Hey there, it's Susan Peirce Thompson, and welcome to the Weekly Vlog. Oh my God, oh my God! Oh my God! I just turned 50! I just turned 50. I just turned 50. And in this vlog, I have five thoughts for you upon turning 50. Before I launch into that, though I have some news. It's pretty exciting news. We're ready now for you to get your seat, your ticket to our 10th anniversary celebration of Bright Line Eating®. There are only 200 seats at this luncheon that we're hosting on Sunday, August 4th, coming right up Sunday, August 4th, and it's going to be in Rochester, New York, lunch from 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM and we only have a few seats left. They’re $20 the seats. But lunch was way more expensive than that. But Bright Line Eating is hosting it. We're covering the rest, but we're expecting just a modest something to save your seats. So, it's $20. Just so we know you'll be there because they're very limited. These seats, there's only 200 of them and there's not that many left. Then afterwards, from 2 to 4:00 PM there's a book signing at Barnes & Noble. Now it's not the big one, it's one in Victor at Eastview Mall from 2 to 4:00 PM there's a new Barnes & Noble in the mall in Victor at Eastview Mall across the way from J.Jill, right there at the main entrance. It's a sweet little Barnes & Noble, and I'll be there hosted by them, Barnes & Noble signing books. You can buy books there and get hugs, and it's just going to be a sweet time. So, that is the event, and if the luncheon seats are already sold out by the time you get there, really consider if you don't live too far away, joining us for the book signing at Barnes and Noble.
Now, on to my five thoughts upon Turning 50. So, first of all, without a doubt, oh my gosh, my main thought is I am so excited and happy to be 50. I am really, truly so thrilled. I mean, I feel like I'm rushing at 50, wanting it, thrilled for it, not the least bit perturbed, like just so excited to be turning 50. I think there's a few reasons for that. One is this book that I read more than once, actually over the last couple years, “The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50” by Jonathan Rausch. I can't recommend this book highly enough for people at every age. It really explains the science of happiness across the lifespan, and it explains why people get happier after age 50. His description of the psychology of it so matched my experience through my forties. I was so dissatisfied, which is so weird. I had everything I had ever wanted in life. I was experiencing more and more and more professional success. I mean, I started Bright Line Eating at 40 and all through my 40s, professionally, my life was getting amazing. At the same time, always, I just found myself looking around going, is this it? Then feeling like such an ass, feeling like such a jerk, pardon my French for saying that, for thinking that just, oh, you're so ungrateful, Susan. Your life is so good. There was just this war going on. But honestly, my bias was to look around and go, really? Is this it?
Now, at 50, I look around at the same circumstances and think, but this is so good. The book explains the shift. It explains the difference. It has to do with expectations basically, and that what happens, it's kind of funny, by the time you're 50, your expectations have been unmet so much that you've just lowered them a lot. Now life keeps actually in truth, in material reality, actually getting better. It keeps exceeding your expectations and you're just pleasantly surprised year over year. I've started to experience this over the last couple years of just being really delighted when I look around at my life. There's this other interesting psychological thing, which is I feel really young at 50, and I felt old turning 40. I mean, really, I had stabs of panic and dread and that sort of, oh no, so much of my life is gone. What do I have to show for it kind of feeling turning 40, I had a lot of that. I have none of that turning 50. I think the difference is that my comparison group turning 40 was young adults. Those were the people that I considered to be my peers. Suddenly I was among the oldest of the young adults. Now over these last 10 years, my comparison group has completely shifted. My comparison group is now older adults, and I'm among the youngest of them. So, I feel so young. I feel like a spring chicken turning 50. I feel so young. I just am so excited turning 50. I really do believe in my bones that the best is yet to come. It's very heartening to read the research on people in their 60s and 70s and 80s are just happier, happier, happier, happier. I just can't wait. I'm so excited. I'm finally 50. It feels amazing. That's my first takeaway.
My second thought is I think what's so great about being 50 is that I just know myself so well. Well, and I don't mean that to say that there's nothing left to learn, that I know everything. It's not a statement of cockiness. It's a statement of hard won reality that at this point in my life, I know how I tick. I know myself well enough to be able to take good enough care of myself day in and day out, that I don't feel lost. I don't feel like I'm floundering when I'm off the beam. I know the things that it takes for me to get back on the beam. I finally feel like I have the owner's manual to Susan Peirce Thompson. I finally feel like I get myself well enough to know how to be a good effective steward of my days, my minutes, my life experience, my choices. That knowledge is so priceless that it keeps me from even remotely wishing for younger years. I would not turn back the clock for anything because what I know about myself and how I tick is so valuable. And 50 seems like kind of a choice age, where I've got all of the benefit of that wisdom and experience and life experience and self-knowledge, still young enough to have some in my, some fun with it still. So yeah, it feels like a really, really sweet combination.
That said, the other main thought turning 50 is it feels like about the age that the warranty expires on the vehicle that I'm traveling in, this body is not what it used to be. I'm experiencing all kinds of joint things as I've shared about in the vlog. Sometimes it's not so easy to sit down on the toilet and then get back up because my knees aren't the best anymore. These days I've been pretty joint pain-free, sitting on the toilet and getting back up. Thank God. But sometimes it hurts a little. It feels like the commitment to taking care of my body has entered a whole new phase. I just don't get anything for free anymore. I'm not going to feel limber and agile and well, unless I take really good care of myself.
What I'm noticing for myself though is that being 50 is also coinciding with the highest level of willingness that I've ever had. Not willingness, ability, actual follow through, following through on taking care of myself to a level that I've never experienced before. I'm swimming three times a week like I've talked about. I'm weightlifting with a trainer twice a week. I'm doing Egoscue exercises. Not every morning, but most mornings. I'm doing shoulder exercises. Not every night, but most nights. I'm eating immaculately as doing the things that are required for healthy functioning.
Now I'm going to share something with you. I've been thinking about sharing this for a long time. You ready? This is kind of big. I think you're going to go crazy over this. I just need to preface this by saying I get no money for saying this. I am not an affiliate of this company. I'm not associated with them. I'm telling you this for fun and for free. But I have found the best face cream ever. I'll show it to you in a second. I first found out about it maybe a year, year and a half ago. I was listening to a podcast by Harvard professor, I think his name is David Sinclair. It's a podcast called Lifespan, and it's really, really good. It's just a few episodes, and it's all about the science of longevity and sort of biohacking longevity. He's got an episode there on the external body and the skin, the hair, the nails, that kind of thing. And he talked about in this podcast, well, first of all, through it, he's talking about the science of aging and how it really comes from cells becoming senescent cells, meaning they're kind of like zombie cells. They've lost their identity of what they're supposed to do in the body. They should be a heart cell or a skin cell. But because their genetic code has unraveled, they don't know that anymore. And so, they're just going floating around in this tissue without acting like they should act as a heart cell or a skin cell and mucking up the place and really ruining the functionality of that organ or that tissue or that joint or whatever. These senescent cells are really the issue. In this episode on skin, he described how some researchers, I think they're in Brazil and South America, these female scientists got together and they tested the 20,000 some odd peptides that are known on human skin to see which ones of them would reduce or eliminate senescent cells, because you can, in skin tissue, put in a stain and see the senescent cells, they just all turn blue. They would put a wash of this peptide, and then another peptide, 20,000 of them, they tested, and they found 20 peptides that would take the senescent cells away. They put them into this amazing skin cream, and it's called One Skin. I've been using this stuff now religiously, and I am not kidding. I am aging in reverse. My face is noticeably younger than it was a year ago, and my skin is plumper and thicker and less wrinkly. My neck is less crepey. I just got to say, even though I do feel like the expiry date is up on a lot of my organs and systems, I feel pretty good having this face cream in my pocket. Now, I'm actually holding up the eye cream because here's another little trick I've found. They put four times the dose of those peptides in the eye cream versus the face cream. So, I use the eye cream on my whole face, my whole neck, my upper arms, my upper chest, those areas that get really crepey and aging looking. I'm using this eye cream all over, and I love it. I never used to be someone who used lotion anywhere. I just didn't like the feeling of it. But they found a really good lotion. So, I am using it for face cream every day, every night. It's incredible. Anyway, so yeah, again, I don't get any money for saying that, but I know some of you are already pausing this vlog to go order it.
Okay, so where am I at? I've given you my three thoughts. I've got two more thoughts to round out this vlog. Okay. My fourth thought is that I'm noticing that family and savoring time with my family is meaning so much more to me than it did just a few years ago. I'm really thinking about my mom, my dad, my kids, my husband, and noticing how this feels like a golden age in our lives. I mean, my kids have six grandparents because my mom and dad are both divorced and remarried, and so their spouses and David's parents are still together. So, we've got my kids. Our kids have six grandparents, and they're all alive, well, healthy, they're all with us. Self-sufficient, cognitively strong, glorious, robust, loving human beings. And that's not going to be true forever. They're all in their 70s. My dad is in his 80s, so I'm really savoring my time. My dad and his wife just moved to the Rochester, New York area to be with us about a year ago, and that feels amazing. I'm just savoring time with my kids, looking at them, feeling like I just don't have much more time with them. Savoring time with my husband, appreciating him so much. Just so much love and appreciation for my family, just really, really looking at the moments that I spend with them as so precious. We just don't have much time left together. That's a new orientation for me. I didn't have that five years ago, 10 years ago. I really didn't. I really didn't.
My final thought about turning 50 is it feels to me like I've shifted into an era of my own life where service is the game. That's it. It's the end game. It's the cherry on top. It's the goal, it's the perspective. It's what matters. I've done everything that I wanted to do in life, really. I ran the marathon, I got the PhD, I got tenure, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Life is good. I am blessed. I am overpaid. I am abundantly copiously, blessed, and all I want to do now is give, give, give, give, give back, give back, give back, give back. Have positive impact. Positive impact. And in small ways, little ways just help people just be there for them when they're suffering. Just keep myself balanced, sane, grounded, well, so that all day, every day I can wake up, say, check in for duty universe, I'm here for you. What you got for me? How can I be of service? And then just be there for others. Mentorship, helping, contributing philanthropy, time giving to others. It's just what fills me up. It's just what I want to be doing. And again, not an orientation I had five, 10 years ago. I was looking around going, is this it? Where's mine? I want a little more. That's what I was thinking. God bless me. But it's true. That's where I was at. And now, it's not what I'm thinking. It's not what I'm thinking at all. I just turned 50 years old. It was lovely. I had a big party, and I just couldn't feel more excited. I couldn't feel more excited. I don't know that I've ever felt this excited for a birthday, to be honest. So, thank you for listening to my Five Thoughts Upon Turning 50 Years Old. That's the weekly vlog. I'll see you next week.
