If you’re coming up to your
fiftieth birthday and feeling like it’s a milestone you could do without, take
heart. There are so many positive things about getting to the big Five Zero –
after all; they say now that fifty is the
new forty! Or is it the new thirty? It’s the time when you can look forward to a more comfortable
standard of living after the early years of struggling with money and young
children. It's a time when you hopefully feel more confident, more accomplished, and know yourself
better. It's a time to devote to doing the things you dreamed of when you were
younger, while you still have enough energy and ability.
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Where are you now?
If you feel down about reaching your middle years, take a look at what
you have and what you’ve accomplished so far. You can make an actual list of everything,
so you have black and white evidence of all the things you are grateful for and
proud of doing. If you find you have
regrets, think about why you have them. If it’s something you haven’t been able
to do before, this is the time to work on making your dreams a reality. If you
never got a college degree, or you always
wanted to start your own business; if you fancied taking up a new sport or
traveling to exotic locations overseas but have never been able to, start
making plans now to fulfill these goals.
They also say you’re never too old to do whatever you want to do, and that is
true to an extent because as long as
you’re alive, you have choices and
opportunities to pursue your dreams. There are
some things which are better not left too long though! Learning to pole
dance when you are eighty-five and have osteoporosis is going to be rather
tricky. That’s why you need to seize the chances you have and go for all the
things that are important to you now when
you can make the most of them.
Looking after yourself
Our bodies inevitably deteriorate as we age, but there are many things
you can do to look after yourself and delay the progress of aging. Keeping fit
and eating well, drinking in
moderation, cutting out cigarettes, and learning how to relax are important
contributory factors to good health at any age. Now is the time to get serious
about your health if you want to make the most of your middle years because you no longer have the resilience
of youth on your side. When you’re twenty-one you can hit the bars, dance all
night, smoke a carton of cigarettes, and still make it into work the next day without feeling too much the worse for wear. When you get older, you’ll find these activities take
more of a toll, but if you look after yourself, you stand more chance of being
well enough to be active into old age.
It’s all in the mind
There are quite a few sayings related to aging, and here’s another –
you’re only as old as you feel! Your attitude to getting older will have a huge
influence on how well you age because the
mind exerts a significant influence over your body. Keeping young at heart,
continuing to be active and alert, not submitting to the stereotypes relating
to your chronological age, but instead feeling blessed that you have many more
years to look forward to. This is the kind of mental approach that will
keep you happy and healthy for longer. If you find you are sliding into a depression, and you’re
feeling low all the time, tired and lethargic, having little interest in things
and being hard on yourself, talk to someone who
can help, like your doctor or a counselor. Don’t ever feel that what you are
experiencing is just an inevitable result of growing older. If you think you’re
old and over the hill, you’ll behave as though you are. Walk tall, ignore the
fact you were born five decades ago, and think about what you could achieve now
if you put your mind to it.
Looking good
Women are constantly being offered all manner of ways to make their
appearance more youthful, whether it be creams, makeup, treatments, alternative
therapies or plastic surgery. If you’ve noticed a few crows’ feet around your
eyes or that your jawline is sagging a little, it can make you feel that you are no longer attractive. Of course, it’s
in the interests of cosmetics manufacturers to promote their products because
society puts so much stock in appearing youthful, but what matters is how you yourself feel. If you couldn’t give two hoots about your wrinkles, then take no
notice of society and be happy in your own
skin! If you prefer to try and delay the progress of skin aging, try some of
the creams on the market and see if they help, but make sure the claims they
make can be backed up with scientific evidence and be wary of any claims that a
product can perform miracles. If your appearance is very important to you, then
consult a Botox doctor to see if
injectable treatments would be suitable for you. The important thing is to feel
happy with the way you look, rather than feeling you must conform to other
people’s preconceptions.
Clothes are another aspect of growing older that can affect your self-perception. If you like
wearing fitted jackets and skinny jeans, there’s no reason at all to stop just
because you’ve reached your middle years. You don’t suddenly have to start
wearing sensible shoes and below the knee skirts – unless that’s what you feel
happiest in.
Getting to fifty is an achievement in itself
because you’ve made it through all the years of growing up, learning and
struggling to get to grips with life. You will have accomplishments and happy
memories to look back on, and still, have
plenty of time to achieve all the things you still want to do. Look forward to
your fiftieth, it’s the dawn of an incredibly exciting stage in your life, and
the world is very much still your oyster!
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