Feeling positive, enjoying where you are, and acknowledging who you are can make your brain healthier and keeps your body functioning well. No one knows for sure why a positive attitude seems to lead to a longer life but it does.

If you were to ask me the question, what’s so good about aging, my instinct would probably be to dwell on all the nastiness of aging – friends who are ill or who died, the fact that I can’t jog 6 miles anymore or get things done as quickly as I used to, and I need to focus more when creating a strategy or learning something that’s technical.

Our society does prize youth and beauty and old age doesn’t fit with that. The fact is messages about aging tend to emphasize the negative aspects.  However, like fine wine, people can get better as they age.

One of my own personal theories about people as they age is that they merely become MORE  of who they are. If they are persistent and pleasant and intelligent they will remain so in their 70′s and 80′s and 90′s. If they have a sense of humor when they’re 30, they’ll keep that sense of humor when they’re 90. The only factor to upset the apple cart is if they become ill because disease and treatments can change personalities.

The point is that experience along with maturity gives older people excellent insight. They are more in touch with their spirituality and the priorities in their life no matter the facial wrinkles. Some even managed to preserve their health and energy.

There also was a large study few years ago that suggested that happiness can lower levels of inflammation and the stress hormone cortisol which is associated with problems in learning, memory and other cognitive functions. Apparently, feelings of contentment and well being bring mental and physical benefits that counteract any negative thinking.

My suggestion, open yourself to humor and friendship. If you are feeling down in the dumps take a walk with a friend and go out of your way to find reasons to laugh and to spend time with people you enjoy. This is not a secret.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Yesterday I woke up in a funk. Usually I can change my outlook just by staying in bed for 10 minutes and reorganizing my thinking. That did not work yesterday.  It took longer to change from negative to positive but I did it.

It has always been important to me to be positive. In my early teens I read Norman Vincent Peale’s book, The Power of Positive Thinking.  At the time I couldn’t figure out why it took an entire book to say that to think positively you needed to work at doing just that – it doesn’t often just take place. Well the book must have made an impression because I’ve been working at thinking positively my entire life.

One of the things I do, and I’m hoping this will help you when you have your blue days, is to organize my day – on paper. This helps me to establish priorities and when you write down what you absolutely must do, the list isn’t as big as you think. This is particularly helpful for me when I feel overwhelmed about what I should be doing. The problem is I sometimes confuse what I should or could be doing or want to be doing with what I need to be doing.  Once I detail what I need, which usually resembles my personal and business goals, that murky unsettled feeling drifts away. And when that happens I usually, almost always, acknowledge my gratitude for what I already have and what I’ve achieved.

It’s the organization of the day that starts the move toward being positive.

I know the challenges will become even more frequent as my husband and friends and I add up the years.

Do let me know if you find this helpful. And I would love to know what you do to get up from being down in the dumps.

To your healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky