Posted on 12/09/2014 5:04:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
We all want to be happy, don’t we? Well, if you’re dissatisfied, frustrated or downright miserable, cheer up. There’s apparently a cure for you. Even better, it will materialize automatically. Just sit and wait; the very anticipation of its arrival might improve your spirits. The remedy: getting older.
It’s counterintuitive. In our mind’s eye, old age is to be endured as much as enjoyed. People fear declining health, growing dependence and increasing social isolation. But on average, they also count themselves happier. Consult public opinion surveys, and that’s what you find. Almost 40 percent of Americans 65 and older rated themselves “very happy” compared with only 33 percent of those 35 to 49, report surveys by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.
This is not just an American quirk. An expanding scholarly research finds similar patterns in many advanced countries. Happiness seems to have a shape — a “U-curve.” Life satisfaction falls “for the first couple of decades of adulthood,” hits bottom in the late 40s or early 50s “and then, until the very last years, [increases] with age,” as Jonathan Rauch writes in the current issue of the Atlantic.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Guys never met my mother in law.
RE: Guys never met my mother in law.
They would have been unhappy even if they were much younger.... :)
As you get older you tend to remember only the good times.
“Time heals all wounds” is another old wives tales with a nugget of truth. Nugget because we all know that some wounds never heal completely, they just fester and pop every once in a while. Bell curve anyone?
:)
BS
Ahhh....but there is a source of happiness as one gets older:
“Time wounds all heels.”
;^)
Personally, I think the author missed the obvious point that people who are miserable, depressed, and stressed out usually die young as a result of what this misery does to their health, and that’s why there are so few of them among us “old folks.”
I have many puss filled old wounds. If they ever pop there will be hell to pay. AS I get older I am better at keeping the bandages tight.
Ask Jesus to take those old things away from you.
Nope. They are motivational.
I have been so much happier since I made an overt decision to eliminate all liberals from my life. None in my circle of friends, no email buddies, no relationships with liberal family members or any liberal neighbors. None.
My dad told me when I was young and headed out into the world on my own, that half the people you'll meet in your life either will not like you or agree with you. So don't focus on them. Focus on the other half of the people. I never paid much attention to that advice until I started realizing that the liberals that were sprinkled around my life were causing me the most distress and angst. Liberals are, as a lot, insufferable, negative and hate-filled people. Those traits rub off on others they interact with. Eliminating them completely life is the best thing I've ever done. I'd recommend it to anyone.
I second that wonderful strategy. My happiness in life has increased many-fold after I implemented it several years ago. Say “no” to LIBs.
“Personally, I think the author missed the obvious point that people who are miserable, depressed, and stressed out usually die young as a result of what this misery does to their health”
Survival of the happiest. I like it. :-)
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