• I’ve had an interesting ‘when age perception becomes a challenge’ week which started on a conference call that consisted of relatively new websites being evaluated. One stood out above the rest for me with this headline ‘most americans over fifty want to age at home’ referring to house design for over fifties. This took me aback, would anyone seriously believe that fifty year olds were thinking of redesigning their homes for their old age! My 61 year old self is just about to celebrate the end of mortgage repayments & enjoy a debt free existence in at last my own house! Isn’t 50 the new 30 or whatever it is supposed to be, I haven’t even thought about how my Mother at 87 will manage her stairs as she ages!  What’s clear to me is that thirty-somethings & below, often believe that age equals incapability which is worrying  in the fight against ageism!  Is that same 30 something designer  already thinking of a one storey house with sensible fittings for herself, undoubtedly no, but maybe she should, in the end 30/40/50/60 and so forth becomes all the same in the end.
  • I too got it all wrong when a friend at a social meeting I attended, admitted that she had turned 70 last week. I’d have guessed from anywhere between 45 & 60, so there you are, we all seem to be living in a confused world of age perception.
  • Occasionally I indulge in a bit of Ellen Degeneres, & this week she asked the audience for questions,  a woman of I imagine in her twenties ( who knows) wanted to know when had been the best age, Ellen responded right now, 60!

Going  on to explain that she felt at ease in her own body and mind, the young woman looked shell-shocked with an expression “ so I have to wait all that long to get a grip on life?” Hmm….Age is worth waiting for!

  • During a visit to the  supermarket I bumped into a friend who is a very attractive woman that I hadn’t seen for sometime. I was so disappointed to learn how unhappy she was being 53 and if she’d  the money without hesitating she’d put herself under the knife. I believe there is a transition period post menopause, where settling into this next part of the journey can lead to self-doubt instead of a blossoming into a new fabulous phase. If the message was out there that fifty and beyond could be the most exciting time of your life, how different it would be! The panic that you won’t be attractive which is intensified by the anti-ageing cosmetic brigade is  unnecessary . Liberated from libido, as one friend puts it, might sound alarming, however there can be  much more to life and we are not talking about a life without love, on the contrary sometimes it intensifies. Time to concentrate on who you are and what you can offer instead of pleasing others with how you look, well you can still do that too, in fact you can now do everything.
  • The week concluded with a chance to visit a boutique that had been highly recommended by a girlfriend. I loved the clothes, but what impressed me the most was the concept of the owner, which is to make clothes that attract thirty, fifty, seventy year olds with no distinction. Models representing all these ages are used to show the equality of looking good, this went one giant leap further, with the addition  that all sizes  were accommodated. Why can’t the whole world be as non ageist  as this wonderful shop! http://www.mariamaurer.com/francais/02-catalogue.html

How’s your age perception do you always get it right? Imagine that life after sixty has a perfect positive outcome, would this make your journey there a more content one? Try it for a week & see what happens.

Love & positivity going forward after fifty

Rebecca