Embrace the Years Ahead With Love and Joy
Life is such a full and powerful experience that age is just a number. For this reason, learning to see every stage of our feminine journey as valuable will allow us to radiate true grace and evolve into a better version of ourselves.
The Woman Post | Carolina Rodríguez Monclou
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Dr. Carla Marie Manly is a psychologist and an author of the book titled "Aging Joyfully: A Woman's Guide to Optimal Health, Relationships, and Fulfillment for Her 50s and Beyond." In an interview with the Feminine Roadmap podcast, Dr. Carla encourages women to have courage and the desire to embrace the years to come with love and joy.
According to Dr. Carla, we give so much power to the negative aspects of aging because we live in a society that considers youth the most crucial stage in women's lives. Historically, grandmothers were a symbol of wisdom, and they were honored. However, nowadays, women do not feel as beautiful and as valued as they were younger. In reality, there are stages in a woman's life journey, and every one of them is beautiful, valuable, and has something to offer.
Dr. Carla says, "If we get stuck on honoring only one stage, whether that's 18 or 20, then we're missing the beauty and the wonder of all of these other stages."
On the other hand, we live in a culture that is very externally oriented. Nevertheless, women don't need to look young or have a particular look to be lovely. If there's only one type of beauty, it will be tough for women to meet those expectations in other stages of their lives.
For Dr. Carla, aging joyfully means looking at health and beauty differently. Learning to look pretty in the mirror for ourselves, whatever our face or hair color is like.
There's no only one way to look beautiful. The secret is to have beauty on the inside. Whether you're 20, 30, 40, 50, or beyond, that beauty radiates. But we focus on the external, and that's such a mistake.
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Another tip by the doctor is to look at life through the lens of wonder. When we are curious and see everything that surrounds us through hope, everything shifts. Dr. Carla assures that she has heard women in her 20s and 30s saying that they are afraid of not being relevant anymore.
"That's a mindset," the psychologist clarifies. "I'm 50, and I'm not worried about my relevance. There's so much to be relevant about when you are passionate, and your eyes are filled with wonder," she adds.
If you believe in your life and your power, you'll always be relevant. It's essential to look at aging as a process. Each stage has its gifts. If we look at each of them as a box to open that has these various gifts inside, and we can look at them with wonder, we'll undoubtedly be able to enjoy every stage of life.
Dr. Carla recommends not to put ourselves in a box and avoid the words "I'm too old." As she wrote in her book: "You and only you get to choose what if anything defines you as you age. The simple truth is one of the greatest benefits of being a mature woman: You are quite free to choose how you see and embrace this part of your journey."
