Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging
Good news! According to Carolina State University in Raleigh, adults aged 60+ fared better than their under 30 counterparts in making intuitive decisions, such as choosing a competent home repair contractor or a seat-of-the-pants chess or bridge move. “Seniors have a knowledge base they can fall back on. That information can automatically be accessed without much thinking. Relying on intuition is one way to compensate for the mild memory loss that is a normal part of aging.” says study co-Author Thomas Hess, Ph.D. So we might forget a name or word in the middle of a sentence (sound familiar?), but we are better able to make critical decisions.
My mom said, “If it is not important in 100 years, it is not important.” So what will be valuable in 100 years? Wouldn’t that make an interesting conversation at the dinner table? Will it be our savings account, our wrinkles, a new holiday outfit, or the gifts we are worried about buying for our friends? I think not! If you are looking for the answer to that question, you might look to a group of older people. If you’ve lived 95 years, there is a 95% chance you’ll know what’s important in 100 years, right?! The older you are, the more experience you have and are better able to answer that question “intuitively!” Time gives us perspective about what is important.
" It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely on it. It's my partner" Jonas Salk