Aging Gracefully, What Does It Really Mean?
Have you ever Googled ‘how to look young?’
Don’t do it. i
Not only will you lose hours of your life reading about secret bogs in Ireland with youth-preserving water and insane diets for a youthful appearance, you’ll also get totally freaked out by the cryogenic chambers and electromagnetic mats people buy into these days, all for a fresh face.
Where does it stop? And when?
The answer to this might be the real scary part.
Let’s start with the primary source of our ‘younger looking’ fascination: the ‘Fountain of Youth.’ This legend has been the driving hope for those seeking eternal youth for centuries. Ponce de Leon was on the hunt for it when he stumbled into Florida in 1513! Can you imagine, in the 16th century, we had wealthy governors who would rather spend time, money, and research on the secret to youth rather than, I don’t know, indoor plumbing?!
Sad to report, we haven’t evolved much. The beauty industry relies on our fixation with looking younger (and the more than $16.5 billion Americans spend on it). And while the industry has tried to be more accepting of ‘aging gracefully’ this past decade, with skincare giants claiming ‘we’re not anti-aging; we’re anti-wrinkles,’ the sentiment remains: we should all look younger.
Are you ready for something different?
Truly different, not just changing the language to make you believe we’re above the superficial
industry of looking younger?
To be clear: aging gracefully doesn’t mean you’ve politely given up the goal of looking young and will sail into your sunset years happily accepting a failing mind, body, and spirit.
On the contrary, aging gracefully should mean giving your body the grace to acknowledge how it’s served you in this lifetime. Aging gracefully means to gently nourish your body with the things that keep it healthy and strong, not the things that hide your age with the sole purpose of looking younger.
Aging gracefully is to evolve into the best version of yourself now, not evolving back to a teenage version of yourself. It is to embrace the beautiful and rare gift that is to get old.
Aging – as I’ve become all too familiar with this past year – is not something we all have the privilege of experiencing. So why should those of us that get to age want to hide that experience? Aging is a gift to honor and treasure; not avoid. And to age gracefully is to celebrate the bold, beautiful ways in which you’ve gained knowledge, wisdom and peace.
So let’s change the narrative together. Let’s not just stop at being ‘anti-wrinkle.’ Let’s go further. Let’s actively encourage you to skip the thousand-dollar procedure that will erase the lines your experiences have earned you.
Let's Age!
Let's do it beautifully, naturally, and honestly
Let’s age gracefully. And let’s give our skin the grace it deserves by nourishing it with gentle, pure, and clean ingredients that Mother Nature intended for skin to stay strong and healthy. Ingredients like Chaga, naturally packed with antioxidants, beta-carotene, and anti-inflammatory minerals to soothe skin and help shield from sun damage.
Let’s welcome the signs of aging while fully investing in choices that help our bodies feel stronger and brighter in this next chapter.
Can you imagine if Ponce de Leon had been searching for natural, safe resources that make us feel our best, instead of a mythical cure-all? Imagine how our culture might be different if we – from the start – had poured more time and energy into looking like the best version of ourselves at every age instead of looking young forever?