Unfiltered-July Reflections on Ageism and Finding Joy

 Kim  shares personal insights and stories about aging, ageism, and living joyfully. She emphasizes celebrating age, overcoming self-ageism, and pursuing passions regardless of age.

Have you been listening to Midlife with Courage™ and thinking, "That's me"?

Now it's time to take the next step.

It's Not J.U.S.T. You™ is a transformational 4-week workshop designed for women who are ready to stop shrinking themselves, take up space, and live more boldly. Together, we'll uncover the subtle ways we make ourselves smaller, explore why those patterns exist, and practice the tools to communicate with confidence, set healthy boundaries, and step fully into the life we deserve.

If you're ready to move from inspiration to transformation, I'd love to have you join us this September.

Click HERE for Priority Access. 

The podcast starts the conversation. The workshop is where the transformation begins.

****************************

Find Your Vitality Today!

We all know our skin changes in midlife and we know there are a lot of products out there making promises. I have found one that delivers and I'd love to have you join me by trying it out yourself. Go to the link below to find out more about this luxurious facial serum

https://vitalitybioskin.com/products/vitality-society-founding-circle

***************************

Want to be a guest on Midlife with Courage™-Bold Women Thriving After Forty with Kim Benoy? Sen...

Transcript

Kim-Midlife with Courage™ (00:01.464)

Hello, hello, and welcome back to Midlife with Courage Unfiltered. I feel like I should have some kind of a special sound effect with that, like a reverberation or filtered, filtered, filtered. Okay. Anyway, feeling crazy today, a little bit. So these last couple episodes that I've put out, we've talked to two women who talked about age in one way, shape, or form. Joe Blackwell talked about self ageism.

and what that means. And then Stephanie Anderson talked about turning 50 and the things that she's experienced through that and how she felt about that and how she's helping other women with that and the things she wants to do. what I love about both of these ladies was that they took their own experiences and they are sharing what they've learned to help other women really.

And in two different ways. of course, Jo lives in England. England yeah, England. And I just love talking to people with British accents. I think it's so fun. But we actually I'm actually going to be on her podcast soon this year, I believe. she just reached out to me about that. So anyway, that's kind of beside the point. But I just am thinking about age and what it means. And I've had

Andy Lyons is a person that I've had on my podcast in the past. And she talks about aging and don't be caged by your age is her podcast. And you know, age really is it's a number. And when we talk, and this is gonna I just realized this really ties into my just the four letter word just because when we say age is just a number, that's that's not a

We say it all the time. I've said it a million times. But that is a number. That is a big number and it is something to be celebrated. And since July is my birthday month, we're we're almost at the end here. What a great time to talk about aging and and ageism and all this fun stuff. But but that number it those as the numbers get bigger, that means you've got more experience behind you. You've got more life, you've got more wisdom, you've got you've just got more.

Kim-Midlife with Courage™ (02:24.526)

in the tank, you've got more stories, you've got more experiences, and it's just it really is something to be celebrated. As we all know, we've all learned tragically that some people don't get to be the age we are now. You know, life could be over for someone you know tomorrow and it doesn't matter if they're eighty or seventy-five or

15 or 20 or 30 or whatever it happens to be. We just we need to remember that that number is something to be celebrated. And so I'm trying to do that. I really I'm I'm doing pretty good at at this 59 thing. I turned 59 this month and it was a little comical today. We were talk Dave and I were talking to someone. we were we're both fifty-nine this year and

It's actually I shouldn't say it was comical. It was not comical. The situation happened that the person we were talking to just found out before our conversation that her husband's older brother had passed away unexpected unexpectedly during the night. He he passed away in his sleep and she says he he wasn't that old. He was only fifty nine. And I probably mistakenly or

accidentally kind of laughed a little bit. I'm like, we are 59. We just turned 59. So you just get these little messages throughout your life that remind you just pay attention to your experiences. Don't worry about the number and focusing on the negative of Well, I'm getting older. Life is over. No, it's not. No way in hell is it over until it's over.

So maybe that kind of sounds like two different things going on, but really get grab every last piece of joy that you can get out of your life for as long as you have it. I've wasted a lot of time on grudges and arguments and stressing out about situations that I cannot control, and I'm done. I just I won't do it anymore.

Kim-Midlife with Courage™ (04:44.02)

And I think that's part of getting older too is learning that there's more li there's more years behind you than lie ahead of you. So why waste your time on those things that don't really matter? You know, I've talked about this before on this, on this podcast about, you know, family members who let hold grudges forever and ever. And I'm not doing it anymore. I'm just not. So,

But talking about the ageism again, like the self-ageism, that kind of goes into it with Joe Blackwell because we talked about how she broke her ankle or something. Yeah, she broke her ankle and she blamed it on being older. And her son told her, I could have broken my ankle the way you did it. You know, she she turned too fast or something. It had nothing to do with how old she was. but it was because of, you know, the action she took. So she's like,

She kinda that made her stop and think, yeah, that's right. It it really just I think when we say, that happened because I'm old, in our minds we think, well, then it's normal. And really, it shouldn't be normal. So things like, I'm always tired, or I have this fat on my belly that will not go away, or brain fog.

Whatever it happens to be. Well, you know, everybody has it, so it must be must be normal, but common isn't normal, and you don't have to settle for that. You don't have to settle for the things that are attributed to aging. Yes, you may need to adapt to certain things. the podcast that comes out next week, I talked about wellness with a lady named Lindsay and

We talked about, you know, earlier in your life in your twenties, maybe you ran marathons. And now in your fifties, you're not running any marathons, but you can walk super long distances or whatever it happens to be. So but we just adapt, we just find different ways. So it's there's no reason for us to sit around and do nothing and just say, Well, it's I'm old. That's just how it is. No, it's not how it is. That's not how it is. And I don't want anyone else to

Kim-Midlife with Courage™ (07:06.732)

As long as you have the ability to find happiness, find joy, move your body, there's no excuse not to. And when in the times when you do need to take a break and rest, take a break and rest. And then when you're ready, go do your walks, go do whatever you want to do. Start something new. Maybe you want to take up something new. Maybe you want to take up painting or

gardening or something, whatever it is, whatever it is. I wanna learn violin and darn it, I'm gonna learn how to play the violin. I think that might be year sixty, but that's what I'm gonna do. And so I've got that that that's in my my head now. I've verbalized it up more than once. So it's I'm gonna make it happen. So that's that's how you start. That's how you do it. So don't let your age, let your number tell you that you can't do certain things

Because there's always a way. If you really want to do it, if it's something you really want to do and you're meant to do, you will find a way to do it. So I guess that's my message this month at the end of my birthday month. Grab every bit of joy you can out of each minute of your life and go out and do wonderful things. Do things you want to do. Enjoy your moments. Live every moment. One of my favorite sayings. And just

Be happy. Be joyful. So that's what I'm gonna do for the next year. I'm gonna be joyful and be happy as much as I can. All right. I thank you so much for supporting this podcast. You do not know how much it means to me. I just appreciate it so much. And if you would like to share it with others, you ac actually cannot do that because it's a subscription, but tell people about it.

I'll probably take some clips from this and share them a little bit. but I would love to have more people join me on this on this little subscription part of the Midlife with Courage podcast. If you are looking for more group community, remember I do have a Facebook group and I do have a school community, which I have been woefully neglecting for the last couple months, but I would really like to get that going again.

Kim-Midlife with Courage™ (09:28.057)

Because at some point I think Facebook is going to go away for me. I just think it needs to do that. It is not bringing me joy. So that will probably need to go away. But not yet, but pretty soon-ish. All right, everyone. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a wonderful week, and I will have another episode of Unfiltered coming up for you next month. Bye-bye.