"The number you have in your passport does not mean that you should stop at any point. You can, and you should, continue to work, move, learn, enjoy, and experience life because what we were taught about the aging process when we were children, or what we see around us, is only a part of reality. Each of us has our own inner reality. Go ahead and do it, don’t look at what’s written in your passport," encouraged the researcher.
Age is more than just a number
We often hear the saying "Age is just a number," but from a scientific perspective, we can talk about four different types of age. One of them is indeed a number – the chronological age of a person, written in the passport.
"Then we also have the physical – biological age. This is actually where our body is at the moment. For example, you could have 59 written in your passport, but your body could actually be much younger, or perhaps, conversely, much older. This would be more of a question for doctors," explained Šneidere.
There is also psychological aging, which is closely related to changes in our cognitive processes. For instance, a person’s memory or attention abilities might decline.
"Finally, there is also social age, or social aging, where we talk about a real change in roles in society. This is a transition, for example, from work life to retirement, or from the status of 'mother' to 'grandmother', and so on," Šneidere explained.
It’s normal to feel younger or older
All these types of age can be closely linked and affect each other, which is perfectly normal. For example, if a person’s physical health declines, their psychological health often declines as well – it’s all directly related. The researcher clarified: "If we biologically age and start to have muscle pains, difficulty sleeping, a stiff neck, and everything else, of course, that will somehow connect with our psychological awareness of where we are psychologically, in which age group."
At the same time, aging is extremely individual for each person, and it is normal for these four types of age to sometimes be in dissonance with each other. For example, you may be 40 in your passport, but psychologically and physically you may feel like you’re still in your 30s.
"I’d say it's normal that when I turn 38, I still feel like I’m 28. It’s normal because we can be at very different stages in our aging depending on how we feel, where we are in each of these types of aging," Šneidere shared.
Midlife means different things for everyone
We’re accustomed to dividing human life or aging into various stages, such as infant, child, adolescent, young adult, adult. Similarly, attention is often given to the so-called midlife and debates about when it actually starts. Some define midlife as beginning at age 40, while others argue that at 40, a person is still at their peak strength.
"I think we can’t separate peak strength from midlife, because in a sense, midlife is when we are truly the most active and perhaps, I’d even say, the most capable. I don’t know if we can talk so definitively about 40-60 as the traditional midlife, because age group distribution is extremely culturally dependent, culture-specific, and ultimately sensitive to the generation we are in," explained Šneidere.
We live in a world with different cultures, life expectancies, and social perceptions about how we should behave, feel, and act at each age stage, and what the goals for each stage should be.
"Thus, the fact that we talk about midlife as the period from 40 to 60 differs from, for example, the still relatively relevant theory – Erikson's psychosocial development theory, where midlife is from 35 to 65. That is another age range, much broader, and it starts much earlier," Šneidere added.
Given this and other examples, it wouldn't be correct to define midlife as a specific age group from 40 to 60 because, in reality, in each culture, each generation, and for each individual, it can be very personal.
"I don’t feel anywhere near midlife at 38, because the activities I engage in still very much align with the age group of young adults. On the other hand, what we often understand as midlife includes stability in family life, work life, and a transition out of midlife. So, I’d say we can't separate midlife from the prime years," Šneidere explained.
Attitude toward aging is important
There are many people who don’t feel as old as their passport says, and there can be many reasons for that. One aspect is physical condition – if a person can do more than they previously thought possible at their age, logically, this makes them feel younger than their years. "On the other hand, for example, a very important factor, which is increasingly highlighted in studies regarding physical and biological aging, not just psychological aging, is our attitude toward it," pointed out Šneidere.
Often when people reach a milestone birthday, like 30 or 40, they view it very negatively, thinking that life is over and everything from here will go downhill. Of course, in reality, that doesn’t happen – life continues, and for many, it even improves significantly – but this negative attitude, which is largely imposed by society, certainly doesn’t help.
"Aging doesn’t happen overnight. Aging is a gradual process that we slowly accompany and grow into. If our attitude toward this process is negative, research shows very real physical consequences. For example, a person with a negative attitude toward aging will have higher blood pressure. They’ll feel older, and their cognitive processes will often be worse," explained Šneidere.
Age doesn’t mean something bad
In principle, it goes like this – the worse and more negative a person’s attitude toward aging, the faster they age. There’s some truth to the saying "you’re as old as you feel."
"If you feel bad about getting older, you won’t have any motivation to go out and do something. It’s easier to stay home and feel bad about aging. At the same time, I work a lot with people who have already passed midlife, and I see so much enthusiasm, so much passion, so much motivation. Changing roles in life, moving from being an employee to a retiree or from being a mother to a grandmother – that’s not necessarily a bad thing," emphasized Šneidere.
Of course, it’s important to adapt to these new changes and the fact that life structure changes, but that doesn’t mean life is over or that we should give up.
"I actually have some reservations when we talk about psychological aging, using the term 'aging', because in reality, we’re talking about a transition, a transformation. It’s a reference point that helps us predict the difficulties we will face, but it also helps us predict what resources we will find," explained Šneidere.
In society, aging and reaching a certain age group, like midlife, is often viewed negatively. Ageism – discrimination against older people regarding work, pensions, housing, and healthcare, as well as prejudice against people because of their age – remains a pressing issue.
Šneidere emphasized that society should start slowly erasing the belief that age means something bad. Age, on the contrary, often signifies maturity, experience, and knowledge.
"Yes, maybe so-called fluid processes, like the speed of information processing, working memory, and everything else, tend to deteriorate, to decline. Yes, it might take a bit longer to learn new information and perhaps more time to master skills, but that doesn’t mean a person is infantile or incapable. We need to stop devaluing these age groups," said Šneidere.
Staying with the young and keeping up with the times
It’s also often said that in order to mitigate the negative effects of aging or avoid falling into the negativity associated with it, one should stay as close as possible to younger people and their energy. The researcher commented: "There could be a bit of truth to that. Maybe even a lot. If we look at the neurobiology of our brains, our brains have this wonderful property called social brains. In other words, our brains have evolved in such a way that we want to maintain social contacts."
To maintain social contact, or to be in a group, and thus feel safe, as our social brains think, we must adapt to the group.
"Therefore, we have to be able to read what the group thinks, what the group intends to do, what the group's beliefs are, and so on. Our mirror neuron system helps us do this. The mirror neuron system observes people and mimics them. In this way, we become like chameleons trying to fit in because the group means survival," explained Šneidere.
So, if we’re surrounded by young people, we naturally adapt to them due to our brain systems, and we might start feeling younger as a result.
"If we’re around 10 young people, and we are the only ones who are 37 or 38, our goal is to fit in as best as we can. So, our brain starts mimicking them, and we actually, of course, not physically and not biologically, but in our minds, become a little younger than the number in our passports," Šneidere noted.
It’s like learning to feel younger. Of course, sometimes the question arises whether, when a person starts feeling younger, they manage to retain their maturity or if they begin to regress in their development. This would not be desirable.
When does a person become old? The answer from the population
LSM.lv, in collaboration with the research center "Norstat," conducted a survey asking residents when they think a person becomes old. 27% of respondents believe that "old age starts" after 60, while 24% answered that age is not determined by years, but by the heart. Meanwhile, one-fifth of respondents indicated that "old age" begins at 80.
