Can life actually get better - NOT worse - as you age?

[Someone here]

@OBEler I've honestly stopped being happy since  the day I became an adult (not literally).  Happiness is when you are a child .childhood is paradise .look at those angels called children..they are happy for no reason. Old people (like 60-80) can't even sleep. My grandma considers sleeping for 3 hours straight an achievement. Let's be real for a moment please .

Edited Saturday at 01:23 AM by Someone here

[Natasha Tori Maru]

@Someone here It could simply be that as you grew out of childhood you developed expectations and had expectations projected onto you.

I think in regard to aging up, you have a point touching on the complexity: we seem to trade one set of problems for another. We are less able, but more secure. Know what we want 'clarity', but don't always have the energy to pursue it. Master various parts of the world, but loose openness to knowing. Retire and have more free time: but with a body so broken we cannot enjoy it. Value others more as our social circle shrinks: only to have them die on you or battle debilitating illness. 'Youth is wasted on the young'

My advice to you is you cannot possibly conceptualize or try to imagine how you will experience aging. Just like you cannot conceptualize enlightenment. It's another one of those 'experiences'. I look back at my 30 year old self and almost pity her narrow scope of understanding. And knowing how ignorant I was makes me even more aware of how ignorant I am, now.

[Xonas Pitfall]

When would you say you noticed your energy and health depleting?

[Natasha Tori Maru]

40 minutes ago, Xonas Pitfall said:

When would you say you noticed your energy and health depleting?

I haven't noticed a lot so far. That being said I really take care of myself and respect my body more than most. 

What I have noticed is my recovery is longer - so things like hard weights, sprinting etc I need more time to recover. Shit like drinking and having less than 8 hours of sleep hit a bit different near 40. I am blessed with no injury or physical limitations.

I haven't experienced any cognitive changes yet. I never crash or slump. No brain fog unless I eat something I cannot digest 

[UnbornTao]

Another perspective is that life isn't going anywhere, even as circumstances change. 

Edited Saturday at 03:31 AM by UnbornTao

[Carl-Richard]

My teens were amidst a few moments of escape a chronic mental health crisis so yes.

Edited Saturday at 03:44 AM by Carl-Richard

[Someone here]

2 hours ago, Natasha Tori Maru said:

It could simply be that as you grew out of childhood you developed expectations and had expectations projected onto you

On the money .

Expectations like "you gotta man up and make shit happen" . "You gotta hunt for money ..chicks & cars ."  " Where is your income? " ..its all matrix brainwashing.  I will tell you something..I have a hard time replying to someone calling my name ..I literally completely see that I'm not the human being Someone here .I know what I am but of course it can't be expressed and no one will understand me but I get it all thanks to Leo and Robert Adams. And I'm free from 99,9999 of mental suffering. I'm not happy still because of material stuff. But not because I care about the judgment from society..but because I do want certain things but I don't have them.

 

[Natasha Tori Maru]

1 hour ago, Someone here said:

On the money .

Expectations like "you gotta man up and make shit happen" . "You gotta hunt for money ..chicks & cars ."  " Where is your income? " ..its all matrix brainwashing.  I will tell you something..I have a hard time replying to someone calling my name ..I literally completely see that I'm not the human being Someone here .I know what I am but of course it can't be expressed and no one will understand me but I get it all thanks to Leo and Robert Adams. And I'm free from 99,9999 of mental suffering. I'm not happy still because of material stuff. But not because I care about the judgment from society..but because I do want certain things but I don't have them.

 

In my experience as you gain those things you seek, the desire is removed. This reveals a curious emptiness beneath. And diving into that emptiness has been the most revelatory and exciting part of growing older. The inner journey of purification as you attain things, and the synchronous falling away of seeking, lifts off the obscurity that expectation pushed onto us. Clarity. 

The importance of gaining pleasure or material things has been in the transformative experience and less the thing itself. There is no courage or virtue in being a celebrate monk in a cave unless you know what you are giving up. The experience of this reality is sacred.

I know you are already experiencing that process, because you have been on the path for a time already 😊 

...if you are doing it right, that is. And most aren't. Unfortunately most of society is locked in the wheel. Sleeping. And they won't comprehend the beauty of wisdom and experience in the face of the suffering that aging and limitation can bring. They fixate on the loss. Loss of beauty, youth. Ableness. Independence. And so the desire for these lost things takes over and locks people in a calcified mind of lack. 

I think this is why forgiveness and surrender are such strong pillars of progress.

Edited Saturday at 06:27 AM by Natasha Tori Maru

[LoneWonderer]

Sorry people but I want to live a long and healthy pain free life as long as possible. I've always fought against the idea of becoming weak and feeble, overweight and complacent with age. 

Also I'm 26 so wtf do I know about life right? Anyways to whoever may read this, live like Bryan Johnson in your 20s and 30s and reap both the rewards of health and wisdom into your 40s and 50s is what I say.

Cheers

[Magnanimous]

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Everything gets better except your health and energy goes to shit.

Is that better overall or not......

[Leo Gura]

7 minutes ago, Magnanimous said:

Is that better overall or not......

Depends on how good your health is.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

13 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Everything gets better except your health and energy goes to shit.

So the 2 most important things you have as a human go to shit. Great. Not suprised at all of course, but reminding myself of what's gonna happen always makes me cheery LOL

[Miguel1]

For a lot of average, normal people, probably gets worse. They start simply just vegetating, turning into zombies. At least from outside observation.

For us serious self-developers and pure spiritualists, life tend to get better as we mature, get to know ourselves deeper, develop more courage and wisdom to go after what we truly want from life - considering the fact that health doesn't deteriorate too badly.

But at the same time, damn the hard core spiritual work does create the most depressing black pill existential crises. I deal with that by diving deep into creating art. Intuition says that with proper integration, the black pills turn into tremendous power for cutting-edge and amazing breakthroughs in any fields that I touch, but mostly art, as that is my main focus.

Edited Saturday at 03:48 PM by Miguel1

[koops]

I just wrote about it deeply to my audience (I got feedback telling me I should write a book about it)

It goes something like this:

---

Groupthink makes you believe your peak years are your 20s.

Why?

Sex, alcohol, party, healthy, little responsibilities...

Your body responds, your mind is fresh, everything is new and you can 'maximize dopamine'.

But what happens when the law of diminishing returns starts to work against you? (and it will).

What happens when new things are no longer exciting?

 

Thats the 30 year old dip.
And a huge gap is created between guys that make a shift and the ones who just give up.

Most people buy the lie 'your 20s are your prime', because they are trapped in pleasure seeking. And that doesnt work after 30.

People need a shift.

A shift towards spirituality, life purpose and self-education.

A shift towards eudaimonia, mindfulness, bliss, peace, awakening.

A shit towards enjoying simple things in life.
Things that are not glamorous per se.

Leo has a video titled: ''why valuable things take time''.
Well, thats true. You can go have sex, or get drunk tonight, but thats not the good life.

The good life is more sophisticated than that.

The good life are the things I mentioned above. And that requires work, patience, discipline, integrity and maturity.

Damn, even as I go through a challenging period in my life now, I feel that the negative emotions Im feeling are more 'pure and deeper' that the ones I felt when I was younger.

 

-

 

This is top tier stage orange advice:

 

And most people need to play the orange-green game for a couple decades (It seems Kant was a party guy until 40...)

But what 1stMan does not see is the spiritual side; so for us, age can be an even bigger upside.

+40 is when you can get really deep results in spirituality, life purpose and self-awareness.

 

For me the keys, now getting into my 40s are:

-Health: Strength training, healthy nutrition and stretching/mobility training

-Life purpose

-Spirituality

-Constant self-education

-Optimism/Vitalism

 

And of course, arguably the most important thing of all:

 

Life really does begin at 40. Up until then, you are just doing research,"  -Carl Jung

 

 

 

[Kid A]

Isn’t it obvious that this is really individual and depends on your genetics, personality, circumstances, interests, tastes etc.?

One thing’s for sure: nothing makes me feel more alienated from my friends than when they claim that high school is the best time in life.

[waheed]

On 11/7/2025 at 1:44 PM, Magnanimous said:

I was thinking about how most people believe your 20's are the best years of your life. And if you're very materially successful you wealth, health, whatever you've built etc means your 30's are the best years of your life, and the other decades decline but you're still happy because of the rock solid foundation.

But after watching Leo's videos where he discusses the increases of consciousness and subsequent leaps in happiness that are caused by spirituality, I was wondering, as long as you keep growing the right ways, doesn't life (overall) get better as you age?

18yo btw 

It depends, your health goes down, if you work really hard at and are lucky you can decline the rate at which it goes down, which is good. 

Regarding understanding, it's a constant learning, each life stage is different so you become a different person, the person in his 20s has no Idea what 40s are like, similarly for 30s, even someone is 45 won't know what 50s is about.

Life makes you learn, like it makes you learn now in whatever age you are. Everyone learns in some way.

And there is no clever way to somehow future proof life, not even enlightenment. Enlightened or not, we are just a "something" in this life, while we are alive.

[gettoefl]

The goal of life is every day be better. What you have to do is get more free. This means dumping all the shit that is holding you back. Liberation is doing what you want. It takes a lifetime. You don't get there. You get better at it as you go. My life is always improving. And always will is the claim.