ACCEPTING AGE AND AGEING AND HOW WE LOOK

What is age? And why do we generally not accept our age and ageing, or how we look as we get older?

As a Beauty Therapist, one of the main issues I have experienced in both women and men, is actually around age and ageing. I cannot count the amount of times people have asked me if I can make them look 10 years younger??!! So why is it, since we all do age, that most do not like it, let alone accept it? Why do we believe that we were more attractive when we were younger? What is it that we do not accept about our age and ageing? It is as though there is an unspoken apology for not looking ‘young’ anymore. I wonder if it is really age that we have an issue with? Or is it something else? If we were 60 years old, and looked 40, would we have an issue with being 60?

Or is the issue to do with how we look?
And not the actual number of years we have lived.

Is it possible that our age is one of the biggest markers of responsibility that we have?

As our bodies age, it becomes clearer and clearer to us how we have been living. The choices we have made are more physically apparent to us: the abusive behaviours that we may have thought we ‘got away with’ in younger years are revealed through the body. Is it possible that this is actually what we don’t want to feel or see in contrast to our actual age and ageing? The choices we have made, the way we have been with ourselves – and not necessarily that we look ‘older’ than we used to.

LIVING WITH THE CHOICES WE MAKE

The ways that we choose to move, exercise, work and live all have an impact on our body, because our body is with us in all that we do. In time, the result of the choices we make can be more clearly seen and felt. On the inside, our hearts and other organs reflect the choices we make and have made on a daily basis; our skin, eyes, smiles and faces wear these choices also. Our face shows a life lived in sadness or joy, frustration or acceptance. Our choices become tangible. Our body is the subject of our choices and the way we have chosen to live.

 Have we lived life at the expense of our body?

•  Have we listened to our bodies, or have we been pressured by the world to live to its tune, and ignored our own?

• Have we breathed from our natural gentleness, or from the situations we face?

• How has our worry impacted our nervous system, and our connective tissue?

• How about our heart? Have we opened it in full, to beat the fullness of our love, or has it struggled to beat in a body that is constricted by a fear of being hurt?

• Have we slept to nurture and refresh our bodies, or out of exhaustion from overdoing it during the day?

• How have substances such as caffeine, sugar, smoking and alcohol taken their toll, if we chose to take them?

• How have we held our bodies every day?

Is it really our age that we don’t like? Or is it our choices, and feeling the responsibility and consequences of our choices?… The way we have chosen to live.

Our skin too, reflects all of our choices. Each line, wrinkle, blemish and spot tells a story of how we have been with ourselves. We can see the abuse, the emotion, the stress, the neglect; or the tenderness and care, depending on how we have lived. The most beauty-full women and men I have ever seen are those whose faces reflect the love that they live every single day. They look like the beauty I know is on the inside. How could you want to ‘look 10 years younger’ than that? This beauty however, is not determined by a line-free face, or plump lips and cheeks. It is a youth-fullness that radiates from within. It is the Light that glows from under the skin, outwardly, the vitality, the sparkle in the eyes, the full embrace of themselves, and commitment to life. I see Joy.

I have realised that there is a different way of ageing…

Is it possible that when living lovingly, we look more and more beauty-full every day? And, as we age, our bodies do get worn, but reflect a different quality – one of a life truly and lovingly lived, and not one of abuse, regret and a wish to turn back the clock.

Is true Beauty living who you truly are? Do we actually want to look younger? Or do we want to look Truer?

Lines and wrinkles can be like scars on the face and body, from reaction and emotions: OR, they can be a beautiful memoir of many smiles, looks of Grace, understanding and love.

What do the lines on your face show you? And do these lines reflect your true beauty?

A TRUE CHANGE IN ENERGY– CHOOSING TO LIVE THE REAL YOU

If everything is energy, then surely there is a way to change the energy that you have been living, if you feel that the energy you have previously chosen isn’t true in reflecting the real you and in changing energy, the body too can change. I have been blessed by seeing the miracle of true change in many people. True change is not a change in behaviour, but a change in energy – one that is about living from the real you. Universal Medicine has presented about energy and the different types of energy that we can choose to live from. We can live with the true energy of who we truly are, or we can live the roles that we feel people want us to be, or live in the way we want to be perceived. Therefore, there is always a choice. When we live from who we are, we are naturally very loving, and honouring of ourselves. When we are not living from who we are, it is very easy to abuse the body.

TRANSFORMATIONS THAT ARE DEFYING ‘AGE’

The transformations I have seen in students of Universal Medicine who have chosen to live who they truly are, are actually defying age. The ‘aged’ faces and bodies I saw on young men and women, are now much lighter and more joy-full than they used to be. I too, have changed dramatically. The quality of my skin and my body is worlds apart from how it used to be.

• In my early 20s my skin looked stressed and I was very thin (because I was depriving my body to maintain a look that wasn’t me, but what I felt was being asked of me.)

• My eyes looked tired, on edge and lacked true sparkle (reflecting how tired, on edge and lifeless I felt).

• My hair was dry and frail (because I lived life at the expense of me).

I looked older than my age. I wasn’t living my true self. I wasn’t living lovingly.

Kylie Connors

Here… in 2004 – Age, 21 years

Here… in 2013 – Age, 30 years

My entire body has changed now.

• My skin, glowing, full, smooth, clear and beautiful, is better than it has been at any age.

• My eyes, are clear, bright and sparkle (because I do).

• My hair has a richness and fullness to it; it is shiny, healthy and better than ever.

So what did I change? It was not the products I use, or the latest technological advancement (and these photos are not digitally enhanced in any way).

The change I made was the way in which I choose to live, and the energy I choose to live in: to live with love.

There are many, many examples of others who have also chosen to make their lives about love. And as a result they have transformed not only the way that they live, but their body as well.

Here are a few examples from others…

 Mary-Louise Myers

Penny Scheenhouwer

Katerina Nikolaidis

And so, because Everything is energy and EVERYTHING is because of energy, our choices cannot be escaped.

However, if we feel that we have not made true choices, there is an opportunity in every moment to choose differently.

The next time someone asks me to make them look younger or more beautiful, I will remind them that they can begin to choose true beauty for themselves, with their next breath, just by choosing to be “the real them”.

Deeply inspired by the work and beauty of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

By Kylie Connors, 30 years, Goonellabah, NSW | Profession: Beauty therapist and Makeup Artist

BEFORE….
NOW….