Your whole life you are told to be positive–and with good reason. According to studies, aging adults who have a positive mental outlook, especially about aging, have 44% less likelihood to develop dementia. It is important to view your life while growing older as a positive one. For example, think about what you can do as you age and not the negative restrictions.

Research has shown that the positive attitude amongst seniors who carry the strongest risk factors to develop dementia—the E4 variant of the APOE gene—were 50% less likely develop the disease than their peers who had negative attitudes about aging.

So now what?

It is important to surround your aging loved ones with positive vibes about growing old. Find the positives in aging and you will be extremely helpful in assisting your aging loved ones from developing dementia.

5 Steps to Keep Your Aging Parents Positive About Growing Old

• Keep Them Physically and Mentally Active
  • Exercising on a regular basis keeps the body and mind healthy and happy. Also, if you do weight training you keep your bones, joints, and muscles in top shape. Go outside and exercise and add another positive benefit of socializing with others or just enjoy the beauty of nature.
• Embrace Healthy Living
  • Keeping a regular diet, sleep habit, and exercise helps you maintain a positive and healthy life. Give up the vices and embrace being healthy, and you will feel not only positive, but also fit to face any fun activities or challenges of the day.
• Be Social
  • Engage in activities that keep you social. You will gain purpose and a positive attitude about living at any age. Social integration helps extend your life and enjoyment of life! Give it a try and call a friend to go to lunch or dinner and a movie.
• Have Purpose
  • Set goals or plans that you have to work toward achieving. Working toward a goal gives you a sense of purpose. A sense of purpose gives a positive vibe for helps you stay healthy as you age. Give it a try!
• Reduce Stress
  • Everyone has stress, but reducing your stress helps build a positive attitude. It is too easy to fall into the negative traps of stress. By eliminating as much as you can, you gain positivity that you can pass along to those around you.

At the end of the day, you want to be positive at every step of aging. Let’s face it: people enjoy being around those that are positive and not grumpy or negative about aging. Be the one giving support and happiness as you age positively!

Want to learn more to help your senior loved one age with positivity? Contact Ann at Senior Living Options to learn all your choices to help your aging loved one through the next stages of living.