They say getting older isn’t for sissies for a reason! I swear I need an owner’s manual for my post-menopause body—it sure doesn’t act like the body I was used to before. And the face in the mirror sure doesn’t look like me either. (It looks more like my mother!)
I see friends in my age group doing a range of behaviors when it comes to this sea change. Some are resisting the aging process with everything they’ve got: doing double time at the gym, dying their hair, buying “younger’ looking clothes, etc. Sometimes I envy their ambition in this area because some of them DO look really good. Other friends are doing some version of acceptance . . . but most of them call it “giving up.” They lament the good old days when they didn’t like how they looked but had no idea of how pretty they actually were back then. They’d like to go back and do it again now that they know better.
My much older friends are best at the acceptance route. They’ve had so many health crises and have seen so many friends die that lamenting or resisting aging gives way to appreciating whatever time they have left. The ones who impress me most still do art or spend time in the garden or with their families or friends. It’s not necessarily easy for them either—especially when their health falters—but their process of accepting the aging process has been going on for awhile so the conversation shifts.
Redbud Flower Essence might be a helpful tool. It can help with self-acceptance and feeling more at ease as you age. It can help you have more compassion and be more forgiving of yourself if eating less and spending more time exercising for less cosmetic benefit is getting you down. It can help you let go of judgment and start to see the natural signs of aging as evidence of having lived a normal life.