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11 Pro-age Tips Cindy Joseph Gave Us
When Cindy Joseph began the Pro-age Revolution in 2010, her dream was to help all women embrace a pro-age mindset.
Cindy’s pro-age philosophy inspired hundreds of thousands of women to embrace their ages and love every year of their lives.
Over the years, Cindy’s pro-age lessons and insight on how to embrace your natural beauty have become the inspiration for the Pro-age Revolution.
As we celebrate BOOM!’s 10th anniversary and the first-ever Pro-age Month, we look back at some of the tips Cindy gave us for encouragement and inspiration.
We hope you’re as inspired as we are.
1. Aging is a celebration of life.
Cindy always said that aging was just another word for living.
Given that truth, it’s mind-boggling how our culture looks at aging as something to avoid, hide or disguise.
Cindy taught us to celebrate every year of life, no matter what age we are or stage we’re in.
Silver hair… wrinkles… freckles… sunspots… Cindy encouraged us to celebrate signs of aging as badges of honor. After all, why should we live incredible, fulfilling lives and then hide all signs that we’ve done so?
She described it this way: “When you were four, you looked forward to being five. When you were 12, you looked forward to being 13. When you were 20, you looked forward to being 21.”
Now, at this age, you can look forward to your next birthday too.
That’s what being pro-age is all about… Looking forward to what’s next and celebrating your life.
2. Your beauty and value are innate.
Our culture tells us that we lose value as we age. Cindy taught us the truth was exactly the opposite.
She recognized that our value and beauty are innate. It comes from who we are. Far from being diminished by age, our value increases with age. That’s why Cindy preferred saying “silver hair” over “gray hair.”
“I like to say ‘silver’ because silver is beautiful,” she said. “Gray hair makes you think of gray days, gray mood. Gray has such a negative connotation. Silver is something you spend a lot of money on. Silver is something you value, something you polish. Something you display in your home. I have a silver crown. I have gone from being a princess to being a queen.”
3. Whatever age you are is right.
Cindy encouraged us to celebrate the age we are right now… not just tolerate it or accept it. She wanted us to love and embrace our age.
Embracing the age you are right now is the very essence of the Pro-age Revolution.
Cindy said, “We’re trained to think we’re only beautiful—only in our prime—during our childbearing years, which is archaic. It’s thinking like 100 years ago.
“Instead, we need to celebrate who and what we are right now... If you do that, you’ll be an example to all the women who are younger than you that want that. They want to see that they have a wonderful place to go.”
4. Life is a V, not a mountain.
Too many of us have been told that “it’s all downhill” after reaching 50.
But Cindy taught us to do things differently.
“People think of age as a mountain,” Cindy said. “You hit the peak and then you fall off the cliff. This is archaic. Flip that into a V. Think of your life as getting BETTER, not worse.”
When we think of life this way, we get to look forward to what’s ahead so much more.
5. Confidence is beautiful.
Cindy began her career as a makeup artist and later became a silver-haired model.
Many women asked her opinion on what they should wear or what makeup they should use.
She often said, “If you look in the mirror and you think, ‘You go, girl. You look awesome,’ you’re going to walk out the door and you are going to look attractive. Because you’re happy and you’re celebrating yourself.”
Cindy taught us that what makes a woman beautiful is not her makeup, her size, her clothes or her features. What makes a woman beautiful is confidence, happiness, joy in living and love for herself.
6. We decide what to believe.
Cindy recognized we could choose whether or not to accept our culture’s views on aging. We get to decide.
7. Every stage is another kind of beautiful.
Cindy taught us to see the beauty in every stage of life, from babies and toddlers to adolescents and younger adults through to the full bloom of our 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s…
Every stage is different and every stage is beautiful.
She said, “We often take negative messages about aging for granted, so we think they’re ‘true.’ But negative concepts of aging are man-made. They’re invented by us. We only make them true by believing them.
“So that means we can make up anything we want,” Cindy said. “We are in control. We are in power. So we can make up something else! How about saying that life after 25 is fabulous? And it gets better and better and better? It’s up to us to decide: Are we going to be pro-age or anti-age?”
“You have your own unique beauty in your age and you have your own unique beauty of all the women your age,” Cindy said. “Remember, every birthday you become another kind of beautiful. If you don’t believe it, ask the people that love you.”
8. Pleasure is important.
Cindy believed that our culture was too focused on pain instead of pleasure.
“You can tell your boss, 'I’m really sick, can’t come to work.' Or, 'Somebody died, and I can’t come to work.' And they’re all, ‘No problem.’"
"But can you imagine calling your boss and saying, ‘You know, it’s such a beautiful day, so I’m going to the beach today?' Not!”
Cindy found that when she sought pleasure, she enjoyed every part of her life more. She encouraged other women to release “shoulds” and enjoy pleasure every day.
When we seek pleasure, we’re happier... and that happiness radiates from us.
9. We become more with age.
Our youth-obsessed, ageist culture bombards us with negative messages about aging.
Cindy said, “We’ve been sold this lie that as we get older, we somehow become a lesser version of ourselves.”
But Cindy showed us the truth: With every year of life, we add to our experience, knowledge, kindness, bravery and beauty.
We become more with every passing year, not less.
In fact, it was this very contradiction that led her to start the Pro-age Revolution.
“It’s all because as I was getting older I was getting happier, smarter, more educated, more skilled, wiser, more conscious, more aware,” Cindy said. “My life continued to improve… I continued to improve.”
10. We can always grow and learn.
There’s a misconception that aging means we stop growing and learning. Cindy called that “coasting.”
“Just aging is not a bad thing,” she said. “Coasting is. You can only go one direction when you’re coasting. So it’s important to take action.”
Cindy encouraged us to continue to try new things and to learn and grow throughout our lives.
“My generation has NEVER accepted the status quo. We have challenged it with every decade of our lives. Now that we’re in our 50s, 60s and 70s, it’s unprecedented. We’re going back to school. We’re getting new degrees. We’re starting new businesses. Doing yoga. We don’t just watch our grandchildren play soccer, we’re playing soccer with them.”
When we pursue new things this way, we’re happier and more vibrant.
Cindy said, “You still have lots and lots of time to make all kinds of new choices and do great things. If you’re not healthy, get healthy. If you’re not happy, get happy. We are in the driver’s seat of our lives.”
11. Look for beauty.
Cindy encouraged us to look for the beauty all around us—in ourselves and in other people.
“Think of pictures of Georgia OKeefe at 78—the photographer took pictures of her in front of a window to show every line on her face. We buy those photos of her and hang those pictures in our homes. We love them because we are in awe of her at 78.”
"Then we look in the mirror and say ‘that’s not good enough.’ The old adage, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ that still holds true. But the beholder is you. It’s up to you to look in the mirror and find your beauty.”
Cindy’s words of wisdom and inspiration have stuck with us, and we hope they’ll stick with you.
As always we would love to hear what you think… Which of Cindy’s pro-age lessons has impacted you the most?
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