The older I get, the more I uncover the false beliefs our society hold's about ageing. The 'negative side effects of ageing' has less to do with time ticking over & more to do with our lifestyle. More to do with the small choices we make everyday. As James Clear says small, incremental changes compound over time to produce significant results - tiny changes, remarkable results. What we consider "Ageing"; saggy face, fine lines, puffy eyes isn't just because we have stayed alive - it is a combination of how we spend our days, how we speak to ourselves, how we nourish & move our bodies, how we manage stress & what beliefs & emotions we hold.
While I often marvel at what we've achieved in this world as humans, there are some very weird and paradoxical societal ideals that make me shake my head—they just don't make sense. Our society worships youth, yet expects a long life. We're obsessed with quick fixes and the notion that happiness is attainable from something outside of us. We believe we are broken and must be 'fixed.' The truth is, ageing is a privilege. To age is to be alive, to experience this flesh suit, energy exchange, and emotional landscape. We don't know when our time will be up. We don't know how many sunsets we have left to witness or how many summers we have left to bask in. Growing old is simply not guaranteed.
As part of my examination for being becoming a provider of the Face Up Face Sculpting treatment I had to provide before & after photos to show my own pages. I had to share some pics I came across as I was looking at to explore my own changes.
Our faces are the window to our world, and our faces are meant to show emotions; we can age with vitality. The photos below represent different stages in my life over the past 6 years. A couple of the early ones look like a completely different person! In fact, as I was pulling them together I was in a fit of laughter with tears running down my cheeks. My husband had to come & check on me. Boy do they show a perfect example of how our face is the window to our world.
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2018: 38 years old: (photo 1)
This was taken a month prior to learning a self sufficient meditation practice.
You can see:
- puffiness / fluid held in my face
- bags under eyes
- lines on my neck
Most of my days were sedentary as I was building my businesses - so in an office, at a desk. Stress was my norm & alcohol was a big part of my life & my identity. It was my 'go to' coping mechanism. I couldn't wait until wine o'clock to take the edge of my day; or to celebrate my day. My diary had entries where I would beat myself up about waking up feeling anxious, wasting a day feeling average because of the night before, not being able to drop the 'weight', not being able to stick to a 'healthier' diet, or a consistent exercise routine. I would start, but rarely have the staying power, long enough anyway to see the results hang around. Stress was also normal to me. Bouts of anxiety felt like just a part of life & my personality.
nb. I'm not hating on this version of me - I love that woman there - she was doing great things, growing our businesses, having fun with great friends, raising our daughter, and loving her husband. And doing her best. Life wasn't necessarily “bad” either. I just know there were many moments and quite a few years in my early - mid thirties that I was starting to realise this lifestyle was not serving me anymore - the booze & holidays weren't making up for the busyness, stress & disconnectedness (is that a word?) from myself that I felt.
2020: 40 years old (photo 2)
This was taken a months prior to when I stopped drinking alcohol & changed my diet after consulting with a functional nutritionist. I had a twice a day meditation practice for 2 years. My drinking had started to slow down, and I had more alcohol free days as a natural by product of my practice. Hot tip - it's difficult to sit with your yourself when you're hung over . Things were starting to shift, without me even being aware of it. However my body was still holding stress and as you can tell I was inflamed & puffy.
You can see in my face:
- fluid in my face
- my eyes appear sunken
- my eyebrows are even lower due to tension
I had to double check the date on this photo. I look completely different. The tension I was holding was stopping my natural lymph drainage. I had little blood flow to my face.
2021: 40 years old (photo 3)
The difference between the two photos in my year as 40 is quite extreme. The second photo in 2021 was only 3 months later! I had stopped drinking which was a huge deal for me at the time. It felt incredibly scary! I had also changed my diet - mainly removing gluten, dairy & rice (but started eating potatoes!). My (functional) nutritionist (she's amazing - link here) did tests so I could understand what was inflaming my body, instead of just eating the latest fad diet. I had dabbled in pescatarianism & keto. I was always staying away from potatoes because 'those bad carbs'. Yet after the tests, it was the dairy that was inflaming me. Not the potatoes!
2021: 41 years old (photo 4)
By this photo, I had changed my diet for about a year, and 1 year with no booze. I had also started using an infra-red sauna often. And completed a liver detox.
You can see in my face:
- my overall complexion is brighter
- less puffiness
2023 vs 2024: 43 years old & nearly 44 - mid May '24 (photo 5 & 6)
So this shows the difference between doing Face Up - self massage & treatments & not. I took Photo 5 in October last year - since then I have had 4 x Face Up treatments and regular self massage at home.
Post Face Up as a self practice & treatment.
- Fluid has drained from my cheeks - you can see a lot more of my ears in photo 6.
- My eyebrows have lifted.
- My eyes appear wider & brighter.
My jaw was / can still get very tense, (a very common storage for stress) so the fluid was held in my cheeks. This will also pull the corners of our eyes down. I have reduced tensions in my scalp so my eyebrows have lifted. This was taken a couple of weekends ago; and I'd only just recovered from my an awful virus.
Hand on heart, I know the foundation of these changes has been my twice daily 20-minute meditation practice.
"We can not shame ourselves into change; we can only love ourselves into evolution."
Without my daily practice, I really don't know if I would have been able to hear my inner voice, nor summon the courage to navigate change, and maintain that new path. Without realising it, my practice helped me evolve with love, and was not driven by shame. Because this process has not been planned out. It's been organic, nonlinear, messy at times, and believe me, I still have periods where I question 'what am I even doing?'. There's things I continue to learn & uncover about my body as I age. I've never felt so connected to my body as I do now in my mid 40s - how cool is that?
So remember, our bodies & faces are interconnected - we hold stress unconsciously. The effects of this & our lifestyle shows up in our faces. These changes are over 6 years - not 6 months. I had a meditation practice for 2 years before making some decisions about my lifestyle that would end up positively effecting my overall wellbeing.
👉🏻 I also didn't do this alone. I sort help.
Starting with signing up to a meditation course with a teacher. I actually saw an energy healer too, that's a story for another day. I then starting seeing my functional nutritionist. I invested in me. I studied with & continue to study with teachers I love. Through my studies I've made new friends, and am part of new communities. I now share and teach in these communities. I got curious instead of judgemental about what my body was showing me.
And, I know you've heard it before, but seriously, there's no such thing as a quick fix.
Because you're not broken. X