Caroline Paul on Aging Powerfully - 'Tough Broad'

New York Times bestselling author, Caroline Paul, visits us to share her inspirational book about the connection between outdoor activities and aging titled Tough Broad: From Boogie Boarding to Wing Walking – How Outdoor Adventure Improves Our Lives As We Age. While her book is geared towards women 50 years and older, women as young as 30 and 40 may find the stories and science behind outdoor adventures motivating as well. Paul said, “…I found that science had said, and this really turned my head around, the way that we look at our own aging predicts how well we age. So, if you have a negative view of your own aging, you will experience cognitive decline earlier and your chances of a cardiac incident, also earlier…” From bird-watching to wing walking, Paul includes a variety of adventures that women can participate in even as they age. She includes stories of women well into their 80’s and 90’s who have continued to live vicariously, whether it was through daily walking or even BMX bike racing. In her research, she also came across five vital components people need to keep in their lives in order to live purposefully and meaningfully as they grow older. She explained, “We need them at any age, but they tend to fall away, and that is community, purpose, health, this positive mind set about your own aging, and novelty… so I looked at outdoor adventure and how they fit into giving us all those things rather seamlessly… turns out a lot of women I talked to did pick up outdoor adventure later in their life… most of us have not learned something new in a long time… but novelty is really important for our brain, and since there’s a lot of things that concern us as we age about our brain – memory, just sharpness in general – we need to keep challenging it…”

In addition to the benefits of being active outdoors, Paul encourages all of us to experience those activities through a fresh pair of eyes. Having a feeling of awe and wonderment can provide us with a sense of awareness and joy that inspires us to continue taking those adventures. “…awe it turns out is really good for us, and nature is a sure-fire trigger for awe, you know, the vastness of the sky or the Grand Canyon… they have done studies that show, just go outside with fresh, child-like eyes. They call it an awe-walk. You cultivate awe, you access awe in yourself by looking at things with wonder, and you will get the benefits of awe which is basically, they call it a reset button for the brain, where you become more open, more curious. Biologically, your inflammatory markers go down. You become calmer, less anxious, less depressed, there’s all these metrics and they did this by studying people who went on awe-walks, and so that’s another great reason to go outside.”