#91 -- Successful Aging w/Dr Alan Castel

Outline of discussion

1. What is mindset, and how does it relate to aging?
2. How is mindset similar to or related to placebo or nocebo effects?  Why does belief make such a difference?  Why is “believing is seeing” so powerful?
3. How can we take advantage of this human mechanism of our brain …to enjoy our lives more, and accomplish more of what we want in our lives? 
4. How can we focus on adapting to our changing abilities without dwelling on the lose of ability?  As we get older we seem to get slower for some reason. How do we keep from feeling badly about that?  Where’s the upside to aging as an athlete?

ABC's of Aging

(A)ttitude - positive attitude to facilitate doing the things that make you happy vs. dwelling on what you cannot do any longer due to age

(B)alance - physical and mental balance. Physical balance is the sense of balance that can weaken as we get older, and can be trained to avoid falls which may put us out of the game. But also finding balance in life is important.

(C)onnection -- connect with the things you find important and the people who make life meaningful.

Dr. Alan D. Castel

Alan D. Castel is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on how cognition changes with age and how people selectively remember important events. His work has been supported by the National Institute on Aging and has been featured in The New York Times and Time Magazine. He received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2004, completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, and has been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at UCLA since 2006.

Age is an important number, but it can also be deceiving. After 40, most people say they feel younger than their years, some lie about their age, and many attempt to hide the signs of growing old.

Although most people think of their later years in terms of decline, they can be one of the best times in life.

We are all aging, and many people are concerned about what to expect with advancing years. Retirement, happiness, and brain health are some of the many topics covered in this book. Better with Age shows what we can do now, at any stage in life, to make sure we enjoy old age.

Contact

Book Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging TEDx Talk How We Learn as We Age UCLA Department of Psychology http://castel.psych.ucla.edu