Tao Porchon-Lynch, the world’s oldest yoga instructor.
by Anita Brayer
It’s not a miraculous face cream. It’s not a brilliant makeup technique. It’s not a hidden plastic surgery procedure. Then what’s the secret to aging gracefully? It’s quite simple: Acting your age.
Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.”
It’s entirely possible to blossom into a beautiful old woman full of poise and grace without the aid of face cream, makeup, or plastic surgery. You just need to embrace your aging body. Understand that it’s simply part of nature, and there’s perfectly nothing wrong with getting old.
Society views “old” as a bad thing, so naturally we women want to stay young forever. Some women take aging harder than others. You can find such women at the hottest club in town, dressed in tight mini-dresses and flirting with men two decades younger than them. They may think they’re hip, hot, and so Carrie Bradshaw, but we’re not living in TV land. We live in the real world, where the ladies from Sex and the City would be perceived as flippant women pathetically clinging to their rapidly fading youth. Know what’s funny? Middle-aged women who try so hard to appear 20 years younger actually make themselves seem older than they really are.
That being said, women who dress and act their own age often come off as refreshingly youthful. There’s something beautiful about a person not being afraid to evolve over the years.
No, we’re not telling you to cut your hair short at 40, give up exercising at 50, throw away your jeans at 60, take up knitting at 70, and start smelling like mothballs at 80. Rather, we’re just showing you how to embrace and boast your age while remaining youthful and fashionable.
Just look at Helen Mirren.
Ladies, Helen Mirren is 67 years old. Sixty-seven years old, and she still looks amazing in a bikini! However, her stunning bikini bod isn’t what makes her beautiful and inspirational; it’s her confidence, intelligence, grace, and total acceptance of her age and appearance. If it were possible, we’d tell you that the trick to aging gracefully is to physically and mentally transform into Helen Mirren. Since such technology wouldn’t exist for another thousand years, you could only move on to the next best solution: acting your age. Here are a few tips on how to act your age while remaining youthful and fashionable:
Reconsider your definition of ‘old’.
When you were a kid, you thought grown-ups over the age of 35 once roamed with the dinosaurs, didn’t you? Now that you’ve passed the threshold of little-you’s definition of super old, you’ve found that you’re not so old after all, right? Think about what age you consider to be old right now. Chances are when you reach that age, you’ll change your opinion of what age constitutes as old, and when you reach that age, you’ll change your mind again, and the cycle will keep repeating until the day you die. Actually, you only become old when the world loses color – when you no longer find joy in life. Till then, you’re bright, colorful, and definitely not old!
Embrace your age.
Now that you understand you’re not old at all, it’s time to accept your age and understand that it’s just a number. Instead of saying that you’ve got an aging body, start saying that your body’s evolving. Wrinkles? They’re laugh lines! Gray hair? That’s just a new hair color! You’re evolving into a new you, and it’s quite exciting to see how you will end up!
Take up new activities.
Part of getting older is accepting that you can no longer do some things. You’ve been doing this your entire life (remember giving up diapers at 3, Barbies at 12, and miniskirts at 25?), so why stop now? When you decide that you’re too mature to keep doing something, don’t sulk! Simply replace it with another activity that’s appropriate for your age.
Stay fashionable.
Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you have to give up your fashion sense! There are plenty of age-appropriate fashionable clothes available in many different stores near you. It can’t hurt to wear some makeup, although not too much.
Keep taking care of your body.
Eat well, exercise, and treat yourself to a spa session once in a while. Getting older is not an excuse to give up on yourself. Next to acting your age, taking care of your body is the key to aging gracefully.
