Emotions

There’s a lot in the world to be anxious about these days, and that doesn’t even include your own personal set of challenges and losses as you get older. There’s no doubt that similar to childbirth, you never really know what getting older will be like until you actually go…

No doubt this Fall continues to feed a sense of stress and anxiety in many of us. With escalating rhetoric and war in Ukraine, important upcoming elections, and inflation clouding our economic prosperity, it’s no wonder many of us are nervous these days. But as we’ve discussed in previous posts,…

We spend a lot of time and attention focusing on aspects of physical health and how eating a healthy diet, getting sufficient sleep, or keeping your body moving are essential for aging in a healthier way. What may not get enough attention, however, are the psychological factors that can also…

We’ve noted it before and we can now say it again: Looking on the bright side of life may allow you to experience a better and longer life. Two newly reported studies seem to confirm that those of us who take an optimistic view toward life may be rewarded with…

The received wisdom is that the older we get, the happier we find ourselves. Known as the paradox of aging, there’s a “U” curve in the aging literature that seems to suggest that most people reach a low point of happiness in midlife but then begin to climb back up…

The Roman philosopher Seneca once said, “Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” Yet in this day and age, kindness appears to be too often in short supply: we have divisive, brutish politics, brutal armies destroying innocent people, and cities and rural areas in…