The Seven Habits That Lead to Happiness in Old Age...how many are you doing?

[Demovictory9]

1. Don’t smoke—or if you already smoke, quit now.

2. Watch your drinking.

3. Maintain a healthy body weight.

4. Prioritize movement in your life by scheduling time for it every day and sticking to it.

5. Practice your coping mechanisms now. The earlier you can find healthy ways to deal with life’s inevitable distresses, the more prepared you’ll be if ill luck strikes in your 80s.

6. Keep learning. More education leads to a more active mind in old age, and that means a longer, happier life.

7. Do the work to cultivate stable, long-term relationships now. For most people, this includes a steady marriage, but other relationships with family, friends, and partners can fit in this category as well. The point is to find people with whom you can grow, whom you can count on, no matter what comes your way.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/02/happiness-age-investment/622818/

[Sherman A1]

1. Pretty much

Not everything perfectly, but nothing is ever perfect.

[Piasladic]

2. 1 and 6

I guess 7, but if he croaks, I'm screwed.

[Silver Gaia]

3. Need to work on one, but am starting that.

(Not number one, just one of them. It's doable.)

[MuseRider]

4. All but #7

I am very isolated. My husband has always taken good care of himself for himself. Lol, this Russia mess has got him all freaked out, sometimes being isolated is a good thing!

[hlthe2b]

5. 8. Have a beloved pet--preferably one that requires outdoor walking/exercise.

[Demovictory9]

7. #9 get lots of sleep. contradicted by #8 ...pet gets me up at 4am!

[hlthe2b]

8. You merely have to adapt your sleep to theirs, napping thoughout the day--LOL

[gab13by13]

6. You forgot golf.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. Forget golf. It's a bloated waste of habitat and is inefficient at all goals.

Well, maybe for nearly-richies and wanna-be-richies it's a great way to hobnob with richies. But they should dispense with the golf and just hang out in the clubhouse.

Golf courses are a blight on the landscape.

The land takes away good ecological habitats or should be used for housing.

The maintenance leaks fertilizer and (usually) insecticides, herbicides, and other awful chemicals into the environment.

The "exercise" is pitiful. Golf carts? I know I know, expecting executives to lug golf bags without lackeys to carry them is too much. So the "exercise" is never right for exercise.

Fresh air? Walk or bike on trails or around the city or wherever. Efficient low-impact healthy exercise, easy to arrange, no club fees.

With walking you meet real people, not just the rarified atmosphere that so many aspire to and will never achieve.

[Skittles]

26. but....but.....

what about the part where you keep hitting the ball until you put it in the hole, and then you do it again and again and again

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[TlalocW]

9. All of them

And I've never been MORE PISSED OFF in my life!!!

TlalocW

[Vinca]

11. I don't know. I might be happier if I took up 2 again.

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. #8 Stay tuned in politically. Subscribe to real newspapers and support sites like DU with...

your $$. It may not help your mental health, but we are part of this world and should keep abreast of things.

Also #9 DON'T be a Republican. If you are, wise up and change parties.

[multigraincracker]

13. Hit a healthy BMI and now just

7 more pounds to my perfect weight. Love my retirement gig. Going through a batch of paintings I got, I found a real signed Picasso etching. Been smiling for days now.
Only down side to getting old, many of my friends are dropping dead.
Ran my first 10k at age 72. Getting close to the wedding day with the love of my life.
In my Golden Years. 😋

[panader0]

15. Congrats on getting hitched. If you have any questions about it, I've done it three times.

And the 10K. I'm 71 and I'm not sure if I could run one, but I could walk it. And I've lost most of
my old friends too. Not sure if these are the Golden years or the Rust years.

[multigraincracker]

16. Not a record time by any means,

just a record for me. Never ran a mile until I was 62.
My 3rd and her 4th. None of those ever felt right. This one does. I owe her my life as she has already saved mine twice. She’s an RN and the last time, I told her, boy do I feel tired. She took my pulse and took me to the ER. My pulse was 28 bpm. Came home with a pacemaker. May have saved hers, took her 300 miles away from a psycho relative and she hasn’t had a panic attack after the move.

[usonian]

27. Glad that you are doing well.

I am 73 and was married to an RN for 27 years. She discharged me! She moved some 300 miles from a psycho relative (so she thinks) ... ME!

Anyway, I never ran but I'm living on a ridge, so any walking not roughly north and south is a hillclimb. My favorite sunset observation spot is halfway down, about 50 feet or 5 flights of stairs.

I keep more than busy with photography, piano and brush clearing when I have extra energy to burn. Thank goodness, only the summer heat wears me down, so I limit outdoor activities then, and carry some hydration. A neighbor who works in the national parks helped me trim some trees in warm weather. I couldn't figure why he carried a backpack. So when he was ready to go home, and I was slipping some beer in his cart, I discovered ice in the backpack. COOL idea.

Stay well!

[Mr. Ected]

14. Don't base your happiness on other's misfortunes

Unless the other has orange skin, bloviates daily, and keels on national television after an impassioned speech lauding Putin.

[lastlib]

17. I'm watching my drinking.....

The glass goes up..... ....the glass goes down.
The glass goes up..... ....the glass goes down.
The glass goes up..... ....the glass goes down..........

[Demovictory9]

18. lol...ok. now go for a walk around the block

[lastlib]

19. on my broken leg?

My block is five miles around. No, thanks. Plus it's snowing, with an inch on the ground. Later I plan to drive my car out to the mailbox.

HAND

[Demovictory9]

20. 😢

Sorry bout the leg

[Skittles]

21. learn to love your own company should be in there

ya know?

[Xavier Breath]

22. Well, I started off on a roll

but after item two it went downhill. Clearly there's work to be done.

[Ocelot II]

23. All but #7.

I never had a lot of friends in the first place, and most of them have drifted away or died; and I haven't got much family left either. But I have a cat. And a lot of interests and activities; I'm good on ## 1-6 so I figure I'm in pretty good shape.

[csziggy]

28. Same for me - have acquaintances, not a lot of real friends

Too many people I thought were friends screwed me over. Good thing I am an introvert and don't feel the need for a lot of people around me. My mother was like that - which turned out OK for her since she outlived everybody she knew other than her family. Outliving my father was what knocked her off her pins - they were married for 67 years so once he was gone she pretty much had little to live for.

Here she is at 96 with the only great grandchild she got to meet:


I do have a great husband who has taken good care of me, and four cats who would miss me.

[cinematicdiversions]

24. Ida Keeling

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Keeling

Ida Olivia Keeling (née Potter, May 15, 1915 – August 25, 2021) was an American centenarian track and field athlete. Trained by her daughter Cheryl (Shelley) Keeling, herself a World Record holder, Ida holds Masters records in 60 meter and 100 meter distances for women in the 95-99 and 100-plus age groups.

In 2011, at 95 years old, Keeling set the world record in her age group for running 60 meters at 29.86 seconds at a track meet in Manhattan,[3] and in 2012 she set the W95 American record at the USATF Eastern Regional Conference Championships at 51.85.[4] In 2014, at the 2014 Gay Games, Keeling set the fastest known time by a 99-year-old woman for the 100-meter dash at 59.80 seconds, at the time the relevant USA Track & Field webpage did not include a 100-meter record for US women older than the 90–94 age division.

On April 30, 2016, Keeling became the first woman in history to complete a 100-meter run at the age of 100. Her time of 1:17.33 was witnessed by a crowd of 44,469 at the 2016 Penn Relays.

She died in August 2021 at the age of 106.

[Mr.Bill]

25. I'm good on #2.

I watch my drinking almost every day.

Seriously, aside from a happy marriage, I'm not doing well on #7. All my life I have gravitated for some reason to people older than me. Usually by about ten years. Lately this has led to attending more funerals.