ARE YOU HAPPY BEING 50+

In a youth obsessed society, it would seem the young have it all. But is your 20s-40s really the best time of your life? Hell no! Because personally at 50+ I am full of life; have aspirations; I love myself, not in a narcissistic sense I might add; am happy; confident; contented; glad to leave behind the tyranny of work; re-discovered latent interests; am far more philosophical and definitely wiser.

The general perception of ageing and its many misconceptions influence beliefs and behaviours. Many consider it a decent into decrepitude. Yes, the susceptibility to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia are more prevalent, but does not affect everyone. Likewise, the fear of the life lived coming to an end leading to boredom and a sedentary lifestyle; being ostracized; loneliness is a particular biggie, as well as being disrespected and ridiculed as an imbecile.

There appear to be two camps when it comes to how ageing is viewed. The ‘glass is half empty’ pessimists buy into the negative sterotyping and ‘the glass is half full’ optimists who accept this inevitable life change embracing its positives. The positives are of course the freedom gained; recognising it as an opportunity to reset priorities; an auspicious time to accomplish ‘shoulda’, ‘woulda’ and‘ coulda’ aspirations; releasing things no longer considered important; wisdom, knowledge and perspective gained; a clearer sense of self, no longer concerned what others think and an apt quote I like is “I am 97% sure you don’t like me, but am 100% sure I don’t care”.

The freedom to making the self centre stage as children become independent living their own lives, was fully taken on board by my husband and I, when at age fifty we felt this was an opportune time to immigrate to Tobago. We were young enough to continue enjoying life; adventurous enough to deal with whatever the roller coaster of immigrating entailed and were in good health. I embraced saying ‘no’ more often once settled in Tobago and decided I do not have to be a key holder to all our ex-pat friend’s holiday homes, a responsibility and commitment I could do without.

Although ageism is societal, the beauty industry specifically targets women promising to slow down the ageing process with its antiaging products and regimes with magical and scientific sounding ingredients of niacinamide, ceramides, hyaluronic acid, retinol, glycolic acid and ferulic acid and we fall for it. When in fact aging is a normal process that cannot be prevented. That said, I have to confess I did succumb to the hype of serums and my skin did appear to improve. However, as black women we are fortunately blessed with a high melanin content which combats photoaging.

I read somewhere, ‘we begin to die, from the day we are born’. A sobering thought eh! But doesn’t this make you want to live your life to its fullest, not that I’m alluding to any hedonistic antics or extreme sports. After all we’ve made it to our 50+ decade and should be happy. Had we lived in the 1800s we’d be dead by now. My motto is “life is what you make it”. So you 50+s out there, go for it, whatever that entails for you. Utilise the web (one of its positive aspects), to find clubs/organisations that cater to your interests, you might surprise yourself.

Live long and prosper.