Ted (www.ted.com) is a non-profit organization that features presentations from some of the brightest minds worldwide. My birthday is nearing so the talk by Laura Carstensen, ‘Are Older People Happier?’ caught my attention.
Ms. Carstensen’s research had a positive outcome. Older people were more positive, engaged with sadness more comfortably and directed their attention and memory to positive experiences rather than negative experiences. This group also view injustice with ‘compassion not despair’. But why? Per Carstensen, humans can monitor time (life time). As we feel our time horizon shrink we change our perspective to focus on the positive. We live in the moment and see our priorities more clearly. She concludes with the following quote. “If we capitalize on the very real strengths of older people, then the added years of life can dramatically improve the quality of life at all ages.”
Watch the presentation and form your own conclusion. Go further and watch a TED talk each day. They are only 15 minutes long and are very thought provoking.
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