aging

Your Inner Child

Your Inner Child 800 1200 Galia Brener

I remember when I was a teenager in Toronto, my girlfriends and I had our first fake IDs made to get into clubs and parties. We couldn’t wait until our 18th birthday, and tried everything to look older. Make-up, higher heels, and sophisticated clothing. Now we are double that age, and try to do everything to look younger. Funny thing that we use the same tricks to try and turn back the aging-clock: Make-up, higher heels, and sophisticated clothing. Why did we not realize how amazing it was to be young and enjoy our childhood? Why did we always want to be older?

Society expects us to be responsible. Grow up fast, get an education, find a partner, have children, take care of them, get old, retire and die. So when do we actually have the chance to live out our dreams, and have fun? As a child you are not aware of the freedom that you have. You simply grow and become an adult. Well my dear adults, now that you are finally “there”, it’s time to reverse the process, start believing in Fairytales again, and awaken your inner child. Yes, s/he is still in there, but most likely has been sleeping for the last decades. Let’s wake it up, and see what new adventures the world has to offer us!

A common problem is that people are scared to be judged by society. What will people say if they see me like this? This reminds me of a date that I had a few years ago. I met a guy at an event in Frankfurt. Let’s call him “Mr. Cool”. On our first date, we went for a nice summer walk. Along the way, I saw a fun playground. I don’t know what has gotten into me, but I ran towards it, and decided to climb the monkey bars, run on the overhead ladder, go on the swings… you get the point. I ran around acting like a crazy kid. I glanced at Mr. Cool, and I cannot even describe the look he gave me. A mix of “Jesus-what-the-hell-are-you-doing-get-off-that-swing-immediately!” and “I-don’t-know-this-crazy-girl-she-is-such-a-weirdo” look. To be honest, at that moment I didn’t even care what the ice block Mr. Cool was thinking about me, because I was having so much fun. He came to me, and I thought that he will finally join me on the swing, but instead he said, “Galia, stop it! This is embarrassing! I am a famous actor (He is indeed a well-known German actor), what will people think of me when they see me making a fool of myself on this playground?” Right at that point, I realized that it will never work out between us. Money and fame aside, if the guy cannot be easy-going and appreciate the simple joys in life, then he is not for me. Fun is not just eating at expensive restaurants, but also doing silly things like jumping on a swing together. I politely walked with him back to where we met, said goodbye, smiled, and left as quickly as possible. Why do some people take themselves so seriously? Do we really have to stick to these rigid “Adult behavior rules”, or can we sometimes let our inner child out to play? Mr. Cool called the next day to invite me to dinner, but I told him that my heart was not in it. I could not pretend to be someone that I’m not. I was looking for the one that would climb the monkey bars with me, laughing and being crazy together like children.

That is not to say that we have to ignore our responsibilities, quite the contrary! We have to enjoy ourselves and have fun while achieving our goals and tasks. When you do something with a happy heart, your task becomes a pleasure, and the result will be better. For example, if you are cleaning your car, draw funny figures on the dirty window, and send a picture of it to your loved one. If you have to clean your flat, put on some loud music and run around the house doing funny dances, while cleaning. Do what you can to make the task more fun. I know that daily stress due to work and personal issues can bring a huge amount of pressure upon us, but we must try to do our best to make this process easier for us. Being hard on yourself will not make the problems go away. You must give your “Adult-self” a chance to rest and rethink how you can ease the pressure with a good strategy. Try doing something fun, different, childish and funny in order to bring your mind to positive thoughts. Maybe then, new problem-solving ideas will come to you! The easiest way to begin is by smiling more often.

The older I get, the more I realize how special the time was when I was a child. Free of worries, free of fear, free to live and enjoy! It’s time to bring back the innocence, joy and pure form of fun. Purity. The world is missing this. We need to go back to the basics before we had the car, the mortgage, and the debts. We have to try to capture that feeling of pure joy that we once felt as children. There is much evil and hatred out there. Just turn on the news. Every day another catastrophe. Let’s try to be children of light, instead of darkness. You can enjoy by doing the simplest of things. Remember how excited we used to be when walking with our parents in the forest, looking for mushrooms? Or making homemade cookies with our grandmother, and eating them with our friends? Try to capture this feeling again.

Maybe these few ideas can help: look at photos of your childhood, play board games, take walks around fun places, go to an amusement park, throw out the “cool” attitude/personality, and be who you are, live more in the present, sing funny songs, draw, paint (even if you cant do it well!) be curious, ask questions, daydream, try doing the things you loved to do as a kid, play video games, and most important of all, never say “I’m too old”. The child within you is waiting to come out and play. So go ahead, be silly. No one is watching! And if they do, who cares?

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Men get Botox too?!

Men get Botox too?! 640 250 Galia Brener
Since we are pretty much in the process of reversing roles, with women growing balls and men getting in touch with their feminine side, the concept of Botox for men fits perfectly into this chaotic world. However, what I do find excellent is that women these days are looking younger and younger. If you compare a 50-year-old woman today to the ones in the 1950s, it’s like day and night. Since we have started looking at least 10 years younger, and have excellent jobs and salaries, we can allow ourselves to have handsome younger men on our sides as well!

Gone are the days when women have to have an older man to support and take care of them. So what does that mean for the older men? It means that they have to keep up with a younger appearance and make more effort to stay in the game. The wallet and cars don’t get us women anymore. Today, even most of the younger girls date men their own age and not run to the older daddy-type for money. Women are taking younger lovers, and men are using Botox to catch up. Wow, we have come a long way. Bravo.

My friend Heather stared dating a new guy a few weeks ago. I have to admit that he looked good for his 45 years. The problem is that he is a show off. He prances around in his Jag, drops names of important people to impress her, and shows off about his food and wine knowledge in front of the waiter in the expensive restaurants. This annoys her to death. A week ago she wanted to eat a normal burger and fries, and he was appalled by the idea. Everything always has to be over the top with him. Last weekend we all went out together and I met him for the first time. I was shocked because Buddy didn’t move his forehead all night, even while trying to laugh at some jokes! I told Heather later that I think he gets Botox, but she laughed it off and ignored my observation. A few days ago, she met a plastic surgeon friend of hers for lunch – one of the most famous ones in Frankfurt actually – and he confirmed that her new guy has indeed been coming to him for Botox for years now. As a matter of fact, he’s a Botox junkie and gets injected more often than I take vitamins!

Of course he can do whatever he wants to with his life, but Heather confronted him anyways, and he admitted it. He said that he needs it to look younger and feel better about himself. He also admitted that he couldn’t go longer than half a year without Botox because otherwise he can’t look at himself and his old face in the mirror! His extreme desperation to look younger shocked heather, and it turned her off completely. She came crying to me, saying that he is not normal. I explained to her that we live in a time where there is no more “normal.”

What is normal today? To this guy, getting Botox was normal. I told her to accept him as he is or move on. Forcing a person to adapt to your morals and way of living is not normal or healthy either. She decided to stop dating him because she found his behavior to not be masculine enough. I told her that I collect robots and love old timers, and that’s not ultra feminine either. We cracked up on the floor and had a laughing attack about the confusion of this world and her Botox monster.

I think that unfortunately it’s a new trend and many more men will be getting Botox soon, but never admitting it. It started with the manicure and pedicure for men some years ago, and now there is no stopping the wheel of terror. Dear men, please save yourselves before it’s too late! You don’t need Botox. We like you looking wrinkly and manly. Instead of investing in plastic surgery, please buy a horse, some heavy cowboy gear and go riding. Come back to us after spending a few dirty days in the desert with a 3-day beard on your face and get your old masculine grin back. And please, step away from the needle.

Men that use Botox and women that earn an incredible amount of money, looking younger and better than them with the same age, wearing pants and collecting robots! I wonder if Aldous Huxley ever imagined in 1932 that it would actually come to this. Forget his brave new world and welcome to our crazy parallel universe. He would be so proud now.

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