Parents and educators can teach kids to change their fixed mindsets and see more potential in themselves and other people. Do you agree with this statement? If your answer is yes, here’s something you might consider. Research suggests that believing in the human ability to change is linked to less depression, better health and greater achievement. This is the “growth mindset”, an idea pioneered by Stanford researcher Carol Dweck.

According to this research, when we practice a growth mindset, the difficulties we’re facing seem more likely to be surmounted. It’s important for us to realize we aren’t helpless; we can grow and adapt. Just as important as seeing ourselves as capable of growth, this reduces some of the pressure we might feel, and helps us think more in terms of challenges than threats.

According to studies, developing a growth mindset is of importance. For example, a simple belief in the possibility of change may have a powerful effect on our thinking—potentially freeing us to actually see our way through anxiety and a sense of failure among peer conflicts and peer exclusion. Research also indicates that believing personalities can change an lower aggression and better navigate social relationships. Additionally, if we believe personalities are changeable and that situation and change, we can also apply this thinking to groups, resulting in an increased cooperation.

A growth mindset isn’t a personal state of being; instead, it’s a way of thinking or a strategy we can apply in a given situation. It isn’t something you simply have or you don’t. However, sometimes it’s really challenging to access a growth mindset. Something like feeling threatened, compared or criticized can make us feel unsafe so that it can be difficult to believe in the ability for change. Fortunately, there’s always something you can do to develop a growth mindset.

We often hear that 60 is the new 50. Just check out the images of your grandparents or great-grandparents and notice their stooped(曲背的) bodies, their wrinkled faces when they were barely pushing 60. What a contrast with energetic, gym-going sexagenarians(六十几岁的人) of today!

The research overseen by gerontologist (老年学家) Taina Rantanen, compared adults born in 1910 and 1914 with those born roughly 30 years later. Both birth groups were examined in person at age 60 and again at 70 with the same set of six physical tests and five measures of cognition.

According to the research, the later-born group could walk faster, had a stronger hand grasp and could use more force with their lower legs. On cognitive tests, the later-born group had better verbal fluency, and scored higher on a test matching numbers to symbols. But not everything changed across the generations: measures of lung function were surprisingly not changing, and there was no improvement in the short-term-memory task of recalling a series of digits(数字).

There are many reasons why people are aging better, including improved medical care and a drop in smoking, but the key factor shown in the study of physical function was that the later-born adults were more physically active and had bigger bodies, which suggested better nutrition. For brain function, the key seemed to be more years of education.

“Education is a powerful influence on aging and health,” says Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the U. S. National Institute on Aging. “With more education, you are probably going to have a larger income, which means you are more likely to go to the doctor, and have good nutrition.” He also points out that the average lifespan is seven years shorter in a poor state such as Mississippi than in a wealthier one such as California. “Here we still have lots of people who cannot take the drugs they need because they cannot pay for them,” he says. In short, 60 may be the new 50 for many of us but not for all.

At a Berlin day-care center, the children packed away all the toys: the cars, the tiny plastic animals, and Legos, even most of the art materials. They then stood in the empty classroom and looked at their two instructors. “What should I do now?” my son, then 5, asked. He did not get an answer to this question for a long time. His day-care center was starting a toy-free kindergarten project.

For several weeks, the toys would disappear, and the teachers wouldn’t tell the children what to play. While this practice may seem cruel, the project has an important goal: to improve the children’s life skills to strengthen them against addictive behaviors in the future.

The toy-free kindergarten is not a new idea in Germany. It grew out of an addiction study group in Bavaria in the 1980s. The group included people who had worked directly with adult addicts and determined that, for many, habit-forming behavior had roots in childhood. To prevent these potential seeds of addiction from ever being planted, the researchers eventually decided to create a project for kindergartens, which in Germany typically serve children ages 3 to 6, and remove the things children sometimes use to distract themselves from their negative feelings: toys.

The rules of the toy-free kindergarten are simple: For a period of three months, all the toys are removed, leaving only furniture and things like blankets and pillows. The teachers meet with the children and the parents before the toy-free time starts so they know what to expect, but once the project begins the teachers observe, rather than direct, the children’s play. They let the children learn how to deal with their own boredom and frustration.

A kindergarten in the Bavarian city of Penzberg was the first to try out a toy-free time in 1992. Aktion Jugendschutz published information about the project shortly thereafter, and the project quickly spread. Today, toy-free projects can be found in hundreds of kindergartens throughout Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Other countries have also shown interest. The Penzberg kindergarten has even received calls from interested groups as far away as China.