4 Things to Stop Feeling Guilty About Over 50

Guilt is a universal feeling, especially among women who think they should be caring for others rather than themselves, but it is often a useless emotion. It’s normal to feel guilty sometimes – after all, guilt is related to our moral conscience and helps us separate right from wrong – but feeling guilty on a daily basis could be standing in the way of your happiness.

Feeling guilty from time to time is a necessary part of life, but perpetual guilt is neither healthy nor appropriate. Over time, long-term guilt about aspects of your personality or decisions you’ve made can be detrimental and limiting, causing you to miss out on what life has to offer. To help you separate useful feelings of guilt with wasted ones, here are four things you should stop feeling guilty about today. 

Putting Yourself First

Whether you still have kids at home or your children have all moved out, time for yourself should not be considered some far-off dream. To enable yourself to be there for friends and family, you need to find time on a daily basis to do something for you, and you only. It doesn’t have to be anything particularly indulgent – simply taking time to exercise, practice meditation or sit quietly with your own thoughts all counts as valuable alone time.

Caring About Your Appearance

There has always been pressure on women to look a certain way, but the media presents a real dichotomy for women over 50. While magazines and commercials advertise anti-aging creams and hair dyes, they are also told to “age gracefully” and not care about their changing appearance. Whether you dye your greys away, diet to maintain your figure or book in for cosmetic surgery to help you look younger, don’t feel guilty about caring about how you look if it makes you feel good. “Part of feeling empowered as a woman of any age is being free to make your own choices, and that includes choosing how you want to look” commented top plastic surgeon Elena Prousskaia.  ‘I’m happy to say the stigma of having surgery is largely receding into the past. Empowered women are making the choice to put their own self-image first and that is a wonderful thing.’

Saying No

Sometimes saying “yes” to someone else means saying “no” to yourself, and your time becomes all the more precious as you get older. Being assertive enough to say “no” when you feel like it allows others to understand your personal boundaries and helps you protect your time alone. What’s more, standing up for yourself in this way will improve your self-esteem and make you a better friend, parent or spouse because you won’t be burnt out from saying “yes” when you don’t mean it.

Expressing Your Opinions

You may have been born into a society that didn’t respect your opinions as a woman as well as it should, but times have changed. As long as your words aren’t harmful or discriminatory toward others, you should never feel guilty about making your voice heard. If you feel strongly about something, say it. The world needs more people in it who are willing to stand up and speak the truth.