Why research says it’s easier to be happier when we’re 60+:

 

1.We have closer friendships: According to Professor K. Fingerman, University of Texas, before age 50, we focus on making more friends rather than deepening relationships with the friends we already have. After age 50, we’d rather optimize existing friendships than develop new ones and  our relationships become more satisfying.

 

2.We become more accepting of ourselves and pay more attention to things that give us pleasure: Laura Carstensen, a researcher at Stanford, discovered that as we age we set more realistic goals. Stress over unrealistic expectations diminishes and we enjoy a greater sense of well-being.

 

3. Creativity flourishes:  Dr. Gary Small, Director of the UCLA Center on Aging says  an aging brain can “better tease out patterns and see the big picture and empathy is refined as we age.” These increased abilities stimulate creativity.

 

4. We are more likely to ignore and avoid things that might cause negative emotion, paying more attention to the positive. Our amygdala, a mass of cells located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain, which is involved in the processing of emotions, reacts less to negative things, including memories of painful events. It still responds when we are facing a real threat but is less likely to get fired up every time a passerby frowns at us. Our highs may be just as high, but the lows are not as low. In the popular song "The Way We Were," Barbara Streisand croons, “What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget.” Current research suggests that song nailed it.

 

5. Experience has made us better at predicting how situations make us feel, so we are able to avoid heated situations unless we choose to be in them.

 

6. Controlling emotional behavior improves with practice, and older people are more confident than younger people in their ability to control our emotions.

 

7. We are less reactive: Positive and negative emotions are likely to come up at the same time. And when emotions are mixed like this, they push down extreme highs and lows, and contribute to stability.