharply”
drops off.
* Anger decreases steadily from 18 on… while
sadness rises from 18 to 50 (that tell-tale number
again). Sadness rises to a peak at 50, then
declines to age 73 (thereafter slightly rising).
* Enjoyment and happiness DECREASE gradually
until we hit 50; then steadily rise for the next 25
years, decreasing slightly until age 85. They
never, however, reach the low levels experienced
by most 50 year olds!
These results, so cheering to those of us over 50,
baffle the experts. Are these findings the result of
psychological changes about the way we view the
world… or could it be brain chemistry or endocrine
changes? “Further study is necessary,” say researchers.
Perhaps I can help.
By 50, most of the defining battles of your life
have been fought
Remember the titanic fights you fought with your
parents, your life partner, your children? “Clean up your room”;
“Why weren’t you home at 10?”; “You can’t possibly mean to
marry…”). These have been fought, for good or ill. You’ve
accepted (or at least learned to live with) the results and yourself.
You’ve learned the value of kindness, courtesy… and just plain
keeping your mouth shut. Life, while not necessarily what you
thought it would be, is good. Talk to a senior citizen
aged 85 (the heroes of this study) and see for yourself.
The mixture of contentment and resignation produces bliss.
And so, the great British poet Robert Browning (my
mother’s favorite) is shown to be right:
“Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
the last of life, for which the
first was made.
Our times are in His hands who saith,
‘A whole I planned,
youth shows but half; Trust God:
See all, nor be afraid!”
(The complete survey results are available in
the May 17, 2010 Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences).