It’s time to retire some of the most common ways we talk about aging : the “senior moment” excuse when we fumble for a word; the cheerful “young lady” from a stranger at the grocery store; the matter-of-fact “it's all downhill from here” we sigh at every birthday. These reflexive clichés do more than trigger an eye roll: They can affect your health . Decades of research from Becca Levy, a professor of public health and psychology at the Yale School of Public Health, and author of Breaking the Age Code , show that the messages we absorb about aging and then repeat to ourselves are linked to how long and how well we live . People who hold more positive beliefs about aging tend to walk faster , heal quicker, take better care of themselves, and show fewer of the brain biomarkers associated with dementia . Levy’s research has even found that older adults with positive beliefs about aging can reverse mild cognitive decline .…