Aging is unavoidable. Aging affects every organ, every cell in the body. Neither aging nor death is optional. The profound changes that accompany aging make many people uncomfortable and at times fearful of what may lie ahead. Excessive worries about chronic illness, disease, or disability frequently plague the elderly. How you feel psychologically, your expectations of your capabilities, and how realistically you perceived and plan your future lifestyle in the context of becoming or being an elderly person, can have a great impact on your health, happiness and even longevity. How do you feel about your aging? As in many things, your attitude about aging can make all the difference.
How people perceive, identify with, and handle the changes they see in their appearance as they age varies significantly throughout civilization. Culture and social media greatly influence individual and group perceptions on what it means to get old. Although psychologists and even we ourselves say it is important to be able to accept how we look as we age, the overabundance of anti-aging products say otherwise. Do you understanding the dynamics of aging and how your environment and lifestyle interact in influencing your perceptions of aging? Aging often requires a series of adaptations not only physical but also mental. New or evolving realities posit a measure of acceptance of what is.
Although aging is often a time of deep reflection, looking back should never take precedent over looking ahead. More importantly still, is to enjoy the moment. Each moment is a gift, an opportunity to continue to share your life with others. Be present in the moment, with the moment. The experiences you have gained over many years have given you much wisdom and insight. You are more that capable of enjoying the here and now. A constructive and realistic conceptualization of aging will acknowledge both the positive and negative aspects of aging and, offer suggestions on how to make the best use of your resources at any age.
Aging and Mental Health
Mental health refers to our cognitive condition and includes our psychological and emotional well-being. Mental health is more than the mere absence of mental illness; it is a level of psychological well-being. Mental health influences a person’s ability to create a balance between life’s activities and efforts, cope with life’s vicissitudes and achieve psychological resilience. How we think, feel, and act influences our ability to act rationally, manage and enjoy life, get along with others, set goals and take steps to overcome challenges.
Cognition can be affected by mental illness, a brain trauma such as a concussion, a brain disease such as dementia, or as a side-effect of some medications or combinations thereof.
There are many different forms of mindfulness practice. Some of the more notable practices include:
Mindful meditation
Transcendental meditation
Loving-kindness meditation,
Vipassana and Zen Buddhist practices
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy
Mindfulness-based stress reduction
Contemplative meditation
Spiritual meditation
It is quite normal to be under several forms of stress contemporaneously or at the same time. Mindfulness can assist the aging mind in dealing with many types of stresses whose origins may be physical, psychological, social, spiritual, financial, or environmental.
The Psychology of Aging: Truth, Fiction, and Stereotypes
Beliefs about aging have roots that are individual, familial, cultural, and societal. Your personal experiences concerning your own aging (unencumbered and healthy or burdened with chronic illness) and interactions with aging family, friends, and others around you, contributes to how you perceive, understand, and feel about aging.
Possessing enough positive memories from the past, regarding the aging of others, and positive current experiences in your own aging, in spite of some negative aging experiences, help foster resilience in the face of today’s ageist society.