You Can Rewrite Your Life at Any Age
It doesn’t matter if you’re a child, in your 90’s, or anywhere in between. You can rewrite your life at any age. I was 37 when I began. I have friends who were in their 50’s and others in their 70’s. And we’re still doing it.
One of the most touching experiences I’ve ever had was the day I first gave my testimony at a ladies luncheon. When I was finished I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. Afterward a line of women–most of them in their 60’s and 70’s–waited to hug me and talk to me.
They thanked me for my vulnerability and told me, “That happened to me too!” They had never told anyone. Some of them were working on it, and some didn’t even know they could. And that my words gave them hope. I was overwhelmed by their words, gratitude, hugs, and tears.
Another day a woman in a group I was attending shared with me after the session that she was just going to start working through the sexual abuse that had happened to her as a child. She was in her mid-70’s. It’s never too late.
You can rewrite your life at any age.
It’s Never Too Early to Rewrite Your Life
It’s also never too early. Even a child can rewrite their life experiences and not have to go through years and years of reliving the same trauma. Several times I have helped my youngest daughter rewrite some experiences that were causing her distress–like when her cousins locked her in a dark room at my parent’s house when she was 4 years old.
When we found her she was screaming and crying. After that she didn’t want to close any doors and was particularly scared in bathroom stalls and when going into family bathrooms where you needed to lock the door. I would have to show her each time that we could actually get out. And I’d let her open the door too so she could see we could.
I used a combination of bilateral stimulation (tapping the side of one knee then the other rhythmically) and art therapy with her and this really helped take away the fear that she would be trapped. Other experiences we’ve worked through were her grief after we moved to a new house, a birthday party that went terribly for her, and her fear of having to become a different person when she went to middle school.
As I move into public speaking and give workshops, I look forward to the myriad of people I will meet from young to old and everything in between. You really can rewrite your life at any age. It doesn’t matter when you start dear friend. What matters is that you start.
