Representatioal image.

Let me ask you something, if you don’t mind…How old are you? And how old do you think you look? Moreover, do you think you look older, or younger, than people your own age? These are questions that researchers asked of a number of people. They found that people often think that they look a lot younger than people of their own age, regardless of their gender. In fact, more women, more than 60%, think they look younger than their peers than men do (50%). Some people live by the philosophy that they are as young as they feel, even if they know they look older, and some older folk in their 50s and 60s, and even above, do feel like they’re in their 30s or 40s. To them it’s not about appearances but about the sorts of things they are still able to do as they get older. Things like dancing, running and walking long distances without tiring. Things like maintaining a healthy blood pressure and supple joints are all things that people can control to continue not to feel their age.

Some people think that talking to yourself in a positive light and reducing your mental health will help towards making you feel better and look younger. That is true because stress is a big factor in ageing. Unfortunately, however, there are clearly some things that happen externally that they can’t control, things that will show their age, things about which they can do very little.

For example, as they age, most people need reading glasses. They can’t get laser eye surgery to correct this so reading glasses have to be whipped out even in public. Other people see them needing these reading specs and instantly know that the person is in a certain age range. They develop wrinkles on their faces which they can’t get rid of no matter what gimmicky face creams they start buying. They develop age-related eye disorders like cataract and they either gain a tire or lose a lot of weight, regardless of their eating habits.

Of course there are some aspects of aging they can control, like greying hair. I’m not saying they can stop their hair from greying but they can certainly cover it up. The problem with that is that, at some point, their faces will begin to look their age and then colouring their hair will simply make them look like mutton dressed as lamb. They even try to dress younger but, as fun as that might seem, some clothes are simply not for older people. Again they look like they are desperately trying to hide their age, only to end up showing it more.

But to be honest, some people do actually look younger than their age. In fact, these are people who’ve always looked younger than their actual age, even when they were in their 20s. But do those people who think they look younger than people in their own age group really look younger? Sometimes they do but a lot of the time they don’t. It is a sad fact that those who think they look younger than their peers actually look their age, or sometimes older. I remember watching an episode of the original “The Office” in which the cringe-inducing boss, David Brent, often asked his staff to guess his age. He did this because he thought he looked a lot younger and his staff would also guess it to be at least 10 years lower.

The look on his face not only made you cringe but it was quite sad when they guessed it at a little older than he actually was. It was almost like every one of us who also thought that we were younger than we are and asked people to guess our age. I think that most people who think they look younger than they actually are, see something in themselves in the mirror that other people do not. It’s almost as if the mirror is talking to them and telling them something that is not true. Of course sometimes people will tell you that you don’t look your age. Don’t believe everything you hear. Maybe they’re just being polite.