We are all born with an intense curiosity and passion to learn. As we get older, this birthright is often obscured by the fear of failure and embarrassment. At school, most of us had little choice regarding the subjects we were supposed to learn. In art class, you had to draw. In math class, you had to do long division. In gym class, you had to play dodgeball — whether you liked it or not. Most of us have experienced the embarrassment of being pushed to perform publicly in an area in which we are unskilled. As adults, we can usually avoid the discomfort and embarrassment associated with learning something unfamiliar. We have more choice regarding what we do and what we learn. Most of us choose to focus only on those areas in which we have obvious natural talent and avoid the subjects that were sources of discomfort in the past. Our negative experiences in school condition us to avoid the new, the challenging, and the unfamiliar.
Education is
the best provision
for old age.
— ARISTOTLE
Instead, break out of habitual patterns and embrace new learning with the curiosity and passion that are your birthright.
You can reclaim your birthright at any age. “No matter how old you may be at this moment, it’s never too late to change your brain for the better,” states neuroscientist Richard Restak, MD. “That’s because the brain is different from every other organ in our body. While the liver and lungs and the kidneys wear out after a certain number of years, the brain gets sharper the more it’s used. Indeed it improves with use.” But what’s the best way to use it?
Breaking out of your habitual patterns by embracing new learning opportunities is one of the simple secrets of revitalizing your mind. It’s much easier to do this if you know that your brain is designed over millions of years of evolution to be the most profoundly powerful learning mechanism in the known universe. It also helps to understand how to make the most of your learning endeavors.
In school, most of us spent the majority of our time learning history, mathematics, social studies, and other subjects. But, unfortunately, the standard curriculum neglects the most important subject — how to learn. Here are some simple ideas that can help you enjoy learning more effectively.
• Let go of the fear of embarrassment and failure. The main impediment to adult learning is the fear of embarrassment and failure. Decide, as Susan Jeffers, PhD, counsels, to “feel the fear and do it anyway.” Artist Georgia O’Keeffe stated, “I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life — and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.”
• Cultivate childlike curiosity. The best way for adults to learn is to approach new learning experiences in an open, playful way, as children do. Make learning fun. Don’t take anything, especially yourself, too seriously. As Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw explained, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
Stimulating the
brain makes it grow in
every conceivable way.
— DR. NORMAN DOIDGE
• Embrace the process. The process of learning something new is more important than the result. The benefit to your brain comes from the attempt to learn. A successful outcome is a bonus.
• Seek new challenges. Welcome change and keep trying new things. Benjamin Franklin cautioned, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.” Get out of your habit pattern. Learn something new and unfamiliar. Take a watercolor painting class, try ballroom dancing or singing lessons. Novelty yields brain benefits. Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, PhD, and his colleagues emphasize that learning a new skill can “change hundreds of millions” of cortical connections.
• Stretch your comfort zone. You can accelerate your improvement by raising the degree of difficulty of your learning challenges: for example, try more complex crossword puzzles or play chess against a more advanced opponent. Marian Diamond, PhD, the world’s leading neuroanatomist, observed that rats who ran through mazes without obstruction didn’t demonstrate improvements in neural complexity, but rats who were challenged by having to climb over obstacles on the way to the proverbial cheese showed significant brain growth. Dr. Diamond argues that the same principle applies to humans. She writes, “Increase the level of environmental stimulation and you will increase the branching of dendrites and the thickness of the human cortex.”
• Invest fifteen minutes every day in new learning. Neuroscientist Daniel G. Amen, MD, points out, “Spending just 15 minutes a day learning something new is all it takes for your brain to benefit from the activity.”
• Begin it now! Start learning something new today. You’ve probably noticed that as you get older, time seems to go faster. So whatever it is that you’ve always wanted to learn, begin it now. You’ll be good at it before you know it. Neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni, MD, PhD, explains, “You can improve your mind as you age, and now is the best time to begin.”
Neuroscientists agree that learning something new is one of the best ways to strengthen your brain as you age. Here are five activities that are particularly beneficial:
• Playing a mental sport
• Learning a new language
• Upgrading your vocabulary
• Learning to juggle
The minute a man ceases
to grow, no matter what his years,
that minute he begins to be old.
— WILLIAM JAMES
Below, each of these is discussed in turn.
There are seven essential tips for strengthening your memory as you age. The first one is this: Maintain a positive attitude about your memory…and…I can’t recall the other six. (Just kidding!)
Memory needn’t decline as you age. It’s actually possible to improve it. And learning to improve your memory makes it easier to learn anything.
Memory is
the mother of all
wisdom.
— AESCHYLUS,
Greek dramatist
In a classic psychological study entitled “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information,” George A. Miller argued that the number of objects an average human can hold in working memory is seven, plus or minus two. Given that, the following are seven essential things you need to know to improve your memory throughout your life.
If you ask any elementary school teacher what children forget in the classroom every day, you’ll learn that in addition to forgetting facts, they also leave behind all sorts of things: books, pens, iPods, etc. When the teacher reminds fourth grader Jason that he left his baseball cap in the coatroom, she doesn’t usually hear “What’s the matter with me? I’m eight years old, and my memory is going!” or “Gosh, another junior moment!” But after age twenty-five or so, many folks begin to focus on any glitch in memory as evidence for its demise. Normal forgetting is catalogued as a “senior moment,” and the decline of memory becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. With a positive attitude, proper nutrition, exercise, and the application of the following simple tips, your memory will improve every year of your life.
If you haven’t registered something in your mind, then it is, of course, quite difficult to recall it. When people believe that their memory is fading, they don’t bother trying to concentrate on registering new information, thus fulfilling their negative expectation. Many people complain, for example, that they can’t remember names, but usually they don’t focus enough to register the name in the first place. Mobilizing and focusing your attention are one of the simplest secrets to strengthening your memory.
Visual types learn best by reading or otherwise seeing what they want to remember. Auditory learners prefer listening. They will remember the content of a book much better if they listen to it on tape or read it aloud. Individuals with a more kinesthetic learning style are more hands-on — they learn and remember best when they are moving and physically interacting rather than sitting passively at a desk. One of the simplest ways to strengthen your recall is to learn things in your preferred mode.
Recall works best by association. The more associations you create, the easier it is to remember. For example, if you want to remember someone’s name, find out where he lives and what he does, then make connections in your mind with other people from the same area and/or profession.
Understanding isn’t the same thing as remembering. It’s possible to comprehend what you are reading, for example, and then forget it all immediately. Therefore, it’s important to review. If you want to remember these memory tips, then reread this section later today. Take notes, and then review your notes. Then take a blank sheet of paper and, without looking at your notes or the book, re-create your notes from memory. As you attempt to do this, you strengthen the new synapses in your brain and consolidate the new learning.
Memorization is a marvelous tonic for your powers of recall. In his superb essay “In Defense of Memorization,” Michael Knox Beran explains, “The memorization and recitation of the classic utterances of poets and statesmen form part of a tradition of learning that stretches back to classical antiquity, when the Greeks discovered that words and sounds — and the rhythmic patterns by which they were bound together in poetry — awakened the mind and shaped character.”
You can awaken your mind and enrich your character by memorizing your favorite poems or, perhaps, the speeches or soliloquies that you find most inspiring. Begin by memorizing this wonderful poem about thinking “counterclockwise,” adapted from “Youth and Age” by the Greek lyric poet Anacreon:
When I see the young men play,
Young I think I am as they,
And my aged thoughts aside,
To the dance with joy I stride;
Come, your grace and smile lend me;
Youth and mirthful thoughts attend me;
Age begone, we’ll dance among
Youthful spirits, and be young;
Bring some wine and fill my glass;
Now you’ll see me shake my a——;
I can dance and tipple too,
And be wild as well as you.
Over the course of twenty years of research, Helga Noice, PhD, and her husband, Tony Noice, PhD, have discovered that it’s easier to remember lines, such as the lines of a poem or script, when moving in a way appropriate to the relevant character. Writing in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, the Noices explain that physical and emotional engagement facilitate recall. They received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund their innovative research into the benefits of theater training for older adults and have discovered that acting-based methods, including memorization, help those adults counter cognitive decline.
Here is a way to strengthen your powers of memorization, using the poem above:
• Read the poem three times.
• Read the poem three more times, aloud.
• Record your recitation, and play it back a few times before you go to sleep.
• Practice reciting two lines at a time from memory until you can do them all.
• Pretend you are a character in a Greek play. Move around and gesture as you recite the poem.
In addition to poems, you can, of course, apply the practice of memorization to anything you desire: names, storytelling, songs, jokes.
Teaching, or simply sharing your new learning with others, is one of the most powerful ways to consolidate learning and strengthen your memory. If you learn the samba at dance class, show your new moves to a willing friend. When you attend a reading or lecture by your favorite author, express what you learned to anyone who’s available to listen.
The ancient Greeks pioneered the development of memory systems, also known as mnemonics (named after Mnemosyne, the goddess of unlimited memory). Mnemonics were created to help orators remember the content of their speeches (notes were not allowed). In the process, the Greeks illuminated the nature of memory and discovered ways to help cultivate it throughout life.
The Greeks understood that the mind works by association — in other words, by linking one word, image, idea, or feeling with another. Recall is based on a reliable pattern of association, and creativity is discovering new patterns of association. The Greeks realized that associations can be made more reliable by applying the following principles:
• Create images in your mind’s eye. If you wished to remember the words dog and bicycle together, you might create an image of a dog riding a bicycle.
• Make the images specific and vivid. What breed of dog? What color bicycle? A black Labrador on a red bicycle is easier to remember than a generic dog and bicycle.
• Keep the elements that you are aiming to remember physically linked in your mind’s eye. Don’t create an image, for example, of a dog chasing a bicycle. Why not? Because the images aren’t “physically” linked in your mind’s eye, and when you think of a dog you might forget what it was chasing.
Let’s apply the Greek principles to memorizing something that many people have probably learned and forgotten: the planets of the solar system in order from the Sun. Take a moment and write them down or just say them aloud. (For the sake of this example, we’ll include Pluto as a planet.)
Perhaps you learned a phrase to help you remember the planets, such as this one: “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas.” The first letter of each of these words is designed to remind us of the respective planet: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.
Although phrases can be a form of mnemonics, they don’t fully employ the Greek principles and aren’t as reliable as mnemonic devices that do, because you still have to remember what the letters represent. To remember the planets in order in an unforgettable way, you’ll use your imaginative right hemisphere to create a vivid, visual story line as follows. (The story line does require a rudimentary knowledge of Greek/Roman mythology.)
Picture the Sun. It’s hot. How hot is it? Plunge in a thermometer to find out. The thermometer boils over and out shoots a drop of Mercury (see it glistening in space next to the Sun). A beautiful goddess draped in gossamer robes comes floating through space to catch that drop, and she is the lovely Venus. She releases the drop, and it plummets into the middle of your backyard on the planet Earth. Your neighbor is upset by all this commotion, and he charges over to confront you. His big red face lets you know that he is the god of war, Mars. Then, strolling down your street, just in time to save you, comes the elegant king of the gods, Jupiter, clothed in regal armor. On Jupiter’s breastplate, emblazoned in bright purple, are the letters S-U-N. They stand for: Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. And standing on Jupiter’s right shoulder is a little Disney dog laughing at all this, Pluto (not Goofy!).
If you review this imaginative story line and create vivid images in your mind’s eye, you’ll discover that it’s almost impossible to forget the planets. Most people experience an immediate, dramatic improvement in their ability to remember the planets when they apply these simple memory principles. Experiencing an improvement in your ability to memorize builds confidence in your memory power. Once you realize that you can improve your memory throughout life, you’ll discover a more optimistic, positive approach toward learning anything.
You can learn more about mnemonics, including how to apply them to remembering names and faces, in Tony Buzan’s classic book Master Your Memory. Buzan also pioneered the development of another tool that will strengthen your memory (and your creative thinking ability) throughout life: Mind Maps. Most of us learned to generate, organize, and attempt to remember ideas by outlining. Outlining is a top-down, hierarchical, and unwieldy way of trying to think and remember. It overemphasizes linear, left-brain processing and doesn’t involve the part of the brain that is best at memorizing — the imaginative right hemisphere.
A Mind Map is a whole-brain method for organizing and remembering things. It is structured in a way that mirrors how the brain works — in an organic, flowing, associative manner. The Mind Mapping process is easy to learn. It combines key words and images in a simple format. Studies show that Mind Mapping improves recall. Research has demonstrated that students who applied Mind Mapping scored, on average, 32 percent better on tests of recall than those who used conventional notes. The best resource for learning Mind Mapping is Tony Buzan’s The Mind Map Book.
EXPLORE THE BRAIN FITNESS PROGRAM
Another great tool for strengthening your memory is the Brain Fitness Program developed by neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich. The program utilizes visual and auditory stimuli to “speed up brain processing,” “sharpen processing accuracy,” and “stimulate the neuromodulatory machinery that controls recording.” In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Merzenich and his colleagues showed that older adults who completed the Brain Fitness Program experienced “enhancement of cognitive function.” Most notably, “memory enhancement appeared to be sustained after a 3-month no-contact follow-up period.”
In addition to strengthening your memory directly, you can also optimize your mental powers as the years go by, with the activities described in the rest of this chapter.
Novelist Raymond Chandler once remarked, “Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.” It turns out, however, that Chandler was wrong about chess (although some might argue that he was probably right about advertising). Playing chess or other challenging mental sports can lower the risk of developing dementia by as much as 74 percent, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study’s lead author, Joe Verghese, MD, emphasizes that the findings, collected over more than two decades, demonstrate that continuing participation in a range of mentally stimulating activities serves to protect the health of the brain. He explains, “If you exercise and build up muscles then you become more resistant to injury and other illnesses. If you exercise your brain then you are also more resistant to the effects of…illnesses such as Alzheimer’s.”
The researchers also discovered that, in addition to people who play chess and bridge, those who read regularly accrue significant brain benefits. Crossword puzzle enthusiasts also demonstrated a lower risk of dementia, but not as significant as that of chess and bridge players.
Although some consider playing chess and bridge to be forms of dementia in their own right, the mental gymnastics involved do exercise the brain vigorously. International grandmaster Raymond Keene is the chess columnist of the London Times and the world’s leading expert on mental sports. According to Keene, “The infinite possibilities and rigorous complexities of the game of chess challenge the mind to ever greater levels of precision, clarity, and imagination.” Keene also notes that “besides chess, the games of go and bridge offer the greatest complexity and mental challenge.” Screen legend Omar Sharif, a world-class bridge player, comments, “Many games provide fun, but bridge grips you. It exercises your mind. Your mind can rust, you know, but bridge prevents the rust from forming.” Learn chess or bridge to stimulate your brain’s infinite possibilities and prevent cognitive rust.
TUNE YOUR BRAIN AND YOUR HORMONES —
LEARN A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
The Music Making and Wellness Project, an international collaboration between experts in music therapy, medicine, biochemistry, psychology, psychiatry, gerontology, and keyboard pedagogy, found that older adults who took music lessons showed measurable improvements in their sense of well-being (including lower levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness) compared with a control group. And their blood tests indicated a 90 percent increase in levels of human growth hormone, the hormone associated with youthful energy and sexual function.
A contributor to the study, Professor Midori Koga, explains her inspiration: “My grandfather began taking violin lessons in his late 70s.…he seemed to fall in love with music. In Japan, the 88th birthday of a man’s life is considered an important milestone. As my grandfather approached this event, he decided that he would like to present his first concert to celebrate the special day. The concert was a lovely, memorable experience for all involved, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the hall. Those of us who loved him dearly were touched at the way he responded to his music; he played as a child plays, with joy, heart and pure abandon.…He used to say, ‘This is keeping me young! I wake up each morning happy to know that I have so much to learn today.’ ”
Learning to speak a new language is one of the most effective ways to keep your mind sharp as you prevent memory loss and other symptoms associated with age-related ailments. And, as with the other activities that strengthen your mind over the years, you don’t have to become an expert to get the benefits. “You don’t have to master it,” explains Andrew Weil, MD, author of Healthy Aging. “Just the attempt to learn a language is like running different software through the brain.”
Leonardo da Vinci taught himself Latin when he was forty years old so that he could read the classics that were becoming available due to the invention of the printing press. Now, thanks to a range of excellent accelerated-learning immersion courses and brain-friendly software programs, language learning for adults is much easier than it was in Leonardo’s day.
Despite these remarkable advances in language-learning strategy and technology, many adults still believe, erroneously, that learning a new language is much easier for children and almost impossible in middle age and beyond. However, a growing body of research demonstrates that older people can learn new languages, and that adults may actually be better and faster language learners than children.
When I was young
I was amazed at Plutarch’s
statement that the elder
Cato began at the age of eighty
to learn Greek. I am amazed
no longer. Old age is ready to
undertake tasks that youth
shirked because they would
take too long.
— W. SOMERSET
MAUGHAM
“Studies comparing the rate of second language acquisition in children and adults have shown that…in the long run, adults actually learn languages more quickly than children,” reports Mary J. Schleppegrell, PhD, of the University of Michigan. She adds, “Learning ability does not decline with age. If older people remain healthy, their intellectual abilities and skills do not decline.”
Traditional academic language programs were based on an overly analytical “left-brained” approach. Classes focused on verb conjugations and vocabulary words. It didn’t work very well. The secret of effective adult language learning is to re-create the original learning approach of childhood, involving students in experiences that emphasize context and action more than theory and abstractions.
For example, in a progressive French class, students don berets and wield baguettes. The walls are plastered with colorful posters of Paris and the French countryside. An Édith Piaf recording graces the proceedings. The students are acting out a scene using only French. When a mistake is made, the teacher simply models the correct word, usage, or pronunciation, which the student then repeats. The teacher aims to “catch the students doing something right.” Emphasis is placed on expressive gesture and body language. The room is filled with animation, laughter, and joie de vivre. This playful approach to learning isn’t just more fun; it’s much faster and more effective.
The remarkably successful Rosetta Stone language-learning software, used by NASA and Thomson Reuters, among many other institutions, is based on this more natural, intuitive approach to learning. As their website explains, “We’ve eliminated the traditional approach of using translation and grammar rules, empowering you to think in your new language. There are no flash cards, dictionaries or memorization drills.…By surrounding you with words, images and the voices of native speakers…you progress naturally from words and phrases to sentences and conversations.”
Learn a new
language and get
a new soul.
— Czech proverb
Learning a new language opens up new worlds of thought, imagination, and connection. The great filmmaker Federico Fellini commented, “A different language is a different vision of life.” This expanded vision of life strengthens your memory and your resistance to age-related cognitive difficulties. A study published in the journal Psychology and Aging reported that subjects who spoke a second language “responded more rapidly to conditions that placed greater demands on working memory.” The researchers noted that the benefits of bilingualism were “greater for older participants” and concluded that “there is a correlation between bilingualism and the offset of age-related cognitive losses.”
In addition to learning a new language, it’s also helpful to continually upgrade your vocabulary in your primary language. Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks contain hundreds of words that he copied, along with definitions, to strengthen his facility for words in his native Italian. As Leonardo understood, the best way to improve your vocabulary is to write down words you want to learn and then practice using them in context. You can find new words to learn by reading avidly, enjoying Scrabble or crossword puzzles, and exploring the dictionary. For example, you can subscribe to an online word-of-the-day service such as the excellent one offered by Merriam-Webster (www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/). You can also find iPhone apps for chess, bridge, Scrabble, Sudoku, and many other “brain games.”
Many studies show that a strong vocabulary correlates with success in life. Psychometrician Johnson O’Connor conducted pioneering research demonstrating that vocabulary level was the single strongest predictor of occupational success in a wide range of disciplines. Moreover, O’Connor emphasized that because vocabulary can be strengthened throughout life, it was a simple and profound secret for cultivating human potential and improving the mind with age.
In a January 2004 news bulletin, the BBC led with the headline “Juggling ‘Can Boost Brain Power.’ ” The same day, CNN reported, “Juggling Good for the Brain, Study Shows.” A few days later, a headline in Medical News Today read, “Juggling Makes Your Brain Bigger — New Study.”
Iron rusts from disuse;
stagnant water loses its purity…
even so does inaction sap the vigor
of the mind.
— LEONARDO DA VINCI
What was the inspiration for these global headlines? The publication in the January 22, 2004, edition of the scientific journal Nature of an article entitled “Neuroplasticity: Changes in Grey Matter Induced by Training.” The article, published by a team of German researchers, described the effects of regular juggling practice on the adult brain. The researchers found that fifteen minutes of daily juggling practice over the course of three months resulted in a significant increase in the brain’s gray matter. The nonjuggling control group showed no improvements in the brain.
Find three balls and get started now by following these simple instructions.
1. Stand in a balanced, upright posture and enjoy a few deep, full breaths, allowing generous exhalations. Start with one ball and toss it back and forth, from hand to hand, in a gentle arc just above your head.
2. Take two balls, one in each hand. Toss the ball in your right hand; when it reaches its high point, toss the ball in your left hand in the same manner. Focus on smooth, easy throws, and let both balls drop.
3. Same as step 2, only this time, catch the first toss. Let the second one drop.
4. Same as step 2, only this time, catch both tosses.
5. Now you are ready to try three balls (you’ll be truly juggling now because you’ll have more balls than hands). Take two balls in one hand and one in the other. Toss the front ball in the hand that has two balls. When it reaches its high point, throw the single ball in your other hand. When that reaches its high point, throw the remaining ball. Do not try to catch them; just relax, and let them all drop.
6. Same as step 5, only this time, catch the first toss.
7. Same as step 5, only this time, catch the first two tosses. If you catch the first two balls and remember to throw the third, you will notice that there is only one ball remaining in the air. Catch the third ball. Guess what? You’re juggling!
The study was a landmark in our understanding of the brain’s ability to effectively re-create itself over time with appropriate training. The researchers also found, however, that the brain benefits began to fade after the subjects stopped regular juggling practice. The research team summarized its findings by stating simply, “The brain is like a muscle, we need to exercise it.”
Another study, published in 2006 by German researchers, compared progress in three-ball juggling performance between people from different age groups. After simple instructions were given, all subjects, ranging in age from fifteen to eighty-nine, engaged in a series of six practice sessions. The over-sixty group learned quickly and effectively. The researchers concluded, “Older adults exhibit high reserve capacity, that is, a potential for learning new motor skills.”
Learning memory systems, mental sports, new languages, new vocabulary, and juggling are all wonderful ways to maintain a vibrant, lively mind. Other especially beneficial activities include dance, creative writing, tai chi, cooking, drawing, and becoming computer and web savvy. Although these activities offer special benefits, the greatest benefit probably accrues from your engagement with any activity that is new and challenging. As neuroscientist Daniel G. Amen, MD, emphasizes, “New learning actually causes new connections to form in your brain.…It has a positive effect on your brain and can help keep it young. The best mental exercise is acquiring new knowledge and doing things you haven’t done before.”
If I had to live my life
again I would have made a rule to
read some poetry and listen to some music
at least once a week; for perhaps the parts
of my brain now atrophied could thus
have been kept active through use.
— CHARLES DARWIN
What’s the single greatest factor contributing to happiness and fulfillment as we age? Wisdom! More than two millennia ago, the Greek playwright Sophocles observed, “Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.” Contemporary research supports the ancient playwright’s musing. A study coauthored by Paul B. Baltes, PhD, former director of the Center of Lifespan Psychology at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, explains, “Lifelong learning and continued education are essential for older people who want to stay involved in a rapidly changing world. However, in the later years of life, it may be even more important to acquire the timeless and universal knowledge of wisdom.” Gerontologist Monika Ardelt, PhD, concurs. She summarizes the results of her extensive investigations by stating, “Wisdom has a profoundly positive influence on life satisfaction independent of objective circumstances.”
What is wisdom? Dr. Baltes’s study defines it as “an expert knowledge system concerning the fundamental pragmatics of life.” It has a lot to do with perspective, and it’s manifest in gratitude, forgiveness, and humor. William James quipped that it is “the art of knowing what to overlook.” Wisdom includes accurately assessing and serenely accepting the things we can’t change, and finding the courage to continue pursuing our goals in alignment with our deepest purpose, especially when faced with adversity. Recent studies also suggest a correlation between our tenure on the planet and the depth of our wisdom.
Marc E. Agronin, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist and author of How We Age, treats patients in their eighties, nineties, and beyond. Although many of his patients are confronted with the maladies and infirmities associated with getting older, Dr. Agronin believes that “the problems of aging must be weighed against the promises.” As he sees it, “aging equals vitality, wisdom, creativity, spirit and ultimately hope.”