Looking good

A Indonesian socialite is in coma in a clinic in Thailand due to liposuction.  I've seen her pictures on Tatler magazine and she is not in anyway chubby.  The themes in Hollywood on women past 40's seem to be about women's neurotic fear of aging and desperate attempt to look good.

To be fair, it's not only the celebrities and socialite who desperately want to cling to their prime look. My friend who's a banker was sharing her horror of finding stretch mark on her thighs and her gravitating eye bags.  And yes, she did contemplate going under a quick fix to remove those extra bags.

I have on many occasions covet for a pair of firm (and well-endowed) ones to replace my sagging (note sagging and not exactly saggy).

It's the fear of pain and consequences of a surgery that stop me from running off to Singapore or Thailand for a quick fix.  But deep inside I question whether I will be happy after enhancing my looks or will I keep want more fixes to keep me happy. As George Lopez advocates, be who you are.  I am trying to find peace with how I look and the fact that I age just like everyone else does.  If it's something I can't avoid, is it worth losing sleepless nights and thousands of dollars?

That doesn't mean I won't make the best to slow down the aging process.  I'm still into night creams, eye creams, sun blocks, facial massages and all those nice stuff I pamper myself with.  I am also learning to treat my body better with ample rest, the right diet (with occasional strays) and regular exercise. I've found that yoga helps to keep me in shape and happy.  And we can't deny happiness is the best antidote to a youthful look.

So for all the women out there, stay happy and youthful.

Aging

Woke up and stared at yourself in the mirror suddenly realizing the wrinkles around your eyes and mouth?  Breasts sagging, stretch mark becoming more visible, tummy flabbier (despite desperate sit-ups), loose skin around the neck and alarming growth of grey hair?  These aging signs are unavoidable and causes certain amount of anxiety among most women.

Thank goodness for all the creams that promise youth; night cream, eye cream, neck cream, exfoliating scrub and with any imaginable ingredients; gold, pearl, AHA, seaweed, sugar and even placenta (recalled reading about it).  We sign up for gym and huff and puff our way through classes (which by the way is no longer called aerobics, they are now Body Pump, Body Combat etc).  We may even go for a wardrobe make-over, squeezing ourselves into clothes that we think will make us look younger (this explains why many mothers and their teenage daughters wear outfits that look alike).  

We struggle with the new technology trying to catch up with internet; blackberry, iphone, twitter and  facebook.  We need a dictionary to understand the latest acronym; lol (laugh out loud), omw (on my way), omg (oh my god) etc.  We go clubbing (not disco) to appear young even though we don't recognize any of the songs played.

Despite self-deprecating, I welcome the experiences life has taught me.  Most of us are more at ease with ourselves than we were in our 20's.  We are more secure about who we are.  We know what we want in life and are more confident to demand from life.  We have learned that we can't love others unless we first learn to love ourselves and we can't treat others right if we don't first take care of ourselves.  We realize we can't please everyone and has cut-off toxic people from our lives.

Our inner selves are more beautiful.  This is what aging gracefully is all about.