Much of my work, both professional and personal, is focused on healthy aging. How we can proactively invest in our health to have greater quality of life in our elder years.

I’m adding “Hang out with kids” to my healthy aging to-do list today after a video chat with my 9 yo nephew. Geez, this kid’s mind is so sharp and creative!

He asked me what would happen if you deleted the App Store from your phone.

Cuz you couldn’t just download it again from the… App Store.

Ok, so he’s only 9 and doesn’t yet know that Apple geeks already thought of that and you can’t delete it.

Still, the curiosity and wonder centered around paradox is incredibly vitalizing! I could feel new synaptic connections growing during our very eclectic chat. Plus we had a fabulous laugh at ways one might remedy this impossible conundrum.

A few weeks ago he had an idea to develop an app to hack the hackers and restore justice. It seems the ideas are endless, but seemingly less amusing to the adults who hear them all day long! Maybe this tip will work best for people who aren’t actively parenting little rascals.

But I do think we can all learn a lot from kids in the way that keeps our brains functioning optimally. Novelty is an important key to creating new neural pathways. And of course, we all know that humor is good medicine.

Self-help books talk about surrounding ourselves with people who possess the qualities and experiences we’d like to have for ourselves. Cultivating a relationship with a young person is like getting an infusion of magic and joy without any pesky side effects.

And if this just isn’t your thing, funny movies or silly YouTube videos (have you seen the laughing quintuplet babies?) will do a good job too of triggering your body’s feel-good chemistry.