From One Aging Woman To Another
We all want to live longer, but we don’t want to experience what getting older entails, right? Wrinkles, gray hair, decline in mental sharpness and physical strength, and all other kinds of changes in the body. As a woman, it seems to be worse. Older men appear to be viewed as distinguished while we become unremarkable. With the loss of our youth, we are perceived less and less as sexy, beautiful, or desirable (for the most part). Ouch. It’s a punch in the stomach.
So let me get this straight. I’m technically not a woman until I turn 18 so I really only have about 25-ish years to soak it all up? You see, that doesn’t work for me. And it shouldn’t work for you. It’s true we don’t have to do much when we’re younger to take care of ourselves. We’re overall more resilient. We can eat what we want, get less sleep, and wreak havoc on our bodies without much consequence. But as we get older, we have to put in more WORK. That becomes a problem for some people. Not only does that require effort, but it also means changing up their regular routine and doing less fun things. So they just don’t. Their physical appearance and health begin to dip at an even faster rate. As that happens, their self esteem diminishes. It’s a cycle. Why do we do this ourselves?
Ladies, you KNOW what you need to do. Quit making excuses and do it. Not for anyone else, but for yourself. Stop eating like shit. Cool it with the sugar and processed foods. They aren’t REAL foods and therefore not giving your body the nutrients it needs. Whatever you put into your body is either feeding disease or fighting it. Think about that. Drink more water. Your body is 60% water—your brain and heart are closer to 73% while your lungs are 83%. It cannot function properly without good, clean water. Move your body regularly (you have the time, you just have to find it). That means some form of exercise that gets your heart rate up. This helps you maintain a healthy weight and reduces your risk of heart related illness. Make time to get quiet and reset your mind. Example are meditation, mindfulness and breathing exercises, walking in nature, and writing/ journaling. Humans are not meant to be on GO every waking second. Take care of this beautiful vessel called your body and it will take care of you.
Moving to perspective. This is what I’ve been working on this year. Yes, youth gives us a beautiful body, skin like butter, and a metabolism like a cheetah, but we’re also not in the mindset to really appreciate it while we have it. Am I right or am I right?! What a cruel joke. We’re given all these wonderful things while trying to figure out who the hell we are and what we want out of life. At the same time, we’re making ALL kinds of dumb ass mistakes. Insecurity levels are at an all time high keeping us from fully acknowledging all we have to offer. It’s a trade off. Youth = insecurity and mistakes. But at least we look good while doing it! Just think about it . . . if we could go back to the physical body in our 20’s and early 30’s knowing what we know now, we would be DANGEROUS!! But that’s not how it plays out.
As time marches on, we get something invaluable—experience. With experience comes a new set of different wonderful things. You may not have the caliber of physical beauty, but you do have things like confidence, WISDOM, self-esteem, strength, self actualization, patience, and maturity. These are the things we desired when we were younger. Now we have them . . . except here we are not appreciating them and wishing we still looked like we did 10 years ago. How ironic? Perhaps it has something to do with society pressuring us to remain youthful or be discarded. What if we began to change that narrative? What if we really began to take care of ourselves, body and mind, and added in the bad ass qualities we gained from our experience? We could show ourselves AND the world that woman are beautiful, sexy, and desirable at EVERY age?! Talk about EMPOWERMENT.
We must remind ourselves that our physical appearance won’t always look the same. It’s not supposed to. If you feel the need to get a nip or tuck here and a filler or implant there, do your thing. I’m definitely not here to say you can’t improve upon things if it makes you feel good! But keep in mind the key word should be “improve”. Your goal should be an improved version of yourself NOW, not to look like you did in your mid-20’s. That ship has sailed, honey, stop trying to paddle back to shore. Embrace what you’re working with at this stage of your life so you look healthy, luminous, fresh, energized, and happy.
I’m really starting to understand the phrase “aging is a privilege”. It allows us to be with our loved ones for longer, more time to pursue our dreams and experience life, and an opportunity to fully develop into who we’re meant to be. Not everyone is granted this privilege. And here we are wasting precious seconds on silly things like hard earned wrinkles. At the same time, I have fully grasped the phrase “happiness is a choice”. When I started acknowledging and accepting the control I have over my mood and mindset, I found that other people and things disturb my peace less often. Ladies, we will all have our moments when getting older saddens us. I know I will. It’s inevitable. But we want to have those moments less so we can enjoy our life, as it is right now, more. Imagine being truly happy while taking proper of yourself and aging gracefully. Drop. The. Mic. I want that for myself and I want that for you. How bad do you want it?
