At the risk of sounding over-simplistic, the formula for living a long, healthy productive life and avoiding the aging trap entails:
Preserve the health you now have. Health is everything! Dispel the myths of aging. They are a waste of time. Avoid the ruts. Sameness is aging. Keep a positive attitude. It's the only sane decision you can make. Continue to set goals for the future. Stay out of the past.
A 2002 study suggests that having more positive thoughts about growing older may help you live a longer life. One of the findings of this study reported in the Journal of Personality and Psychology, which was led by Psychologist Becca Levy of Yale University, was that people who had positive attitudes about their own aging lived more than 7.6 years longer, than those with negative perceptions. The study covered a period of 23 years and involved 660 men and women, 50 years and older.
