I turned 40 on Monday.
It was magical and a little surreal.
I love birthdays especially the attention and celebrating new beginnings. It’s almost like a second new year for me since my birthday is right smack in the middle of the calendar year.
To be honest with you, I’ve been preparing for this week for 6 months. I wanted to ease into the number change and give myself room to move through the emotions and reflections of all that’s transpired over the past 40 years.
Yesterday a close friend called me and asked me what were my expectations for my age and it got me to thinking.
At 28, I expected to be engaged and feel like I had my life all in order. Neither happened.
At 36 I felt so lost and thought I’d never find my way in life or back to myself
At 40 I would have hoped to have been married, bought a house and to have more financial security (property, more savings etc…)
I know these are on their way to me but truth be told, I’ve always been somewhat of a late bloomer.
At 40, I have different hopes….
I hope to stay open to learning and growing
I hope to love more deeply and unconditionally
I hope to let loose more often and to care less about what other people think of me (the F**k it approach!)
I hope to find the man who is the lid to my pot and who makes my world a sweeter place
I hope to make a broader and deeper impact in the lives of many women worldwide who are looking to connect to the Divinity within themselves and to live a healthy, soulful life
I hope to be bolder, more uninhibited and more courageous
I hope to BE more of myself and to follow my healthy impulses more often (ie. Carpe Diem) and to have a LOT more FUN.
Overall my intentions and desires are to feel more FREE and ALIVE and to continue living my life my own way.
I want to accept myself more deeply and to speak my truth more often.
My expectations relate to who I am BEING in the world and to measure things based on my commitment to myself.
My lessons learned from the last year:
Expressing true love doesn’t break you. It makes you stronger and more self-empowered
You can do whatever you put your mind to
Being bold has beautiful and powerful returns
Fear is an illusion
Self-care is critical for sustainable joy and inner peace
Give without expecting anything in return. It’s a lot more fulfilling and joyful
We are all one and we are never alone
We have the time to do what we want. We just have to decide to do it and schedule it (no excuses!)
The biggest rewards come from the biggest risks
Life can be easier than we make it to be.
The gremlins…..
As a woman, I won’t deny that my fear of losing my beauty didn’t creep in.
The voice within that said: “Priscilla darling, it’s all going to be downhill from here” kicked in.
How could I continue to grow young gracefully and embrace a few more wrinkles, white hairs and other changes?
It got me to look at WHO I am as a woman – all of me – not just my appearance.
It also made me look at how I can improve my own self-care and time for myself. These are the activities that truly nourish me and make me feel young.
While I won’t deny that physical beauty matters to most of us, beauty is about how you feel about yourself, how you honour and treat yourself and the sense of inner peace you feel at any given moment.
Beauty is a state of mind, an inner glow and a sense of self-worth that radiates out into the world via @sweetpathgirl {tweet it}.
Who won’t fall in love with someone that loves themselves?
Every age has its gifts, its rewards and its challenges and at the end of the day, beauty is in the eye of the beholder (us!).
From 40 on….
So for this year, my intention is to live more fully, laugh more often and to embrace a “F**k it” or “why not?” mentality.
As I heard my father’s voice on the line as he called me from Brazil on Monday, as I hugged my mother as I read her beautiful birthday card, tears of gratitude streamed down my face. We are all healthy, my parents love me to pieces, I am alive and kicking doing work that LIGHTS ME UP so how could 40 not be amazing?
Life is too short not to take it all in and to live every day with immense gratitude and presence.
While society does have stereotypes about age, I am finding that focusing on how I want to feel and how I choose to care for myself are the biggest indicators of joy, youth and vitality.
Thank you to everyone for your birthday wishes.
I’d love to hear on the blog what your feelings are about aging, beauty and the personal and external expectations we experience as we grow older. And more birthday wishes are welcome too!
To your sweet success,
