Empowering truths about getting older, as told by our favourite celebrities.

I’m pretending to be completely and totally relaxed about turning 40 in 258 days, except when I start weaving the countdown into every day conversations, I think I’m giving myself away. I am a little freaked out.

None of that panic has anything to do with how I look or how I will look. The physical sides of ageing have never really bothered me. I note my deflating skin and wobbly neck with detached interest. How did I develop such a healthy attitude to ageing?

I’d love to take full credit for it but it’s really been the wisdom of others that has seen me through, and not just any old ‘others’. I’m talking about some of the most beautiful, smart and successful women in the world.

Here are some empowering truths about getting older, as told by our some of our favourite women.

“We care less what others think of us. We tend to be kinder to ourselves. We stress less. We see commonalities between ourselves and others, more than differences. We’re more forgiving, less judgmental.” – Jane Fonda

“The exhausting effort to control time by altering the effects of age doesn’t bring happiness.” – Diane Keaton

“Yippee! I can’t believe I made it. It feels like a long haul to get here. I’m so fine with it. People want you to have some sort of breakdown, but I’m relieved to be 40 years old, and I’ve lived a life.” – Nicole Kidman

“We are getting older, and we are getting wiser, and we are getting freer. And when you get the wisdom and the truth, then you get the freedom and you get power, and then look out. Look out.” – Melissa Etheridge

“I am so relieved to be far out of my confused, insecure twenties, knowing that each year, I come into a deeper understanding of who I am and the meaning of life. Each year of my life has brought new and meaningful life experiences from which I have learned and grown.” - Goldie Hawn

“The absolute best part is being able to be free to be and do whatever you want. You can be and do whatever you want thanks to exercise and hair colour.” - Oprah Winfrey

“I think one of the reasons I was offered the Today job was my age. People want that knowledge and experience that comes with it. My age helps to make me the best I can be.” - Lisa Wilkinson

“I take comfort that ageing happens to everybody. It’s part of life. Ageing offers great lessons in dignity, since the indignity wins in the end. Yes, it bothers me when I have lines or puffiness or droops. But it connects me with the human race. Like weather bringing people together, ageing brings people together.” - Diane Lane

“There's still the part of me that wants to leap at every opportunity, but now there's the other side that says, 'Let's just wait a minute and see what happens.' That's intuition, and it comes with age and experience. I'm grateful for that, for knowing that I don't have to put my heart out there all the time and can just listen to that inner voice." - Kim Cattrall

“I would say a magical thing happened on when the big 40th birthday came. I felt like a light kind of just went off, and maybe that’s because I felt like at 40 I had the right to say and be who I wanted to be, say what I wanted to say, and accept what I didn’t want to accept." - Halle Berry

“One of the wonderful things about being middle-aged is saying what you think with confidence and not worrying about the repercussions.” - Tracey Spicer

"The thing about 50 is that you've clearly reached a point where you have more of your life behind you than ahead of you, and that's a very different place to be in. You're thinking, 'I've done most of it.' I don't like that feeling. But it makes you evaluate your life and go, 'Am I doing what I want to do? Am I spending my time the way I want?'?" - Julianne Moore

“I’m very f*cking grateful to be alive. I have so many friends who are sick or gone, and I’m here. Are you kidding? No complaints!” - Meryl Streep

"People can get crazier as they get older. I can just be weird whenever I want, and there's the freedom of not caring what people think."- Candice Bergan

Lets hope these little bits of gold have inspired you as much as they’ve inspired me.

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