How to Embrace Aging with Grace and Ease

Did you know that more than 90 million people purchased anti-aging products in 2004, as reported by the National Consumers League (NCL)?

Is it just me or does it seem like we're constantly being told that growing older is a bad thing? Everyday we are bombarded with advertisements for anti-aging products. We are told which foods will keep us young the longest, which creams will make our skin more supple, which exercises will help our bottoms defy gravity, and which drinks will raise our energy levels so we can keep up with the kids of today.

Rather than being taught to embrace the wisdom that comes with aging, the consistent message we get at every turn is "Do everything you possibly can to preserve your youth!"

A great example of this is entertainment industry. Today, more and more mature, accomplished actresses are being passed over for leading roles that end up going to their younger(though not necessarily more talented) counterparts. The message seems to be that the aging woman doesn't seem to have as many opportunities. And while this may be true to some extent, for the most part we tend to make it much bigger and worse than it needs to be. We over-focus on beauty, create stringent definitions of what it is. And we over-value youth.

So often in my life I thought that I was not pretty enough... didn't weigh enough (yes, you read that right... I was too skinny). Today, I look back on those photos of yesteryear and see such a beautiful person. How sad that I couldn't embrace that.

Now, as I look forward to aging I can see that one day I will have a natural ease at which I can carry myself. It will certainly get to the point where no matter what, I will look "older", have wrinkles, and grey hair. And, there is something about that which cries out to me. At that phase of my life, I will "have to let go" of the struggle to look a certain way. That actually brings me peace-- and today at age 42, I strive to embrace that "letting go" now as I maintain my health and natural beauty.

How about you? Do you fret in the mirror over every wrinkle and crinkle, no matter how slight? Do you hold back from doing what you really want to do, because you feel like you're "just too old?" Try to think of the many ways your fear of getting/looking old might stop you from living your life to the fullest.

Consider...

• How your perception of age and how you look might affect your attitude about your job, your relationships, your lifestyle choices.

• How you might make comparisons between yourself and women who are younger, and how that affects your self confidence overall.

• How much time you might spend worrying about your appearance-- doing, saying, and wearing things to make yourself appear more youthful.

• How much money you may have spent on anti-aging products and procedures...

Also consider...

• What you might do and be if age and looking young wasn't always getting in the way of your good time!

• That easing into your senior years, without the pressure to always look a certain way, might actually be wholly liberating!

• That the comfort of being in our own skin, which eludes so many of us in our teens, twenties, and even thirties is often discovered once we reach middle age.

• That women who are older than forty (or fifty) often say that these are the best, most rewarding years of their lives.

Life slips through out fingers all too quickly. Why spend the majority of it worrying about how we look? Real beauty comes from within, and is apparent at every age and phase of life. Take a minute today to look in the mirror. Smile, and remember, "I am beautiful, inside and out!"