I enjoy looking at reflections. It is meditative, reflective, and contemplative. West Lake and Truc Bach in Hanoi offered endless indulging opportunities – day and night. No man (woman) has seen his face except through mirror reflections. We see “truth” not through our eyes but through our thoughts. I remember telling stories to my mentees about looking at mirrors to check the realities of our lives.
I can still remember my youthful looks; I see my ever-maturing countenance every morning when I wash my face and brush my teeth. But I still feel young at heart, placed in a body that is slowly falling apart. Being young at heart is perhaps the best antidote against internalising ageist beliefs.
Older adults are often stereotyped as slow, weak, feeble and frail. What if we continue to be aged at heart (instead of young at heart)? If we internalise negative beliefs, our confidence will be eroded “I can’t do it – just too old for it”), and our motivation will inadvertently be diminished (“I’m old, and it’s too late to change things”). The health outcomes do not look very pretty if we view ourselves this way.
Research has shown our attitude about ageing is highly predictive of our ageing outcomes. Those with positive attitudes about ageing live longer, have better memory function and recover more quickly from illnesses. In other words, people who feel younger at heart live longer – by 7.5 years. In contrast, older adults who hold negative stereotypes tend to amble, experience memory problems and recover less fully from, for example, a fall or fracture. Hence, real-world “self-inflicted” maladies exist if we continue to hold outdated negative thoughts about ourselves.
As an idealistic young man, I wanted to change the world. As an older individual, I realise that the fastest and most effective way to do so is to change how we view ourselves and the world. And the world can change overnight after we start looking at ageing positively. But what are the negative stereotypes that we could focus on overcoming straight away?
We could start by examining how we think about how our bodies and minds fare in our later years. Ageism is primarily influenced by the concept that our physical and mental capacity is negatively affected through ageing, and younger people are, therefore, more able or capable.
One commonly held ageist idea is that we should not try to learn new things as we cannot learn effectively past a certain age. Admittedly, some types of learning are more accessible to younger individuals, but older generations are often better thinkers because they have a lifetime of knowledge to fall back on. Some cognitive skills, such as reaction times, slow down over time, but other functions remain robust and even improve. For instance, older adults are better at focusing their attention and ignoring distractions.
We become more creative as we grow older, quite the opposite of the stereotypical image that people become less creative as they age. Why is that so? Creativity combines new and old ideas to form new ways of looking at challenges and offering novel (innovative) solutions. This variety of creativity is often called wisdom. Wisdom and age are related.
There are many examples of late bloomers. For instance, the Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli did not start seriously pursuing music until he was in his thirties, but he became one of the world’s most successful musicians. And how about Cliff Richard singing his signature The Young Ones at 75?
We can still savour the joy of living as we grow older – if we only want to and believe we can! Be lifelong learners (活到老学到老) and achievers。
To be continued in Part IV – Reflections on Ageism IV in Hanoi: The Joy of Ageing and Mellowing
Vince
Dr Vincent Chong is a retired Professor of Radiology at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
