By Tamsin Oxford
This is not an anti-ageing book. It’s a book that tells you not to fear getting older, but rather to reframe how you talk about ageing.
What a relief. If one more book tells us to tuck in that menopausal tummy on the beach, it may be time to build a bonfire.
Instead, The Longevity Book tells you to laugh, to find what is beautiful to you and celebrate it, and to take hold of the opportunities age affords you.
That said, you’re not going to escape some of the more traditional elements of a book about ageing for women. There are conversations about beauty and what it means through the ages of a woman, and how society paints women as over the hill before the age of 40.
There are elements of the male gaze in the narrative, but they are used to highlight how you need to revisit your perceptions of ageing and find joy in the new creases and folds.
The authors unpack the concepts of life span versus life expectancy (did you know that the oldest recorded person was a woman aged 122?) to drive home the importance of looking after yourself so that you too can enjoy, really enjoy, a longer life.
The Longevity Book is a surprise. It’s the kind of surprise that you want to unwrap in tiny pieces as you sit in bed and read, as you lie in the winter sun in the afternoon, and as you contemplate your future and mortality.
It’s positive and practical and uses science to help redefine your approach to health and wellbeing. If you’re struggling with ageing and wellness and finding your place in a youth-obsessed world, this book is a tonic.
- This article first appeared on the Change Exchange, an online platform by BrightRock, provider of the first-ever life insurance that changes as your life changes. The opinions expressed in this piece are the writer’s own and don’t necessarily reflect the views of BrightRock.
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