Embracing the Joys of Reaching Fifty

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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