Abstaining from the Anti-Aging complex.
It finally happened. I signed up for a TikTok account a few months ago. My feed is filled daily with lighthearted, overstimulating, hilarious, fascinating, validating, and sometimes emotional content. Since my digital footprint provides the TikTok algorithm with all the data to serve me with relevant topics (most of it very enjoyable), there's a particular type of content category I'll call “my life is over now I'm in my late 30's and have a child humor” that has left me feeling wobbly, especially as my 40's are just around the corner.
I came across the video below with a message that quickly linked my uncomfortable feelings with this humor. (click image to watch)
We are living vessels, no matter our numerical age. We are created to age. This is why I got rid of the Anti-Aging Facial Serum product name and replaced it with Facial Serum For Dry or Wise Skin. Aging should never be “anti”; these small changes can create a more significant impact and a more accepting place to land as we grow wiser.
To be in your 30's is hell of a young age. So are your 40's. So are your 50's—and yep, 60's, too. So, while I scroll through 20-year-olds promoting devices to give them snatched jawlines and 40-year-old parents that are too tired to function because they chose to have children (often alcohol is a part of the earned relaxation/unwinding, which is a whole other discussion), I wonder why we're never satisfied with simply being. Our society fails to honor the wisdom of our bodies and seasoned experiences as we grow. Instead, there is such emphasis on age reversal or, in the example above, uses self-deprecating humor to cope.
So, all this to say: you are a living, breathing, and experiencing being. So go and experience. We reach no age where we are irrelevant, old, boring, unworthy of adventure, overlooked, or broken. This reminder is for me, too, because I also exist in the same world that values youth, clinging to the past, and unachievable standards, over just being.
If this message resonates, it's meant for you.