Join the Little Buddha list Get 20 free gifts including challenges, workbooks and more!
“When there is no enemy within, no enemy outside can hurt you.” ~ African proverb
It’s ten o’clock on Tuesday morning.
My wet boardshorts and blue tank top are drying at lightning speed in the South Indian sun.
i am feeling alive And exhilarated after my surf session in the surreal blue, bathtub-warm Arabian Sea.
Surfing waves consistently has been my goal for the past two years and I have been doing it. Which is pretty cool considering I never thought I’d surf again.
The trauma and fear of a surfing accident ten years ago, which nearly knocked out my teeth, still lingered in my body for years, and the focus of my life shifted from sports to yoga.
When I landed in Kerala, India, my intention was to study with my Ashtanga yoga teacher for an intensive period of ten weeks and then return to Rishikesh in northern India, where I based myself.
A chance invitation brought me to the coastal town where I have been living for the past two-plus years due to the pandemic.
And it just so happens there is good surf here.
My re-entry into surfing has been slow and steady.
For my fiftieth birthday present I gave myself ten surf lessons.
I decided I needed to start as a beginner and took beginner lessons to ease myself back into things and get comfortable on a surfboard.
“How old are you?” asked an Indian man in his mid-thirties in my surf class.
“Fifty,” I replied.
“I wish I was still surfing at your age,” he shot back.
I think he probably meant it as a compliment, but I took it self-consciously and wondered why it mattered what age I was.
Now two years later.
I gradually went from a beginner to an intermediate surfer.
As I sip a hot tea from a Dixie cup on the side of a busy fishing village road, after my morning surf, an elderly Indian gentleman with gray hair asks me, “How old are you?”
“Fifty-two,” I replied.
Her jaw dropped and she said, “I thought you were seventy. Your skin is really bad.”
Yes, this really happened.
And it happened more than once.
Every time this happened, I allowed it to knock the wind out of my sails.
Wow, I thought, how is it possible that I look seventy years old when I feel better than twenty one?
In all honesty, good skin genetics are not in my favor. My love for the sun and spending most of my life outdoors, has left me with a crocodile skin.
I lied about my age until I was in my mid-forties.
On my fortieth birthday, I told a woman who asked my age that I was forty. He smiled and asked if I was sixty.
But this tea-guy encounter prompted me to lie on the other side.
What if I start telling these people I’m eighty-five? I thought to myself as I drove my Mahindra scooter away from the tea shop. The idea made me smile and I immediately felt more empowered.
Instead of feeling ashamed of my skin, I decided to give it back to them.
I no longer care what they or you think about my appearance and I put zero energy into my appearance.
It doesn’t matter to me because inside I feel amazing.
I practice the entire challenging intermediate series of Ashtanga yoga six days a week, something I never dreamed possible in my forties, and I surf every day.
Young twenty-something Indian surf guys are now giving me fist pumps and saying, “You’re really surfing and catching some big waves now!”
And they stopped asking about my age.
I felt called to share this story because it made me wonder: Why aren’t we allowed to age?
Why is having old looking skin embarrassing?
Why can’t I have curly and gray hair and own it?
The body does this.
age is
So why do we not want to look our age? Or older in my case!
I decided to take a stand and turn the tide.
I claim my age and my place in the surf line and speak my truth.
We are allowed to age.
about Polly Green
Polly Green is a psychic medium, spiritual coach and filmmaker who guides self-aware souls through growth and transformation. She helps clients release old patterns, reconnect with their true essence, and feel grounded, clear, and empowered in life and work. Blended with spiritual tools to transform mindsets, she supports awakened empaths in receiving their gifts and finding comfort and connection with loved ones on the other side. Connect with him Instagram, FacebookAnd YouTubeOr meet him website.
