I love birthdays (yours, mine, everyone’s), and I was especially looking forward to turning 30. I thoroughly enjoyed, exhausted, stretched and explored the depths of my 20s – did the school thing, the travel thing (many times), did the “follow your heart/soul’s calling and start your dream business” thing, made incredible friendships and sisterhoods, expanded my heart space and had a few love stories, pushed & tested my body through different fitness modalities, delved into spirituality, opened my chakras, cultivated self awareness and I am actively trying to live and design a life that is aligned with my values and intentions. I am truly thankful.

Can we please change the narrative that aging is a negative thing? (What is the alternative? There are people, young and old, who didn’t get the privilege to celebrate their birthday this year.) Don’t take this life and our time here for granted.

We get to celebrate the day your soul incarnated into your powerful body and live this beautiful life. It means you survived (and hopefully, thrived) another trip around the sun. The narrative that our best years are behind us does not serve us.

Reframe that with gratitude for your great experiences and look forward to creating new ones with more wisdom, intention and agency. If you are enjoying your days, nurturing your relationships and working on becoming a better version of yourself…then you should be enjoying the present moment and looking forward to future. The uncertainty is exciting! The best is yet to come; never peak (h/t to @bedroskeuilian for that advice).

If you’re going to cringe…cringe at the idea of becoming complacent or having a fixed mindset (vs a growth mindset), or having a sour attitude, getting trapped in dogma, living unauthentically to please people, feeling stuck, not evolving, not optimizing the vitality of your body, wasting your days by living a life that isn’t aligned with your soul’s purpose, etc. These things are cringe-worthy, but they’re also changeable (aging is not). You have the power to change them. And if you need permission, here-I’m giving it to you.

My (birthday) wish for you is that you do what makes you happy and that you look forward to your next birthday (and aging). It is a privilege to occupy space on this earth and you’re only getting better.