“Where are all the other older women?” I was 55 years old, and this question popped into my head every time I went out surfing. I would see a lot of men my age—and older—on the waves, but very few women.
I sought out those elusive, adventurous older women for my latest book Tough Broad, From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking, How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives as We Age. I accompanied an 80-year-old scuba diver into the Pacific. I walked a suburban park with a 93-year-old backpacker. I birdwatched and I sea kayaked.
(These are the best gifts for women who love travel and adventure.)
I also did a deep dive into the current research on aging. What I found after all this was a compelling argument that having adventures outside is the best thing that we women can do to ensure that we will live happier, healthier, and more fulfilling lives as we get older.
Here are five important things I learned during the writing of this book.
1. Mindset matters for aging well.
The messaging around aging for women is sadly very toxic. We are told we are on a rapid decline, and many women feel invisible. Yet research shows that the way we look at our own aging predicts how well we age. So if you have a negative view of aging, you have a statistically higher chance of a cardiac event or cognitive decline, and earlier in life too.
The exciting part is that the opposite is also true: If you think of aging as a time of exploration and exhilaration, you will be happier, healthier, and live seven years longer. There’s a lot of science behind that. For example, a 2022 study of 14,000 adults over 50 found that those who were the most positive about aging had a 43 percent lower risk of dying from any cause over the next four years than those who were the least positive about aging.
But these studies don’t tell us how to get that positive mindset, especially in the face of such negative messaging about our aging journey. However, I had a sense that I had the answer: outdoor adventure.
2. Outdoor adventure can change our mindset on aging.
I jumped in the ocean with the Wave Chasers, a group of women in their sixties, seventies, eighties, and beyond (one member is 99 years old!) who boogie board together in San Diego. I wanted to understand why they chose to take up this sport—and what they get out of it.
Loraine Vaught told me that boogie boarding had changed her life. When I asked how, she pointed out to the big, cold Pacific Ocean; look at the nerve it took to step in, look at the bravery one needed to be tumbled by waves, look at the way each Wave Chaser helped one another, look at the fun they were having. What she was saying was that none of the Wave Chasers were doing what was expected of them at their age. They certainly did not see themselves as frail or cognitively impaired—or boring!
(Why your health span matters more than your life span.)
This made me realize that if you go outside and pick an activity that makes you feel exhilaration, exploration, and physical vitality—even something as simple as boogie boarding—this is a direct rebuke to everything you’ve been told about your aging journey. Now you’ve upended your own beliefs and expectations—and others’—of what you can and cannot do. Now you feel empowered about your future, not disheartened! I saw this over and over while reporting this book.
Also, I can’t stress this enough: Adventure is in the eye of the beholder. I went birdwatching with Virginia Rose, the founder of the nonprofit called Birdability that brings people with disabilities outside to birdwatch. To my surprise, birding had all the hallmarks of an adventure. We were on a quest. There was the anticipation of hearing a bird before you could see it. There was the adrenaline rush of then seeing it! There was the physical vitality of being in the elements; Virginia wheeled and I walked six miles that day, logging 52 species for citizen science. Also, I was pushing on my comfort zone by learning new things. Adventure, it turns out, is not defined by the activity per se, but how you feel doing it.
3. Nature is medicinal.
Getting outside is critical for you biologically—and there is so much science to prove it. Studies have shown that trees release chemicals called phytoncides that are really good for our immune system, while birdsong has been shown to calm our brainwaves. There’s also evidence that fractals—complex patterns found in coastlines, clouds, and ocean waves—can relax our brains.
(Nature really is good medicine. Science can explain why.)
Scientists have also shown that you perform significantly better on cognitive and memory tests after taking a walk outside. Your brain has been processing information outside in a way that isn’t highly taxing, as it can be when you’re in a place filled with harsh noises and angular patterns.
The general prognosis from all these studies is that 15 to 45 minutes in a natural setting of any sort will make a difference. Five hours a month can also help you maintain that emotional and physical restoration. But ultimately more is better—and the more remote and wild are the green space, the better it is for you too.
4. Awe is critical for us on a biological level.
I’m a pilot so I’m used to adrenaline. But I wasn’t ready for the feeling I had when I went wing walking—standing on the wing of an airplane as it soars 3,000 feet in the air. “Why would I get out of a perfectly good cockpit?” I thought. But I tried it anyway. And as the pilot started doing loops, barrel rolls, and hammerheads while I stood there attached to the kingpost, I became ecstatic. It was adrenaline, of course. But there was something else. That’s how I came upon this concept of awe.
Awe is the feeling you get in the presence of something bigger than you, something mysterious. It’s this feeling of wonder, fear, and dread. And it’s more important for a healthy life than you might think. Scientists call awe a “reset button” for the brain because it shakes up your neural patterns in a way that makes you more open to new ideas. It also makes you think more creatively.
(Why walking is the sixth vital sign.)
You don’t have to walk on a wing to feel awe either. You can just walk. One team of researchers asked a group of older adults to go on what they called an “awe walk,” during which they were to look at everything with childlike wonder. At the end of eight weeks, inflammatory markers for the awe walkers was significantly lower than the control group—a sign of better health—while they also reported feeling way less anxious and depressed.
Turns out things like the night sky, an eclipse, the Grand Canyon, even a tiny flower are all surefire triggers for awe. Going outside, in other words, makes it easy to cultivate wonder and therefore improve our well-being.
5. We actually can learn new things as we age—and learn better.
The culture insists that we are unable to learn as we age. You can hear it when people talk about confronting new things. They say, “I’m too old to do that.” But the brain has what scientists call “plasticity” even as we get older. We build new brain cells all the time. If our cognition begins to falter, we’ll lay down different neural pathways to figure out whatever problem is at hand. This is what often makes an older brain more innovative than its younger self—it’s finding more creative ways to circumvent its own problem areas. Learning something new is not only possible, it’s vital to keep a brain healthy and active.
That said I still believed it would be difficult to learn something new when I decided to take gyrocopter flying lessons as part of my research for Tough Broad. Turns out, I was a much better student than ever before! It wasn’t that I learned faster, but I learned better because I didn’t have a lot of the youthful angst and the need to prove myself. I was more focused, and I would ask questions without worrying about looking dumb.
I also interviewed Vijaya Srivastava, who learned to swim at 68. I asked if her age was a hindrance to her swim journey. On the contrary, she told me, it helped. For one, she loved that she no longer cared what she looked like in her bathing suit. Also there was urgency to learning this late in life. She knew she wasn’t going to get another chance. But most strikingly she said, “If I could learn to swim at 68, what else could I do?” Just that one thing opened up the world to her. And it could do the same for you.
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