Positivity

"Positivity represents an important developmental shift, a way to approach life that is expressed through humor, gratitude, forgiveness, playfulness, creativeness, and flexibility." Dr. Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity.

According to Dr. Carstensen and others, happiness tends to increase as we get older.  Of course, there are exceptions that I am sure we can all point out, but generally people get happier as they get older.  In a study done by the University of Georgia of centenarians results indicated that on the whole these people report more happiness than the average person.  As we age we can learn to "not sweat the small stuff".  Perhaps we can even take to heart what some posters add:  "And it is all small stuff."  It seems that the experiences of life give us a perspective which is less personal than in earlier years.  The first time we are betrayed we may be devastated, but as it happens again - which it does to all of us, then we begin to see that it is not all about us.  So, if we are tempted to feel sorry for ourselves that we have been assigned the role of caregiver for someone with dementia, perhaps it might help us to know that this, too, is just part of life.  We have not been singled out to experience something terrible.  In fact, if we look around, I am sure we can each see something we might consider more terrible than what we are doing.