Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development

Remaining Youthful

What is youthfulness, exactly?

Gretchen Heuring | ElderThink | 12.09.08

Boomers and Matures plan to live longer than anyone ever has before. In 2003, Dr. George Vaillant described those aged 70 and over as the "old-old" in his book Aging concentration Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life. Today, 70-somethings can be quite youthful. In the six years since he wrote his book, many things have changed.

So what is youthfulness exactly? It's a combination of a positive outlook or attitude, an openness to new experiences and relationships, willingness to learn new things, and feelings of wellness and vitality.

In his newly published book, The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain, Dr. Gene Cohen said, "Some of the most exciting research supporting the concept of positive aging comes from recent studies of the brain and mind.....Dozens of new findings are overturning the notion that 'you can't teach old dogs new tricks.' It turns out that not only can old dogs learn well, they are actually better at many types of intellectual tasks than young dogs."

As for wellness and vitality, there have been so many medical developments recently that we can be sick without feeling that way. New knowledge about exercise and nutrition, coupled with new medications, makes it possible to manage illnesses and control fatigue and pain better than ever before.

Well then, what about how we look? We look grey and wrinkled and therefore, old. Well, I say we have learned to accept many other kinds of people as useful and valiant contributors to our culture. Maybe it's time we learned to accept grey and wrinkled people too.