In the spirit of lessons to my 15 year old daughter, I thought I should send some lessons 20 years into the future to my 61 year old self. Today, I hope I would be smart enough to take some advice from my 61 year old self. While I don’t know what she would tell me, here is what I would like to tell her.
Dear 61 year old me,
- If you haven’t learned to speak Spanish, do it. Now is time to learn something new.
- You are skinnier than you think you are.
- If you haven’t practiced yoga in a while, get on a mat. It always makes you feel so good.
- Your daily habits determine your health, and it’s never to late to establish new ones.
- Your daughter loves you more than you think.
- Love your grandchildren but don’t try to raise them. You raised the best possible person to do that.
- Your body may have changed but your heart hasn’t. Do what you love.
- You don’t have to get something done every day. Relax. Be more, do less.
- Keep wearing sunscreen.
- Love more deeply and give more freely.
- It really is true that the first two bites of dessert taste better than the rest.
- Eat more greens.
- Don’t spend even 5 seconds wishing you had lived parts of your life differently. You really cannot change the past. Move on.
- Help someone be more than they think they can be.
- Appreciate that man walking on the beach next to you. Not many couples stay as madly in love as the two of you have for 25 years.
- Now might be a good time to write a letter to your 41 year self and your 81 year old self.
- Keep creating, draw, shoot, write, paint.
- You look so good because you limited your sun exposure over the past 20 years.
- You feel so good because you don’t eat meat, drink milk or consume artificial sweeteners.
- Be grateful for every little thing and enjoy the ocean.
Love, 41 year old me
The insightful Raam Dev wrote a similar post with advice to his future self.
