In the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s 2015 World Happiness Report, Malta improved its standing as the world’s 37th happiest country, up from 48th place two years earlier. And this is good news because being happy promotes longevity, and longevity promotes happiness.
With older adults there is a conspiracy to make us happy. Not only do happy people live longer but older adults are more likely to become happier with age. To understand this relationship, we need to venture into the psychology of happiness. Barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, argues that happiness comes from accepting what you have and being happy with the choices you make.
Having more choices makes us less happy. This mirrors Daniel Gilbert’s cheerfully engaging Stumbling On Happiness, which argues that it does not matter what we choose in life as long as we accept our choices. And this acceptance translates to living longer.
In 2010, Alex Bishop and his colleagues working with the Georgia Centenarian Study found that happiness among these exceptionally older people was defined by three statements, one of which was: “I would not change my past life even if I could.”
This is an important admission. If you are getting frailer, becoming more diminished, experiencing the loss of lovers, friends and colleagues and facing increasing challenges, you have limited options none of which seem positive.
The best utilisation of your energies is to accept the changes and assume you are destined to be here – wherever ‘here’ is. Psychologists call this a positive character disposition and strong adaptability to the adversities of life. You are meant to be where you are, wrinkles and all.
This attitude starts earlier in life. Accepting all the choices you made, painful loss, forgiving people and being content with what you have in terms of money and health is how you tell your body that you are happy where you are and that you are not ready to go just yet. You belong here still. Even if you could change circumstances, you would choose the same path because that is what made you.
By the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were when they were 18
W. P. Kinsella in his book Shoeless Joe admits that “success is getting what you want; happiness is wanting what you get”. We are too concerned with success and our idea of what success should be. But older age has a lesson: if you live long enough, you find that older adults are programmed to remember happy thoughts.
A 2008 US Gallup telephone survey of more than 340,000 adults found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of 50. In fact, by the age of 85, people are happier with their life than they were when they were 18.
Donna Rose Addis from the University of Auckland (New Zealand) and her colleagues reported in 2011 that older adults’ ability to remember positive events is linked to the way in which the brain processes emotions.
Using a machine that takes a picture of the electrical activity while the person is awake and conducting some activity, they found that older adults shared parts of the brain that process emotions and make memories. These findings suggest that older adults are better at remembering the good times because the brain regions that process positive emotions also process memory. Living longer makes you remember positive emotions better.
Numerous studies continue to show that living longer relates to this ability to see things in a positive light. Research found that older individuals with more positive self-perceptions of ageing measured up to 23 years earlier lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive self-perceptions. This advantage remained after accounting for differences in age, gender, socio-economic status, loneliness and functional health.
Being happy also relates to being philanthropic and giving back to people. Anthropologists point out that early developed societies practised helping others as a social norm. There appears to be a fundamental human drive towards helping others, especially in Malta where most older adults who volunteer report doing it to help others and to improve their country.
Evolution suggests that human nature evolved emotionally and behaviourally by increasing longevity for those who help others. We seem to prosper under the protective influence of positive emotions.
Being happy was always seen as important. If you do 20 minutes of exercise, three days per week for six months, your general feeling of happiness will improve by 10 to 20 per cent. And the happiest people develop about 50 per cent more antibodies than average in response to flu vaccines.
Positive emotions not only make you feel good; they also reduce blood pressure, promote better heart health, reduce frailty and promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle.
No wonder happy people live longer. So go out there and make yourself happy.
Mario Garrett was born in Cospicua and went to St Paula Technical School before moving to England with his family. He is currently a professor of gerontology at San Diego State University in California, US.