As I progress towards my seventies, I am becoming more interested in the psychology of ageing, specifically the psychology of ageing well, or positive ageing. What helps? What can I do to extend my ‘health span’ – a term I’ve only just come across coined to capture that period of time throughout our lives when we are in good health. The nearer the total in years and months that is to our lifespan, the more enjoyable older age is likely to be.
I’m interested in learning about, and exploring, ways of helping preserve both mental and physical health. I write this with great awareness that my encroaching deafness has a positive correlation with dementia. I use hearing aids and was delighted to learn that early adoption of such aids can reduce if not eliminate the association. More information like this please! Positive things we can do.
Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist, in his book The Changing Mind, points out that our ability to age well depends on two key streams.
- The confluence of a number of factors reaching back into our childhoods.
Not much we can do about these, you might think, although the authors of the at least three different books entitled ‘It’s never too late to have a happy childhood’ might beg to differ!
- Our responses to stimuli in our environment and shifts in our individual habits.
These are things we do have control over. Which isn’t to say it’s easy to break existing habits or to introduce better ones. It takes mental energy.
When should I retire?
A potentially dangerous time for the ambition of ageing well is ‘retirement’. This finding is of particular interest to me as I’ve been pondering when and how to ‘retire’ for the last ten years or so. I’ve been working from the unquestioning assumption that at some point this is a good thing to do. That the years of retirement are a just reward for the many years of work. That of course it makes sense to want more leisure time. But I’m beginning to realise I’ve got this wrong.
Daniel, as above, says whenever anyone asks him ‘When is the right time to retire?’, he replies ‘never.’
Why is retirement a bad idea?
Of course, it’s not the loss of the actual work that is necessarily the problem, it’s the potential associated losses: of a sense of purpose, of being useful and needed, of being respected, having status in a certain group, of exercising a sense of accomplishment.
When we feel suddenly rejected or unappreciated we can release the stress hormone cortisol, which in turn reduces the immune-system function, libido and digestion.
Is retirement a bad idea for everyone?
Of course not, it depends on the circumstances. However, some points are worth noting.
For some people, like my husband, who is an artist, the benefits of work outlined above accrue to him from another source, his art. It has always been the case that his purpose in life is to represent the world in media. I’m not so blessed with a life-purpose passion. People like me are likely to need to actively seek a new purpose when we give up work.
Work has gone a bit quiet over the summer. No matter, I thought, I’ll devote myself to improving and growing my online shop. I quickly learnt this is very different. What I miss, what ‘working on the shop’ doesn’t provide except very occasionally, is direct contact with groups of people. It turns out that helping people, in person, is more motivating, engaging and rewarding to me than I had appreciated.
So, having been saying for years, ‘I’m easing into retirement’, I’m not so sure anymore.
Can you compensate for the negative effects of retirement?
Yes. Some find it in political activity. Think of all those older Just Stop Oil or Greenpeace protesters who have calculated they can afford the disruption, and all the rest, of a prison sentence at this point in their life. Brave? I’ll say. Committed? Definitely. Full of purpose? Yes.
Others find their new purpose in church activity, volunteer work, or maybe they are essential to the wellbeing of other members of their family.
What else can I do to help extend my health span?
Meanwhile, on a less existential level. I finally bought ‘Just one thing’, a book by Dr Micheal Moseley. He, as does Daniel, refers to research that supports the idea that there are ‘intelligent exercises’ one can do. These exercises, press-ups and squats positively affect both brain and body functioning.
The multitudinous benefits of basic press-ups and squats to body and brain
If you don’t do anything about it, you lose 5% of your muscle mass for every decade that passes. Both press-ups and squats count as resistance exercises, which are great for strengthening muscle. They are also, says Michael, some of the best exercises for heart and brain. 3 for the price of 1 – that sounds like my type of time and effort to return investment!
With the press-ups I am starting from a very low base. I’m doing 10 very first thing in the morning as the kettle boils. I do them against the kitchen table. As I progress I will need to keep finding lower surfaces until I am doing them against the floor. I have never been able to do proper floor press-ups – I thought that was normal for women until I saw a woman fitness class instructor pumping up and down like a guy. ‘I had a lot of brothers and was very competitive’ she explained. Being able to do press-ups is protective for heart health, research has shown – in men. So we extrapolate its benefit for women.
I do the 30 squats while the tea is brewing. After riding horses for many years, I can do squats.
Brain benefits
Now here’s the really interesting bit. The action of moving your body up and down against resistance is particularly effective at stimulating blood flow to the hippocampus, responsible for learning and memory. It is the declining blood flow in this region that leads to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. ‘Save the hippo!’ by doing squats every day!
There is something particular about the up and down which creates a ‘to and fro’ increase and decrease of blood supply, which challenges the inner lining of the arteries which in turn triggers the release of chemicals which trigger brain growth.
Squats are described as ‘interval training’ for the brain.
Not only do squats benefit the hippocampus, they also stimulates the release of a hormone BDNF which encourages the growth of new brain cells and connections, which given the rate at which we lose them as we get older, is excellent news.
In short, ‘it is this general action of your head moving up and down (in both exercises) , working against gravity, that seems to benefit the brain.’
I have just discovered that the action of rereading, selecting and typing out has made me attend even more to words I had read before. So many wins for a few minutes doing something while ‘waiting’ (I confess, I used to just phone scroll while waiting of boiling kettle and stewing tea).
I swear I can feel the difference in my brain as I head back up the stairs with the tea, like it’s been bathed or washed. Ah the power of imagination and hope!
Will this become a new habit?
I am persuaded it might because
- I’ve found a place in my daily routines to do it which costs me nothing of value in time or attention
- I am very convinced by the physiological arguments given for its benefit
- I don’t want to get weaker as I age, any more than I have too
- They are easy to do – no equipment needed
- They test me but don’t exhaust me
- I believe I feel immediate benefit
- I can only assume I will improve, maybe one day be able to manage a proper press-up!
- It’s the only change in habits I am trying to make right now
Will I retire?
For a while I’ve been saying that I’ll retire when people stop calling me. But I’m beginning to think I want to be more pro-active in ensuing that I have the opportunity to keep doing work I enjoy, even if at a less intense level than in my fifties!
Sarah Lewis
Please feel free to share the link to this page with any colleagues you feel may be interested. Or, direct them to the newsletter subscription page where they can find out about the newsletter service and subscribe for free.
Please also feel free to add a link to this blog and/or our shop to your website if you think it might add value to your website visitors.
