55+ Living Guide Magazine Spring/Summer 2018 Spring 2018 | Page 26

Kathy Gottberg is an author with six published books and
hundreds of articles covering dozens of topics in the last 30
years. Along with her books, her passion today is SMART Living
365 where she explores ideas and experiences that help to
create a meaningful, sustainable, compassionate and rewarding
life for herself and others. Beyond that, she lives with Thom, her
best friend and soul mate of 40 years, along with their dog Kloe.
Visit Kathy’s informative & popular blog at www.smartliving365.com
9 Positive Views on Aging
What You Think About Aging Matters!
By Kathy Gottberg
Henry Ford supposedly said, “If you think you can’t—you
can’t. If you think you can—you can.” While that statement
usually applies to reaching our goals or persevering in spite
of the odds, we seldom consider it in context with aging.
Yet, growing research shows that our view of aging has a
sometimes dramatic effect on the quality of our health,
happiness, and wellbeing. Not only does what we each think
about aging matter, how we feel about aging as a society
influences the experience that each of us will have as the
years add up. Fortunately, if we can learn to identify those
stereotypical prejudices most of us hold about aging, we can
halt and maybe even reverse many of the negatives formerly
believed to be our destiny.
I’ll bet there isn’t a person alive in our country that hasn’t
heard a good joke lately about a senior citizen. Facebook is
full of funny photos and captions showing older people as
buffoons. Just about every situation comedy on television
portrays elders in a negative light. No wonder none of us ever
want to grow old! Is it possible we do ourselves a tremendous
disservice every time we pass those cartoons around or laugh
along with others when another senior is the butt of a joke?
That’s what Becca Levy, an associate professor of psychology
at the Yale School of Public Health and lead author of a
current study on aging, believes. She is convinced that such
negative stereotyping is a “public health issue.” Ultimately it is
possible that such a constant cultural mindset perpetuates an
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age-based stereotype threat (ABST), along with a prejudice
and discrimination that are nearly as insidious as those
surrounding racism or gender inequality.
The good news is that during the last 20 years a growing
number of studies clearly demonstrate that what we think
about and how we feel about aging changes the outcome
of our lives.

9 POSITIVE VIEWS ON AGING
1.) A positive view of aging gives a person a 44%
more likely chance to fully recover from a severe
disability.
2.) Believing that aging offers opportunities for
continued growth, rather than a decline or social
loss, results in better subjective health, higher
income, less loneliness, and greater hope.
3.) When trained in positive age stereotypes over
the course of several weeks, participants began
feeling more positive about their own aging self-
image, resulting in improved physical functioning.
Even more interesting is that when the training and
messages were offered subliminally, rather than
explicitly, the outcomes improved nearly 30%.