Gwyneth Paltrow Explains Why She Absolutely Loves Being in Her 40s
While representing Goop at SXSW, Gwyneth Paltrow, 46, shared her thoughts on getting older.
Paltrow says there is an “incredible freedom” with aging and understanding who you are.
Learn exactly what Paltrow does to look and feel great in her 40s.
Gwyneth Paltrow has been at SXSW to talk about her lifestyle brand Goop, and she just shared how she feels about getting older. Namely, she loves it.
“I am no longer in my 20s and 30s. I am 46 and I love being in my 40s,” she said, per People. “I think there is this incredible freedom that comes with a woman in her 40s and understanding that this is who I am.” As a result, Paltrow says, she’s “stopped worrying so much about what people think of me.”
She’s not the only one who recently shared this sentiment: Demi Moore, 56, spoke at the 2019 Goop In Health Summit, and said she doesn’t really care about other people’s opinions of her anymore. “What does it matter what anyone thinks?” she said. “Nothing is that bad.”
There’s a reason they’ve adopted this outlook, says licensed clinical psychologist John Mayer, PhD, author of Family Fit: Find Your Balance in Life. “Ideally, when you reach your 40s, you have gained confidence and some mastery over life and social living,” he says.
In your 20s, you tend to feel less self-assured because you’re still trying to figure out your career and your place in relationships, adds clinical psychologist Suzana E. Flores, PsyD, author of Facehooked. But by the time you hit your 40s, “your life and career is more established and you tend to feel less frightened about the opinions of others,” she says. “You also realize your inner strength. You’ve endured a lot of disappointment and realized that you can survive it.”
Of course, this doesn’t just magically happen for everyone when they reach 40-sometimes it can take a little practice and insight. If you’re in your 40s and you feel like your confidence isn’t quite what it should be, therapy can help, Mayer says. “Sometimes it takes an outside, objective ‘other’ to help us see and accept our accomplishments,” he says.
It’s clear that Paltrow has learned to go with the flow as she gets older-and it’s so inspiring. While she has emphasized that she has no issues with aging, here are a few things she does to look and feel amazing in the process.
She’s embracing the physical changes
Paltrow recently told People that she, like everyone else, shows signs of aging. “Of course I have wrinkles [and] gray hair. But I genuinely love it. This is who I am,” she said.
Paltrow also chooses to have a more positive view of wrinkles. “I have been through incredible ups and downs, and I feel so blessed that I have the wrinkles to tell the story,” she said.
She’s all about balance
Paltrow told W that she loves doing “a big detox once a year and getting to that point of feeling incredibly clear-headed and where I’m not exhausted or searching for vocabulary words or wanting to take a nap at four.”
Still, she makes sure to balance things out. “Look, am I going through Christmas and New Years without drinking alcohol? No, I’m not,” she said. “I want to eat almond toffee and pumpkin pie and stuffing for god’s sake and whatever else. I’m going to make that choice and then I’ll back off it again when I don’t feel well.”
She’s not afraid to sweat
Paltrow has been a die-hard fan of the Tracy Anderson Method for nearly 13 years, a feat that she recently acknowledged in a birthday shout-out to Anderson on Instagram. The workout routine is dance-based and often incorporates some weights. “She’s the exercise genius of all time,” Paltrow once told Oprah of Anderson. “She developed this system of kind of doing dance aerobics so that you’re not doing anything repetitive.”
Paltrow also revealed that she works out for two hours a day, six days a week. “I work freakin’ hard,” she said. “It’s no accident.”
A post shared by Gwyneth Paltrow (@gwynethpaltrow) on Mar 3, 2019 at 9:47am PST
