WHEN I HIT MY forties, I started to notice that the models in magazines and the image of beauty was no longer my age group. What was very apparent was that, at the prime of my life, the message to my age group was that fat gain, muscle and memory loss was an inevitability and nothing could be done about it.
I have friends who have unquestioningly accepted this as a fact of life; jokingly talking about being “over the hill.” I wasn’t having any of that because I know that thinking like that comes at a price. Perception is not reality, yet the way you think about ageing can influence how you age. I refused to internalise the negative stories and endless scientific ageing studies because they did more harm to my health than good.
My late mother perceived ageing as a good thing; always remaining positive even through the most challenging of times, and I witnessed how her thinking actually influenced how she aged. The way we think about ageing is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive and negative attitudes can affect how we think, feel, sound, look and communicate.
The satisfaction I get being a Meta-Ager has affected me psychologically and even biologically because I am completely satisfied with how I am ageing. I have a strong immune system, a positive attitude and I have adopted an intrinsic behavioural fitness expectation. Sadly, I have seen the polar opposite in the majority of people around me whose negative ageing views have done the opposite.
Here are five powerful benefits of “Meta-Age” attributes:
It can help you live longer
A study by Yale and Harvard University of people between the ages of 50 and 80 measured how self-perception of ageing impacted survival over the course of 22.6 years. They discovered that participants who adopted a positive attitude about their own ageing; such as having a purpose and feeling ‘relevant’ lived, on average, 7.5 years longer. They also discovered that perception of ageing influenced longevity even more than blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, or a person’s fitness.
Reduce disability
Looking and feeling young as you age begins with believing you can stay physically and cognitively active to defend against disability. In a study by the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Retirement, they found that participants who held a positive self-perception of ageing had a greater ability to carry out daily activities over an 18-year period, regardless of their functional health at the start of the study.
Teaches you prevention
Although it’s proven that preventive habits continually improve health, older adults are less likely to engage in them. Instead, they believe that ageing diseases are inevitable and, in turn, this weakens the motivation to follow a preventive lifestyle. A study shows that people who adopted positive perceptions of ageing were more likely to have physical check-ups, eat well, and exercise more.
Improves your memory You are what you eat, in the same way that you are what you think. According to The Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Ageing, expecting memory decline contributes to memory loss over time. Over a 38-year period, participants 60+ years of age who held negative beliefs of cognitive ageing had a 30.2% greater decline in memory performance than those who held less negative beliefs about memory and ageing.
Improve your heart Negative beliefs can increase your risk of heart disease. When negative beliefs are formed early in life they have a profound impact on long-term overall health. A study showed that young adults who held negative ageing beliefs were significantly more likely to experience a cardiovascular event over the next 38 years.
The Meta-Age Path to Ageing Gracefully
Meta-Age is about empowering people to reshape their self-prophecy and intrinsic expectations about ageing. How do you see your future self? Is your expectation wisdom or senility? Do you see mobility or debility?
Western culture is deeply entrenched in ageing negativity. The challenge is to adopt a more positive mindset. Although this isn’t always easy, it can help redirect your self-fulfilling prophecy by embracing and celebrating each moment, both for the good and the bad that it may bring.
