Mindfulness teaches us the mental flexibility to cope with ageing

Striving to extend life expectancy and delaying ageing has been the interest of many researchers for the last couple of decades. With

a longer life comes the opportunity to spend extra time with our loved ones, pursue a life-mission, contribute to the world, live out our passions or simply enjoy life for longer. But it is far from a given that we end up enjoying those extra years. So, what is successful ageing? From a public health perspective, it is often defined as an optimal state of functioning. However, when you ask most older individuals, they view successful ageing as a process of adaptation.

During the COVID pandemic, Thriving Life cooperated with Leyden Academy in creating a course and study into mindfulness for older individuals. The result showed that mindfulness gave the participants some tools to handle this adaption. One of the participants said:

“Mindfulness will help you to accept the things you can no longer do. And not sit and say: “oh I can´t do that anymore, you I am just old and shut away. You can say, OK what can I do instead? I think mindfulness will help you to open your mind to other options”

If you would like to read more about the study and course, you can read the press release here or download the research rapport here.

The MBVA course is being offered again, and you can see the details here: