The Longevity Mindset
Dear Friends,
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2026. As we begin a new year, I want to highlight something more powerful than any supplement, exercise plan, or gadget: your beliefs about ageing.
This month’s theme is The Longevity Mindset, and the core message is clear: what you - and others - believe about ageing profoundly influences how long and how well you will live. Research from Ellen Langer and others shows that positive beliefs lead to better health outcomes, whilst internalised negative and pessimistic believes from the prejudice called ageism quietly erodes confidence, behaviour, and wellbeing.
We see the opposite of ageism all around us.
Professor Denis Noble, at 89, is still flying around the world giving high powered lectures and is just publishing his physiological analysis The Pacemaker Channels of the Heart. Sir Christopher Ball, 90, continues to refine and optimise his daily routine, including training for his next 10K. And I, a sprightly 81, begin each morning with a two-minute plank and then make sure I walk briskly for at least 33 minutes in the day that follows (the recommendation by the world’s experts is to do 30 minutes a day but, because I understand that the process of ageing reduces resilience and the ability to respond to challenges, I increased to 31 minutes in my 60s, 32 minutes in my 70s, and now 33 minutes).
We hope these examples encourage everyone to acknowledge their chronological age - but never be defined or limited by it.
Ageing is a normal biological process. Most of the change that occurs is due to loss of fitness, disease and social pressures such as isolation, deprivation or ageism. Resilience may change, and our ability to respond to stressors such as inactivity may shift, but these are simply differences, not destiny.
What gets in the way is rarely biology - it is mindset. If you find yourself saying “I can’t” or “people my age don’t…”, you will inevitably do less - precisely when you would benefit from doing more.
This applies even to dementia. The risk can be reduced and, even after diagnosis, people can live better by remaining active and caring for themselves as they would without the label. A positive belief doesn’t cure disease, but it opens the door to action - physical, cognitive and emotional -and action is what keeps us living not just longer but better for longer.
So this year, challenge those subtle, limiting voices. Start with your language. Let your ability, not your age cohort, determine what you do. Here’s to a year guided by confidence, purpose, and possibility. Ageism - internal or external - has no place in the lives we are building together. Set yourself a New Year’s Revolution to Live Longer Better or, as one Professor once said, “aim to reach your nineties in good nick”.
Warm regards,
Sir Muir Gray
