Why age.com

Scientists are increasingly interested in this quality. Various studies have even shown that your subjective age also can predict various important health outcomes , including your risk of death.

Given these enticing results, many researchers are now trying to unpick the many biological, psychological, and social factors that shape the individual experience of ageing — and how this knowledge might help us live longer, healthier lives.

This new understanding of the ageing process has been decades in the making. Some of the earliest studies charting the gap between felt and chronological age appeared in the s and s. That trickle of initial interest has now turned into a flood. A torrent of new studies during the last 10 years have explored the potential psychological and physiological consequences of this discrepancy.

One of the most intriguing strands of this research has explored the way subjective age interacts with our personality. It is now well accepted that people tend to mellow as they get older, becoming less extroverted and less open to new experiences — personality changes which are less pronounced in people who are younger at heart and accentuated in people with older subjective ages.

Interestingly, however, the people with younger subjective ages also became more conscientious and less neurotic — positive changes that come with normal ageing. So they still seem to gain the wisdom that comes with greater life experience. Feeling younger than your years also seems to come with a lower risk of depression and greater mental wellbeing as we age.

It also means better physical health, including your risk of dementia, and less of a chance that you will be hospitalised for illness.

Yannick Stephan at the University of Montpellier examined the data from three longitudinal studies which together tracked more than 17, middle-aged and elderly participants. Most people felt about eight years younger than their actual chronological age. But some felt they had aged — and the consequences were serious. You are not charged any extra by using these links to purchase books.

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Healthy ageing researchers at Flinders University say certain characteristics of mindfulness seem more strongly evident in older people compared to younger people -- and suggest ways for all ages to benefit. Mindfulness refers to the natural human ability to be aware of one's experiences and to pay attention to the present moment in a purposeful, receptive, and non-judgmental way. Using mindful techniques can be instrumental in reducing stress and promoting positive psychological outcomes.

From middle age to old age, the Flinders University survey highlights the tendency to focus on the present-moment and adopt a non-judgmental orientation may become especially important for well-being with advancing age. In one of the first age-related studies of its kind, the researchers assessed participants' mindful qualities such as present-moment attention, acceptance, non-attachment and examined the relationships of these qualities with wellbeing more generally.

Mindfulness skills can help build wellbeing at any age, adds clinical psychology PhD candidate Ms Mahlo. Materials provided by Flinders University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length. Science News.