Did the Pandemic Accelerate Our Aging Process?
Author Adam Grant suggests we've been emotionally "languishing" the past two years. This New York Times article "Too Young to Feel So Old" outlines the scientific evidence that our body has been depreciating more quickly, like that fancy car you drove off the lot worth half its value two years later.
No doubt, chronic stress wears us out. Our gyms have been shut down; we've been chained to Zoom calls; we've gained our Covid nineteen pounds. And we're also drinking alcohol more than we used to. It's no wonder we're feeling more depressed. Not a prescription for youthful vigor.
I appreciated that our MEA friend Dr. Ken Dychtwald was the lone optimistic voice in the article above, suggesting that life gets better with age—we're wiser, happier, more relationally connected, and feeling a tad more soulful.
Here are two questions for you to consider:
- Did you experience accelerated aging during the pandemic? And, if so, was it all bad, or were some of the consequences good?
- On the other hand, if you felt younger based upon our collective experience these past two years, how did that youthfulness manifest in your life?
