Aging
It’s Time to Be Creative: Aging Is the New Art
The days of dismissing aging women are ending. You create your next you.
Posted July 11, 2019
![Source: Unsplash Source: Unsplash](https://cdn.psychologytoday.com/sites/default/files/styles/article-inline-half-caption/public/field_blog_entry_images/2019-07/rodion-kutsaev-ij25m7fxqtk-unsplash.jpg?itok=uCJtMK-Y)
Women over 50, and by that I mean women 50, 60, 70 and up… let me ask you something:
Are you stuck or unfulfilled? Do you yearn for something else? Do you have a calling within you to do or be more?
Now let me ask you this:
Are you waiting for something to happen? Are you looking for a map to guide you? Do you feel confused about what to do next?
Here’s the thing:
We need to stop waiting for something or someone else. We don’t have to be confused.
We can be creative.
You can be you, by your own design.
Here are three reasons why.
1. There’s a large blank canvas waiting for your work.
It’s wide open.
Every now and then, we as evolving humans meet a precipice and encounter a clearing that calls for new potential. Today the call is for women, especially aging women, to take charge of our territory and make it new.
We are living forty to fifty years longer than we did just decades ago. We have up to fifty additional years to do and be something, perhaps of our own design.
Thanks to the age-busting efforts of artists and activists such as Stefania Medetti (https://www.theagebuster.com) and Ashton Applewhite (https://thischairrocks.com), who you can be as a woman is waiting for your unique construction. The old forms that tell us how to age need spicing, or revision. You get to make up what it looks like, and what it feels like, to be your next you.
As inviting as this is, many women find it hard to do.
Gail had trouble imagining who she could be and what she wanted to do next. Every time she tried to envision her future she would get stuck thinking about her past, and all the things that hadn’t worked out well. For role models, she could only consider her mother, a long time alcoholic with early dementia. Instead of being thrilled with her longevity, she was viewing it as a dreaded continuation of something she didn’t want.
It was when she turned to fiction and stepped outside the box of what she thought was possible that she began to reconsider her own path. She started to imagine possible lives for other women. Some, her peers, some she made up. She began to attend workshops, read memoirs and imagine a world of difference.
“It took me a while to get that I am the creative inspiration for me. It took me even longer to give myself permission to put a new me on the blank canvas that was staring in front of me.”
Now Gail is enjoying living her creations.
2. Your brain actually wants this.
Neuroscience studies show that while a 50-year-old brain may slow down in some ways, and perhaps lose recall detail here or there, it is primed to be creative. Creativity researchers Martin Seligman, Marie Forgeard and Scott Barry Kaufman suggest that as we get older we should engage in creative projects. Our capacity to think in innovative ways accumulates and increases as we age. The capacity to notice patterns and see things in diverse perspectives is the brain’s evolution.
Why waste such a resource?
During our workshops, where women gather to rediscover and redirect their lives, ideas flow. The women listen keenly to each other, hearing and seeing things between the lines and underneath the stories that are shared. The innovative suggestions and connections that fill the room are a testament to these women’s cognitive talent.
Neurologically, it is truly our best time to see more of what is, and create what’s next.
3. The current is strong and ready to pull you in
It’s happening. Older women are becoming visible and claiming power and relevance. Check out this article in The Washington Post.
If you jump into the movement, you won’t be alone.
A new culture is dawning that is rethinking aging and giving it a new twist. Women of all ages are starting new careers, taking leadership positions, making art that matters, gaining in style and contributing to the world in ways that matter.
The days of dismissing aging women are ending. Anti-aging as the path to follow looks unoriginal and uninspiring.
The world needs your unique contribution to this collective project.
It’s time for you to take a stand and put yourself into it – in your own special way.
It’s time to create your next you.
Aging is the new art.