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Friday, 9 October 2026dailybeirut.com
Culture & Society
Research and clinical observation indicate that curiosity helps older adults remain engaged, adaptable, and resilient while navigating the complexities of aging.
Dale V. Atkins, Ph.D., notes that maintaining curiosity allows older adults to stay engaged, adaptable, and open to learning. The process of aging well involves holding loss and appreciation simultaneously, a dynamic that fosters clarity regarding where to direct time and attention.
Alan D. Castel, PhD, states that people quickly forget information that fails to engage their curiosity. He explains that as individuals age, they do not stop learning but become more selective about what they wish to learn. Older adults often return to classes, pick up new hobbies, or engage in activities like bird watching. Castel remarks that this level of curiosity, if maintained, can keep individuals sharp as they age.
A five-year study of older adults found an association between greater curiosity and survival. While it remains unclear whether curiosity directly extends lifespan, staying interested and engaged may help older adults cope with physical and environmental challenges associated with aging. Research and clinical work repeatedly identify curiosity as a key quality of aging well.
Aging well requires integrating difficulty into one’s life without allowing it to define the entire narrative. Wisdom acquired through relationships, work, illness, caregiving, love, disappointment, and loss enables individuals to face an uncertain present with a realistic view of themselves and life. As many women grow older, they become more attentive to their needs and values.
Recovering from mistakes, losses, and previously unthinkable challenges contributes to feelings of steadiness and gratitude. Women learn to trust their judgment, feel less compelled to please others at the expense of their own well-being, and care less about being considered invisible. This shift supports a more intentional approach to daily choices.
Patience, flexibility, adaptation, and the ability to tolerate uncertainty are essential for aging well. Events such as a friend suffering a stroke, a cousin dying, a grandchild facing trouble, or an adult child receiving a serious diagnosis become part of the personal tapestry. Alongside curiosity, qualities like gratitude, patience, adaptability, living with uncertainty, and a sense of wonder support the aging process.
These attributes do not erase pain but allow pain and appreciation to coexist. Individuals can grieve changes while remaining open to what is still present, acknowledging loss while noticing beauty, and feeling sorrow while experiencing moments of joy. Aging well involves living with and allowing conflicting emotions to be part of the experience at the same time.
In younger years, many women took pride in juggling multiple responsibilities, praised for the amount and variety of tasks kept in motion. When dropping one or two tasks, focus often shifted to those failures rather than appreciating the successes. As women age, they can choose fewer commitments, selecting activities with intention.
This might involve experimenting with holding just one focus at a time: visiting a sick friend without checking a phone, attending a grandchild’s game to simply watch and cheer, walking outdoors to notice light dancing through trees, or having a conversation without preparing a response before the speaker finishes. Recognizing how precious time is, women pay close attention to how they spend it, driven by heightened curiosity to explore interests and resonances.
Individuals can expand their minds while giving themselves space, continuing to discover themselves throughout life and becoming more fully who they are. Perhaps one gift of growing older is the freedom to choose more wisely how to occupy time and where to place attention. While control over all aspects of aging is impossible, remaining curious about who one is becoming allows individuals to chart their course using that curiosity as a North Star.
Atkins reflects on her own journey, noting she cannot say exactly when she became “old.” She sees “an old lady with a young woman inside,” echoing her mother’s words upon seeing her own reflection. Her mother lived robustly until her death, just days before her 98th birthday. Most other relatives died well before Atkins’ current age. Like many women, she feels lucky to be alive, recognizing that arriving at this point evidences luck and inner resources. Along the way, she succeeded, stumbled, adapted, and began again with resilience, now curious to discover what lies ahead.
At 40, Atkins began giving seminars about “aging well” to people ranging from their 60s to their 90s. She watched and listened carefully to students’ observations about growing old. An enormous industry and a growing body of science are devoted to longevity and “turning back the hands of time.” Atkins is less interested in reversing time than in understanding how to live well within the time that is ours, however brief. She is fascinated by how attitudes and beliefs influence the experience of aging, and how illness, loss, relationships, purpose, and daily choices affect self-perception as participants in life.
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