A
ctress and
model Christie
Brinkley recently had
her 65th birthday –
but instead of
celebrating that actual
number, she called it her 15th 50th
birthday, in recognition of the fact she
feels no older than 50. This, she says,
is her ‘spirit age’, which is nothing to
do with how old she might be
chronologically. And
this is an idea we
love, at To p Santé as
thinking this way has
been proven to turn
back the clock.
In recent years,
researchers
examining the science of ageing have
found that the more positive we feel
about getting older, the more slowly it
happens. People who think they are
younger than they are have brains
that look and act younger than their
peers. And those with positive
attitudes to getting older have better
health during old age – they even live
up to seven-and-a-half years longer
than those with less positive beliefs.with arthritis or high blood pressure,
you won’t just think ‘well, that’s
normal at my age,’ you’ll be more
likely to look for ways to help lessen
the condition, such as exercise and
changing your diet. ‘Those with more
negative beliefs tend to have a “what’s
the point” attitude and just let things
take their course,’ says Dr Swift.
Negative attitudes to ageing are also
stressful on your system, which in
itself takes its toll.
Shockingly, people
who had a negative
idea about ageing
before the age of
39 were twice as
likely to have a
heart attack after
60 – something researchers attributed
to the stress and anxiety they feel.Your time is now
Our attitudes to ageing are set in
childhood, ‘but our forties and fifties
are a real flashpoint for them coming
to the surface,’ says psychotherapist
and self-esteem coach Alison Moore
(bemoore.uk). ‘One reason for this is
the approach of menopause – so manyyou nge r
you
two of the main determining factors
when it comes to how healthy and
happy you are in your later years are
mindset and outlook on life. Here’s
how you can upgrade your thinking to
slow the ageing process and feel great.
One German trial even concluded that
your attitude to ageing is a bigger
predictor of how healthily you age
than the actual state of our health!
The reason is simple; feeling bad
about getting older can become a
self-fulfilling prophecy. ‘There are a
couple of reasons why this happens,’
explains Dr Hannah Swift, a
researcher in ageing psychology at the
University of Kent. ‘One of the mostimportant is a psychological theory
called “stereotype embodiment”
which means if we don’t expect to be
able to do things well as we get older,
we simply don’t try to challenge that
stereotype, which then causes our
actual performance to decline.’
Conversely, the more positively you
think about aging, the more control
you believe you have over it. This
means that if, say, you get diagnosed16 TopSanté Facebook.com/ TopSanteMagazine @ TopS a n t eUKThe secrets to a
Most of us already have a ‘spirit age’.
Studies on ageing find most people
feel 15 per cent younger than they are.