WHO SAYS AGING CAN’T BE FUN?
Speakers at this year’s Healthy Aging 2026 conference at Stanford University encouraged older people to play. In the course of a day spent talking about the importance of purpose, social connection, supplements and more, Mia Sundstrom, CEO of the National Institute for Play, asked everyone to stand up and dance. The in-person audience of 220 people did just that.
The conference on “Aging with Purpose, Power, and Play” was sponsored by Stanford Lifestyle Medicine, a program that translates research into actionable lifestyle changes, and the Longevity Project, an organization that fosters research and public conversation about the implications of longer life spans.
The day kicked off with a discussion between the Longevity Project’s founder and chair Ken Stern and Louise Aronson, UC San Francisco geriatrician and author of the New York Times bestseller “Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, and Reimagining Life.”
Aronson started with the basics. “Aging is not other,” she said, meaning that aging is simply a part of living.
Aronson simplified one of the sometimes daunting prescriptions for aging well — having a purpose — and explained why it is so crucial to “healthy” aging. Her research and experience prove that “having a purpose” can be as simple as wanting to stay healthy for a grandchild’s graduation. People who have “a reason to get up and fight another day” live longer and age better than those who don’t.
Asked what three lifestyle choices people should make to increase their chances of staying healthy longer, Aronson listed 1) exercise, exercise, exercise; 2) social connection, meaning maintaining old connections but also making new friends; and 3) having a sense of self-worth (read, “purpose”), meaning a sense that we matter, despite the limitations that may come with getting older.
These themes continued throughout the day. Steven Crane, who researches social engagement as part of the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine program, reported on a 45-year decline in close relationships across all age groups in the United States and the need to foster more connection. One solution — the role of mindsets — surfaced repeatedly.
On milkshakes and mindset
Alia Crum, Stanford associate professor of psychology, pointed out that stress, generally viewed as a bad thing, can actually be a positive tool when trying to create new social connections because it drives people to reach out for support.
Changing mindsets — how we look at things — is both possible and scientifically validated, Crum argued. She cited a “milkshake study” that illuminated how people’s beliefs about food can change their bodies’ response.
Participants drank the same 380-calorie milkshake on two different occasions during the study but were given two different explanations of what they were drinking. The first time, the shake was described as an “indulgent” 620-calorie drink, the second, as a “sensible” 140-calorie beverage. When told that the drinks were indulgent, people felt satiated; when told the drinks were sensible, their bodies signaled hunger.
The mind’s effect on aging is similar, with “people who have negative mindsets about aging” living on average seven years less than those with a positive outlook. Crum acknowledged that the trick is to change mindsets without the deception involved in the milkshake study.
With exercise, for example, cultivating a mindset that working out is a fun privilege, rather than a chore, makes it easier to do regularly. She referred the audience to the Stanford Mind & Body Lab website for more “mindset” tips.
The conference took some practical turns, including Dr. David Maron, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, emphatically urging people not to eat red meat: “Beef tallow and butter should not be on the top of the (food) pyramid.”
But joy — and play — quickly returned to the room.
Kerry Burnight, a gerontologist and the author of “Joyspan: The Art and Science of Thriving in Life’s Second Half,” made the story of her arrival earlier that day into the San Jose airport, including a slip-and-fall that left her sprawling, downright funny — perhaps not surprising from someone who has made her life’s work out of protecting people from negativity.
Burnight gave the example of her 97-year-old mother, who rather than focusing on the day’s problems when first waking up, tries each morning to “identify something that doesn’t hurt” — even if, on some days, the only body part meeting that description is her nose. Like Aronson, Burnight reinforced the message that older people have something to give at every stage of their lives, even if their physical abilities are declining.
A childlike approach to aging
After the dance break, the last panel, labeled “The Science of Fun,” focused briefly on the scientific findings that we all need play in order to be our best selves, then delved into how to get in touch with what play means to each person individually.
“Think of your early experiences, when you had no constraints,” urged Sundstrom from the National Institute For Play.
Remembering how we played as kids is key to getting in touch with that side of ourselves. In a recently launched website, the National Institute For Play “champions play as a public health necessity across all ages,” with tools and resources for translating this recent science into action.
At a follow-up session on Tuesday, BJ Fogg, founder of Stanford’s Behavior Design Lab and author of “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything,” gave specific tips for translating the advice from Monday’s sessions into practice.
Rather than waiting for an epiphany that may never come and won’t last, he suggests first that people redesign their environment to make the desired new habits easier to form — be it cleaning out the refrigerator, distancing themselves from unhelpful friends, or moving to a new home. An extreme re-design? Selling the car so that you really do have to walk more.
Second, Fogg promoted the tiny habits method — taking baby steps and celebrating small victories. He confessed to having to ban popcorn entirely from his house to get out of the habit of eating it, and reciting mantras to himself to make new habits work. If dancing is a habit you want to adapt, he said, then dance and tell yourself, “Good for me, I’m dancing.”
A recording of Monday’s sessions will be available soon on the Longevity Project’s website.