If you’re a typical woman today you’re way tot busy doing all the things that keep your life moving to ever stop to think about the question, “how do I want to age?”. And if you did have a sliver of a moment, while sitting at a stop light sneaking in a peak on Facebook, or waiting for the kids to get in the car from band practice, you’re looking in the mirror and wondering how do I get rid of the lines on your forehead.
You’re not thinking about “how’ you would like to age. That crap is happening on it’s own. No matter what you’re thinking about. Aging has a mind of it’s own.
Or does it?
If you’re like most women today, you’re too busy thinking about other things like getting ahead in your business, working your butt off just to keep your butt where it was five years ago, and making sure your parents are well.
The only time you have to think about taking aging head on is at a stop light when you check to see if you have chia seeds in your teeth and see that creeping vertical line in between your eyebrows getting deeper. And you mumble to yourself, “I’ll take care of that when I have to.”
As if putting off thinking about it prolongs your need to do anything about it. It’s that or denial. Or perhaps both.
I found myself in that situation for longer than I would like to admit. Until I had dug a physical hole so deep, I didn’t know if I would get out. Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to get out. It had gotten THAT bad. The thought of just throwing on some dirt seemed like a viable option.
I recently clicked on a strikingly beautiful photo of Sharon Stone online. Of course it’s beautiful, it’s freaking Sharon Stone. My click lead me to a profound piece of wisdom that will undoubtedly alter my path for the rest of my life.
Sharon was looking all well…Sharon Stone…for the cover of Shape Magazine and was sharing her approach to looking so amazing at 56. Heck, she looked amazing no matter what her age.
And there she shared a profound concept that would forever change my entire concept of aging. She asked herself in her early 40’s this question:
“How do you want to age?”
And in a fraction of a second I was flooded with a surge of some kind of feel good hormone that I don’t know the name of and a realization wrapped in a question:
“You mean I have a choice?”
Coming from a control-freak belief that I could run my way past aging, this was a totally thrilling concept. I could actually have a hand in how I aged. What a concept.
What a GREAT concept.
One you answer this question for yourself you simply..live it. You create habits, patterns, behaviors that support it. Easy, right?
Well it can be and it can not be. You have to replace the old behaviors and patterns, the ones you developed without thinking, unconsciously, with new and improved ones. Ones that provide the results of your “how” in how you want to age.
I’ve found this is easy to do once I broke my “how” into steps and created practices that ingrained a new way of being into my life.
Sharon’s empowered approach to the inevitable process that graces us all was a crystallized reminder of what is possible when you ask yourself the right questions and you’re committed to answering it and sticking by it.
Oh, and you can watch her answer all beautifully here.
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