Aging into our best selves

Atlantic article gives me hope

This Arthur C. Brooks article from 2023 in The Atlantic popped up today, and I found it enlightening on the topic of aging personalities. It includes research on how our perspectives and attitudes change, and how to take advantage of these natural developments.

The positive trends we can build on, the less-so-good we can also work on now to diminish. People tend to get more mellow as they get older -- I've seen it and I am experiencing it. I'm mostly nicer and more agreeable. (Ask my friends and family who I regret have been at the receiving end of my hot temper flares.)

Here's the reason: "(Older people) react less to negative situations, they are better at ignoring irrelevant negative stimuli than they were when younger, and they remember more positive than negative information. This is almost like a superpower many older people have, that they know negative emotions won’t last so they get a head start on feeling good by consciously disregarding bad feelings as they arise."

Of course, we all know the cliche and reality of crabby old coots and sharp-tongued meanies of a certain age. Human nature is what it is, and we are all a blend of varying traits. But we can practice visualizing ourselves older, being encouraging, not so grumpy, and not wasting time ruminating on irritations and things we can't control, and be more who we want to be as the decades roll on.

Read more here: The Atlantic - How to be Happy Growing Older