Accept Your Ever-Changing Self in Each Ever-Changing Moment of Life

“You release yourself from the pressure of ‘time’ by the faith-filled act of acceptance, as opposed to the fear-based force of resistance.”

Howard Falco, I AM

The aging process is difficult for most people, and this is especially true today considering the make-up of our society. We have a huge number of Baby Boomers who are now 60-plus years old and living in a culture of youthful obsession. For many people, especially women, the pressure is intense to be something you can’t be: eternally youthful. And this may be especially true for the Baby Boomers who, back in the 1960s, declared themselves the generation that was never going to get old. Many of their slogans, like “never trust anyone over the age of 35,” have long caught up with them. And may be haunting them.

To complicate matters, many people in their 60s and 70s today don’t feel as old as their years on earth claim. And there are books and music that reflect this fact. You see book titles like How Did I Get to Be 70 When I Feel 35 Inside? by Linda Douty, and hear songs with lyrics like Universal Poplab's 60 is the New 40: “60 is the new 40, is the new 30, Is the new teens. We are the evergreens!” So, in a society where the pressure is always on to remain youthful, what is a person who’s hit the fatal 40s and beyond supposed to do? How about practice acceptance.

Most all of us accepted the aging process without a second thought before we hit the age of 30. It was effortless. I don’t remember ever feeling any pressure in my aging process before my 30^th birthday; and I felt the pressure then only because people—mostly older people—made a big deal out of it. When we stop fighting the aging process and accept it peaceably, we age gracefully. We loose our anxious compulsion to remain eternal teenagers. We stop apologizing for carrying a few extra pounds and we stop trying to erase every wrinkle or color every gray hair.

In essence, we release ourselves from the pressure of “time,” just as Howard Falco says, through “the faith-filled act of acceptance.” No matter what age we are, we need to accept it and grow into it gracefully. Some of us need to work on emotionally growing into being as old as we are in years. Others of us need to work on growing spiritually into our physical age. And still others need to grow mentally by opening their minds to new ideas and learning to process all of the knowledge life has offered them over their lifetimes.

Once we stop fighting the aging process, befriend it and grow gracefully into it, we take back our power from the process of time and aging. We enter into a peaceful harmony with time and with who we have grown to be. We can then embrace and love our ever-changing selves just as we are in each ever-changing moment of each ever-changing day. In doing so we will allow our souls to shine!