How to Embrace Growing Older

Cathleen Toomey, a branding professional, begins her talk on successful aging by joking to her audience that it's not all about kale, botox, or doing Sudoku.

She continues by showing how life expectancy increases when one grows older, that is, if someone lives to be 65. they can expect to hit 84, and if they live to 84, they can expect to hit 92. In addition, Toomey points out that there are currently 10,000 people turning 75 every day in the US, and that this trend will continue for the next 18 years -- something that's referred to as the "silver tsunami." Despite the inevitability, there's still a lot of fear when it comes to aging, and this often causes people to hinder themselves as a result.

In order to overcome this, Toomey states that people need to not allow themselves to succumb to loneliness, which is considered to be an even bigger health risk than smoking or obesity. A large part of this is having frequent conversations and maintaining relationships. With this, Toomey reveals "the secret" to a successful aging adult.