I believe our bodies are self-regulating. All we need to consciously do is to support it while it goes through the changes it needs to make. When we go from baby to toddler, we no longer need to be fed with mother’s milk or a baby bottle. We progress to more solid food and better mobility. As teens our bodies change again from children that have energy to spare, living off kool-aid and candy to something more substantial and a lot of it. We also need more sleep like when we were babies because it takes a lot of internal processes to get all of our body onboard with these changes.
We cannot stop the whiskers from growing on a teenage boy’s face nor can we stop a young girl’s period from becoming. Our best course of action is to support those changes and embrace what it means to be a young adult in it’s first stages of being. To suppress these natural occurrences is to make the person and everyone around them miserable.
At mid-life there are more changes that occur. Our bodies begin to slow- in metabolism, in memory and in desire. Our youthful activity is no longer needed and we begin to acquire the wisdom that would have been nice when we were young and foolish. In our culture that worships youth, we are told this stage in life is the worst thing that can happen to someone. We are given options to slow down the aging process with pills, diets, fast cars and hair dye.
What happens when we embrace the change and allow ourselves to become the next version of ourselves? Appreciating our new-found gifts can make for an interesting life. When we work with our new selves we may find that our youthfulness hasn’t gone away. It has evolved into something much deeper and far richer than what we had before. Living in the moment becomes the goal. Eating what our body needs and being active in the way our lifestyle supports is important now.
I personally haven’t arrived at my “golden years” where menopause is just a memory and retirement is as busy as my youth. I suspect this age has need for as much support as the rest of my life had required. At each stage what is best for us changes and suppressing what we are becoming gets tiresome, and expensive. Going against conventional wisdom need not be risky or frowned upon. Many are coming to terms with what has been happening to people for millennia. Embracing who we are and who we are becoming is now entering the “en-vogue” stage of existence. I welcome the chance to be another version of myself. I will embrace the change.