The poet Robert Browning was 52 years old in 1864 when he wrote his poetic tribute to old age. “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be, the last of life for which the first was made,” he wrote.
The words resonate even more today as scientists at the Stanford Center on Longevity and other geriatric research centers are discovering that the poet was correct – people who pass their 60th birthday often enjoy the highest levels of happiness and contentment, reported the Wall Street Journal. The secret of true happiness has evaded us for centuries. The details remain a mystery, but we are getting closer to learning which age is happiest.
The study revealed that seniors over 60 experienced higher levels of emotional well-being and lower levels of negative emotions compared with young adults. Surprised?
So were the researchers. “The reason we hadn’t seen things that tend to improve with age is we were never looking for them,” Yochai Shavit, the Stanford Center’s director of research, told the Wall Street Journal.
Dispelling the Myths
Scientists are taking a deeper dive into the connection between aging and happiness as the US population grows increasingly older. One in six Americans are now 65 and over. By 2034, adults 65 and older will outnumber people under 18 for the first time.
Does that make for a happier country? It may. In fact, TIME suggests that it does.
“There’s this idea that old age is bad, it’s all gloom and doom and older people are usually depressed, grumpy and unhappy,” Dr. Dilip Jeste, a geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Center on Healthy Aging at the University of California, San Diego told TIME.
Jeste’s study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry offers an upbeat look at the mental health of people over 60. Researchers collected data about quality of life from a random sample of 1,546 people from ages 21 to 99 in San Diego. Respondents reported “as they got older, it looks like things started getting better for them. It suggests that with age, there’s a progressive improvement in mental health,” Jeste said.
The U-Turn Factor
So, what changes? According to a blog on Psychology Today, happiness researchers have found older people change the way they feel about their lives. They have built their careers, raised their families, and created stable social circles. They are less concerned with status and what others think about them.
Does this mean people need to wait until they hit 60 to be really happy?
Not at all. Many scientists favor an inverted U-shaped happiness model. They believe people enjoy happiness in their 20s and downshift in middle-age when they are stressing over job security and raising children. Then they start moving back into the happiness zone when they hit 55.
Or you can take a few lessons from seniors and turn down the pressure. You can appreciate your families and friends, stop letting our jobs take over your life, and cut down on social media. These steps can help increase your happiness factors.
Robert Browning, for example, found happiness by living the life he loved until his death at the age of 77. He travelled to Italy, visited friends and fellow poets, and wrote epic poetry until just days before he died. Not everyone can be poets, but you can find one key to happiness in his well-lived life.
