What does the word aging bring to mind? Images of gray hair and wrinkles? Or impressions of knowledge and experience? Your answer may matter more than you think.
“Having a positive attitude toward aging, even when you’re young, can actually affect how healthy you remain as you get older—and might even influence how long you live,” says researcher Becca Levy, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and psychology at the Yale School of Public Health.
Finding the good things about growing older isn’t hard. Research shows, for instance, that most of us get happier as we age—and we tend to care more about the things that really matter and less about the things that don’t.
“We gain wisdom,” says Dena Dubal, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. “That’s not a trait you can measure with brain scans, but it’s incredibly important for our overall quality of life.”
Here, to help you glide through the next few decades, are some health and wellness goals that can help you take care of yourself.
