Want to live a long and fulfilling life? Change how you think about getting old

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Nearly every Friday morning for the last three years, I’ve exercised side-by-side with Perry Chapman. At 70, Perry is over 15 years older than me, but she puts me to shame.

Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising given that she takes several Pilates classes a week and has just started weightlifting with a personal trainer. Perry began her “so-called retirement" at 67, after 30 years as an art-history professor at the University of Delaware. She has since become the editor of a top journal in her field, delivered conference papers abroad and recently spent a year as a visiting professor at the National Gallery of Art.

She’s also taking a three-year course in oil painting, eager to get a glimpse of her life’s passion from the artist’s side. Not long ago I asked Perry how she felt about aging. “Well, I don’t have the option, so I’m trying to do it well," she answered with a laugh.

Despite some aches and pains, she considers herself “incredibly lucky." Aging has freed her from trying to meet certain expectations, she explained. It has also deepened her friendships—which she says might be the best part of all. My work has put me in touch with many older Americans like Perry, whose lives are rich with purpose and pleasure.

They defy the assumptions held by too many people—young and old—that aging is only about illness and decline. It is a view that is doing far more harm than most of us realize. Data is mounting, much of it from research by Yale epidemiologist Becca Levy, about the impact our attitudes and beliefs have on our health and longevity.