Practice Positive Thinking
You've heard the saying, "You are what you eat." But did you know that what you think is equally as important?
In fact, a positive outlook on life is one of the most important things we can do to keep our brain healthy and ready for learning. How we view ourselves, how we perceive the world around us, and how we interact with others can have profound effects on our overall well-being and on our brains.
The good news is that all of these are completely within our control. No matter what challenges we face, we can choose to start each day by looking at the glass as half full, rather than half empty.
The importance of Positive Thinking
Studies that chronicled lifestyle factors of people who stayed mentally sharp into old age showed that feeling good about ourselves and having a sense of self-worth and effectiveness in our lives—attributes scientists sometimes call self-efficacy—are pillars of successful aging.
Self-efficacy, according to Marilyn Albert, PhD, a Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives member and neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University, requires an ability to adapt to life's challenges. It also requires that we maintain a degree of control over our lives, and to feel as if we are contributing to our families and to our society.
Positive Research
Research shows that older adults may naturally tune into the positive aspects of life. This could be because they want to make the most out of their remaining years and so choose not to focus on the negative.
In fact, a study at Stanford University, which used a brain imaging technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track patterns of activity in the brain, found that older adults are more responsive to positive images than to negative ones.
Compared to younger adults, people ages 70 to 90 showed greater activity in the amygdala—the brain region central to emotional processing—when they looked at pictures of people expressing positive emotions versus negative ones.
This finding demonstrates something psychologists and sociologists have long recognized: as we get older we tend to experience fewer negative emotions, and we are more likely to remember positive emotional stimuli. In other words, older people often tune out the negative, while focusing on the positive.
This content is brought by Staying Sharp, a partnership between NRTA: AARP's Educator Community and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.
