4 Ways to Accept Yourself as You Get Older
During the menopause your mind might be telling you you’re still 25 but your body may be saying dream on. It’s important to accept yourself and celebrate that with age comes a greater sense of knowing what you want, understanding your limits and listening to your body. It’s the age of empowerment.
1. Look yourself in the eye – When you look in the menopausal mirror, instead of seeing your face as an ageing one, change the narrative. There are laughter lines there because you’ve laughed a lot, that’s a good thing you’ve experienced happy times and have had laugh out loud moments and enjoyed yourself. You may have more lines on your face but each line tells a story, it represents a life that you’ve lived. Modern society places far too much importance on how we look instead of focusing on the positive. Living a life you enjoy, not one spending time and energy worrying about how you look, is much more fulfilling and rewarding. There’s a sense of freedom in relaxing into being perfectly imperfect rather than striving to be imperfectly perfect.
2. Body Positive – Embracing your body and recognizing it has served you well. As women, we are very quick to criticize ourselves and feel unhappy with how our body looks as we get older. Your body has worked very hard to enable you to live your life; it may have given you children or helped you multitask your way through work, school pick-ups, socializing and running a house. When you hit the menopause it is easy to be unforgiving and feel like your body is letting you down when really it is evolving and preparing you for this new transition. Looking after yourself and being kind to your body will maximize its performance.
3. The After Party – Recognizing you can’t party like you used to and being ok with that is a healthy mindset to develop. It’s not about being a party pooper but more about changing the party theme. Instead of mourning a social life once lived, feel excited about knowing yourself better now and a social life that aligns with that. You have the wisdom and experience to know what you want out of life and the life confidence to remove yourself from social situations that don’t pique your interest or you may find uncomfortable. Less FOMO more JOMO. Saying NO is empowering and during the menopause there is a huge sense of satisfaction in doing the things that bring you joy and avoiding the things that don’t.
4. Take Your Cue – Listening to your body’s cues is game changing. Understanding what your body needs will not only help you to navigate the menopause with greater ease but also to get more out of life. Tune in to your hunger cues, your cues for rest, cues for social interaction and cues for quiet time. It is a great skill that comes with age. The power of knowing what you need and feeling your body respond to that is quite wholesome.
PS. Change is inevitable don’t fight it, embrace it. Fall in love with the person you are becoming, not the person you once were.