How to Be Happy #42: Get Old
As you can see, this blog is the forty-second entry in my series of sageortedly [purportedly wise] advice on how to find lasting contentment and peace. It looks like I’ve been wasting my (and your) time. All of those pieces suggest we have to do something to make ourselves feel better. Now I find out that’s not the case. All we or anyone need do to get happy is be patient.
This information comes from a Scientific American article titled “The Rue Age: Older Adults Disengage from Regrets, Young People Fixate on Them.” The title errs, though, in making this development seem like a conscious deliberate act: “disengage from regret.” The article’s subtitle makes it clear that this is not the case: “New research suggests the elderly brains are less susceptible to regret than are the brains of the young and depressed.”
I received this revelation from a study in Germany that had its subjects play the following game:
A computer screen depicted a row of eight unopened wooden crates that the volunteers could open one at a time, from left to right. The participants knew that seven of the crates contained gold and that one contained a demon — a cartoonish red devil, pitchfork in hand, who would steal everything the participant had won and end the game if uncovered. Each step of the way, the participants had the chance to stop and walk away with their earnings or keep playing and risk unleashing the demon. If a participant decided to stop while they were ahead, the devil’s position in the row of crates was revealed, showing the participant whether they had missed out on lots more gold or avoided a close call.
The participants played this game from inside an MRI machine so the researchers could analyze their brain activity at the same time, particularly that of the ventral striatum, the “part of the brain that responds to rewards the way a game show clap-o-meter registers applause.” The opposite is true, too, that is, when the individuals “realized they had bowed out too soon,” the ventral striatum activity dropped markedly.
These swings were typical of the 20-somethings and depressed adults but not of “healthy” older adults. For those folks, their “ventral striatum activity barely changed…regardless of whether their decision to leave [the game] cost them more gold.” This apparently happens because our (yes, I’m old) anterior cingulate cortex, which regulates emotions and is linked to the ventral striatum, is more active.
This is good news for anyone (like me) who thinks if something requires you to get off the couch, it’s not worth the effort. Even more encouraging news comes from an SA blog linked to the one above that tells us “it’s getting better all the time: Happiness, well-being increase after 50.” What is even better was finding out that “by the early 70s, that well-being [which drops sharply after 25] was back up to late-teen levels.” I realize the teen happiness pronouncement is making some broad assumptions about a group that has to deal simultaneously with raging hormones, acne, and the challenges of buying alcohol while underage. Even so, I’m willing to accept the researchers’ findings that happiness peaks (again) for septuagenarians.
So, today’s lesson in how to be happy is an easy one. Sit back, relax, and age. If you need a mantra to go with this meditative (or in my case vegetative) state, try “bygones.” As the SA-quoted scientists instruct, “if someone in their 70s regrets that they never had the education or job they wanted, there is no going back to change life circumstances.” If you need more inspiration, listen to Edith Piaf sing “No regrets.” For those of you under 70 seeking happiness, well, sit back, relax, and wait for your telomeres to get shorter. Your anterior cingulate cortex will do the rest.
(Image: “Arrangement in Grey and Black №1,” James Whistler, 1871. Public domain. Okay, I know she doesn’t look overjoyed, but that’s because she’s had a stroke and can only smile on the other side of her face. She’s ecstatic. Really. )
