isaidpancakes

[isaidpancakes]

how we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have. when you are young and healthy, you believe you will live forever. you do not worry about losing any of your capabilities. people tell you "the world is your oyster," "the sky is the limit," and so on. and you are willing to delay gratification - to invest years, for example, in gaining skills and resources for a brighter future. you seek to plug into bigger streams of knowledge and information. you widen your networks for friends and connections, instead of hanging out with your mother. when horizons are measured in decades which might as well be infinity to human beings, you most desire all that stuff at the top of maslow's pyramid - achievement, creativity, and other attributes of "self actualization." but as your horizons contract - when you see the future ahead of you as finite and uncertain - your focus shifts to the here and now, to everyday pleasures and the people closest to you.

understanding this shift is essential to understanding old age. a variety of theories have attempted to explain why the shift occurs. some have argued that it reflects wisdom gained from long experience in life. others suggest it is the cognitive result of changes in the tissue of the aging brain. still others argue that the behaviour change is forced upon the elderly and does not actually reflect what they want in their heart of hearts. they narrow in because the constrictions of physical and cognitive decline prevent them from pursuing the goals they once had or because the world stops them for no other reason than they are old. rather than fight it, they adapt - or, to put it more sadly, they give in.

if maslow's hierarchy was right, then the narrowing of life runs against people's greatest sources of fulfillment and you would expect people to grow unhappier as they age. but carstensen's research found exactly the opposite. the results were unequivocal. far from growing unhappier, people reported more positive emotions as they aged. they became less prone to anxiety, depression, and anger. they experienced trials, to be sure, and more moments of poignancy - that is, of positive and negative emotion mixed together. but overall, they found living to be a more emotionally satisfying and stable experience as time passed, even as old age narrowed the lives they led.

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And if you were of the lucky sort, sometimes that life chose you back.

TJ Klune, from The House in the Cerulean Sea (via the-final-sentence)

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ATMOSPHERE by jlillard and unknown photographer

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“Dreamer”

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and we always mean to act on what we say

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I thought I would be understood without words.

Vincent Van Gogh (via quotemadness)

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Have a magical #Friday. ✨ #IBelieveInYou #UnicornCheet

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God doesn’t ask if we accept this life there is no choice life is forced upon you the only choice is how you live it or not that’s a choice as well

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vintage blog

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Art & drawings

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Powerful chemistry is more than a physical, intellectual or even spiritual attraction. It is an air of pure, unadulterated energy that bridges and binds two seperate souls together. One that can reinvigorate a heart in the span of a moment, and dismantle it even faster.

Beau Taplin • B r i d g e s  A n d  B i n d s  (via afadthatlastsforever)

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It passes, but it does not pass away.

László Krasznahorkai (via quotemadness)