Is 60 the new 40? As I step into this next decade, that affirmation plays like a mantra in my head.
My husband kept asking me, "So... how does it feel to be 60?"
It's an interesting question.
When I was a child, 60 seemed ancient. Grandmothers wore sensible shoes, had perfectly permed hair, and somehow always seemed so much older than they actually were. So yes, there is something surreal about stepping into a decade that society has traditionally labelled as "senior."
If I'm honest, I expected turning 60 to stir up all sorts of emotions. I thought there might be a little existential crisis waiting around the corner. Yet, as the weeks counted down to my birthday, I felt... surprisingly peaceful.
I've never been someone who places a lot of importance on birthdays. They're simply another reminder that life is moving forward, and hopefully that I'm making the most of it. Turning 60 didn't suddenly change who I was.
I still wake up excited to move my body. I still love exploring new places, meeting new people, and finding joy in the everyday. In many ways, I feel healthier, stronger, and more confident than I did decades ago.
Perhaps that's because we're living through a quiet revolution in how we view aging—especially as women.
For generations, menopause was portrayed as the beginning of a woman's decline. Thankfully, we're rewriting that story. More and more women are stepping into this stage of life with confidence, curiosity, adventure, and purpose. Rather than shrinking, we're expanding. Rather than fading into the background, we're discovering new parts of ourselves.
That doesn't mean pretending we don't age.
For me, embracing this season also means accepting my changing body with kindness. Yes, I'm active and strong, but my body reminds me every day that I've lived six wonderful decades. I need a little more sleep than I once did. I nourish myself with healthier food. I stretch more often. I respect the aches and pains that occasionally appear, not as enemies, but as reminders of a life well lived.
When I look in the mirror, I try to greet the woman looking back with appreciation instead of criticism. With the wonderful silver revolution underway, I even find myself wishing I had a little more grey hair to show for all these years.
Recently, I came across a question that stopped me in my tracks:
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
I sat with it for quite a while.
Most days, I certainly don't feel 60. If someone asked me to guess my age without knowing the number, I'd probably say somewhere around 50.
But perhaps age has less to do with the number of candles on our birthday cake and more to do with how we choose to live.
I also believe the people we surround ourselves with shape how we experience aging.
When I see my friend in her 70s hiking through the jungles of Panama, I feel inspired.
When I watch two of my yoga students, both in their late 70s, continuing to deepen their practice with grace and determination, I feel hopeful.
When I see women throughout our Sole Sister Ramblers community leading hikes, travelling the world, trying new adventures, making new friends, and refusing to let age define what's possible, I feel incredibly proud.
These women remind me every day that growing older doesn't have to mean growing smaller.
Maybe 60 really is the new 40.
Not because we're trying to be younger than we are, but because we're healthier, wiser, more adventurous, and more willing to live fully than generations before us ever had the opportunity to be.
To me, that's something worth celebrating.
So as you Ramble into your week, I'd love to leave you with the same question that has stayed with me:
How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
Take a moment to really think about it.
I have a feeling your answer has much less to do with your birth certificate than it does with the way you choose to live.
I'll leave you with the beautiful words of Debatrayee Banerjee. They're a little longer than what I normally share, but they're well worth taking the time to slow down, read, and truly savour.
Aging with All My Self.
To my younger self,
I'm not twenty-something anymore, and in just a month's time I shall walk into another decade of a whole new experience. I don't have youth on my side, but I have a heart of Life enlightened with the very spirit of Life itself, something that draws youth on its lap.
Wisdom has been churned out from the mistakes and failures, and lessons have been disguised as soul fillers, and gratitude dances on my lips, waving my heart with a bunch of memories. Perhaps, the memories have been earned. Earned at the cost of those lost turns, cold betrayals, numb tears, forced smiles and a voyage walking through a rainbow of mad jest of Life.
With that being said, I wouldn't go back and change even a bit. Through all of that heartache, I have unearthed a heart that is resilient, and pliant, I have met a soul that is strong and loving, and deeper than any thousand paged novel I could get lost in. I have come across beautiful souls in beautiful lands, I have soaked in different cultures and walked my way through observing hearts, listening to stories that run beyond time and tide.
I have grown with each one of those smiles and tears, the sands of places that mark my soles make my soul whole in a strange but palpable tune. I have got lost in pathways and met a gypsy soul wandering in the space of infinite time, weaving moments through Life to take back a bunch of images and experiences from a journey called Life.
My story has been filled with pages of ups and downs and my cup of Life has had several toxic turns, but in all of that, I have grown, along with one or two grey hair. My pages have often tasted Life in the most happy hue from voyages and dreams that kept overlapping and smiling across the tips of Time.
And all of this, has helped me to nurture and nourish an invincible desire to live a life, with a passion no longer on hold, but a heart that is free forever to fly in the tunes of its own whisper.
So as I open another day, walking closer to close the page of this twenty-something, I wear a smile that the youth of wisdom paints on my heart. And age, with all the grace that only Age can bring, while loving, forgiving and embracing my younger self in every air of Time.
Love,
A soul aging gracefully with the Smile of Life.
Debatrayee Banerjee
READ MORE > Jane's Mindful Musings, Rambler Cafe Blog
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