Senior Spotlight: Resilience Is An Often-Unlocked Key To Healthy Aging

“Healthy aging isn't just about avoiding sickness or avoiding stress — that's not really a reasonable goal; healthy aging also refers to our ability to bounce back.”

These words were spoken by Ph.D. Anthony Molina, a professor of medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine at the Stein Symposium on Healthy Aging just last month. His statement echoes what scientific evidence and anecdotal proof from retirees demonstrates – that bouncing back and having resilience is critical to physical, mental, cognitive and emotional health as we age.

Below we have summarized 5 key thoughts from 3 different sources on how resilience benefits older adults and how to improve it! Be sure to read the articles in full below for more details!

#1: Resilience is becoming increasingly more measurable as recent scientific advances can estimate a person’s biological age. This allows the pace of aging to be determined, as well as how certain conditions have progressed and at what point things are high-risk vs. irreversible.

#2: Any level of physical activity (no matter how small!) has been shown to accelerate healing and recovery and build physical resilience.

#3: Social activity impacts smaller brain regions responsible for memory & thinking. Thus, cognitive resilience can be built by getting involved in one’s community, joining groups of those with similar interests and engaging in shared hobbies.

#4: Those with the greatest life longevity, including centenarians, showed the highest rates of cognitive resilience and lowest levels of heart disease! Data points to the fact that staying socially engaged and physically active helps you live longer.

#5: “Happiness experts” assert that happiness builds a superior state of mind. They believe that people should make intentional effort to be happy (it’s not selfish!). If you can adopt self-care and stress management techniques such as gardening, art, music and even clearing spaces in your home – you create ‘room’ for more cognitive and emotional resilience.

Resources Used: Annual Stein Symposium Emphasizes Physical, Mental and Cognitive Resilience in Older Adults; Less cognitive decline, more cognitive resilience among ‘oldest-old,’ study finds; Confront Uncertainty With Resilience Tips from 'Happiness Expert' Gretchen Rubin

We think that the themes of building resilience, cultivating happiness and measuring one’s ability to bounce back are going to be inspiring themes in the aging process in the months and years to come.

Stay tuned, there is a lot to look forward to!

Cheers,

Bobbi

Bobbi Decker
DRE#00607999

Broker Associate
650.346.5352 cell
650.577.3127 efax
www.bobbidecker.com

NAR Instructor….“Designations Create Distinctions”
CIPS, SRS, ABR, CRS, SRES, GRI, CLHMS, REI, AHWD, RSPS, MSLG

Bobbi Decker & Associates fully supports the principles of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Opportunity Act. For more information, please visit: http://portal.hud.gov/