Positive ageing - what’s all the fuss?

At AgeHappy, our overarching mission is to promote positive ageing!

We feel like this is an incredibly important message to advocate, not only amongst older adults who are overtly impacted, but also for younger generations of the community. After all, no matter our age, we all know (and likely, care for) someone in their older years, whether it be a parent, grandparent, colleague, friend or neighbour.

It is an important responsibility for each of us to appreciate what happens as part of the normal ageing process and to understand some practical ways to help navigate this process without giving up the things we enjoy. In the end, maximising our quality of life is what brings meaning and purpose to our lives. With a bit of luck, all of us will be seniors one day - in essence, we are all ‘older people in training’.

Ok, so what is positive ageing?

To us, positive ageing is about disregarding chronological age as a nonnegotiable determinant of behaviour and mindset. The cliche that ‘age is just a number’ is absolutely true and, at AgeHappy, we are fortunate to bear witness to lived examples on a daily basis. The 96-year old still living at home independently, safely and happily (armed with a cheeky sense of humour). The 94-year old couple still running a high functioning household, complimenting each other's strengths and compensating for the other's weaknesses. The 84-year old using their walker to circle countless laps of the local park each day despite battling multiple chronic health conditions. The common thread between these examples is that they all have a purpose which gives them the motivation to live each day to its potential.

Each older person’s potential is individual to themselves, that is what makes us unique. Positive ageing is about recognising our weaknesses and accepting certain barriers, though intentionally choosing to focus more sharply on our strengths and enablers. Positive ageing is about focusing on the opportunities, not the problem list.

It is true, there is inevitable natural decline in all physiological systems as part of the normal ageing process, however we always have the choice to be proactive and adopt strategies to help combat the velocity, intensity or steepness of this decline. In life there are definitely things we can’t control, however, we always have the ability to control things within our control. We can control our mindset, our self-belief and our actions. If we can support older people to put a more positive spin on each of these elements, you can guarantee they will enjoy a richer quality of life.

One of my favourite affirmations is, ‘no matter your age or current health status, you always have the potential to be better than you were yesterday. No one is perfect, but as long as you are a human, you have the ability to grow and improve’.

In essence, that is what positive ageing is all about. Let’s forget about perfection, and let’s focus on working out the things we enjoy and find ways we can continue to do them as often as possible.