Stop Condemning Yourself to Death at Forty

This morning I was reading some comments posted on The Oregon Horse Forum which really underscores the power of how we use words to talk ourselves into an early grave. This is by no means a condemnation of the writer. Rather I am going to use their comments to make a point about how you and I buy into ageism without even thinking about it, and what that can and often does mean to a foreshortened, far less vivid life.

Here is what she wrote:

Since her sentiments are far too common, and how we bracket ourselves as “too damned old for that” in our forties, that “I lost courage,” I have to call this out. The cost of this is horrific, not just to her but also society. It’s also a simply terrible message if she has kids, especially a girl child, for those young minds absorb this messaging early. In effect, she is training her children to die young, as well, by example.

You and I make critically important choices about how we’re going to age right about mid-life. That is where the blush, bloomies and zoomies of youth can start to fade, but only if we allow them to. Dear god I’d LOVE to only be forty again, but still, I would have no issue whatsoever in taking on a spirited horse, which is what I do every time I head out into the hinterlands to ride overseas.

Now before you bark at me that what I do is nothing like training a spicy Thoroughbred, it’s the rest of my life, and that of men and women just like me in their sixties and beyond, that makes those spicy rides possible. For I do get thrown, I do get kicked, it’s inevitable. What isn’t is my ability, your ability not only to handle that with confidence, but with great joy because your body allows you the options.

But not if your brain and that awful, nagging internal negative bitch that we have inside convinces us that we’re too old once we hit our forties.

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