Fabulous Over 40: Meet Elizabeth
Age 64
About You:
When in your life, so far, have you felt most confident and why?
The most confident I have ever felt in my life is now–in my mid-sixties. About ten years ago I realized that I had struggled since I was a young girl with self-hatred. It was almost a shock–though a great one—to figure out that the plethora of negative thoughts with which I had been peppering myself my entire life were not true. I had thought being so denigrating toward myself was normal and right because I thought these thoughts were true.
Ever since the realization I have been doing hard emotional healing work, including with a skilled therapist to unpack where these thoughts came from and come to a different self-view. The process of uncovering unrecognized trauma from childhood into adulthood emotional abuse has been arduous. But, oh the freedom of finally no longer hating myself and embracing everyday more fully who I am. The incessant beating myself up has been silenced. Joy is welling up more often from inside. To encourage others to embrace their own inner healing journey out of self-hatred, I wrote a book called, “Learning to Love (Not Loathe) Me” and I felt led to become part of Julie Hood Photography’s 50 over 50 women. We are each so beautiful and of infinite value. For community to thrive each one of us is needed wholly as we are and are becoming.
Your Thoughts on Aging:
Are there any myths you would like to bust about being over 40, 50, 60 or 70?
From the moment of conception, we are each on a mortal journey reaching toward an ending with physical death. My faith tells me there is a hereafter in heaven which awaits and the time now is passing away. Aging is normal. Aging is to be embraced as characteristic of the journey.
The question for me is what will I do with the passage of time? My choice: to live with great intention everyday, connecting with God in prayer and seeking His will for the moment. I seek to cherish each of these moments and seek to continue to grow especially in emotional intelligence so as to make a better contribution to society, while honoring my body to maintain physical strength and capacity for as long as possible. So much is outside a person’s control. Certain is that there will be challenges and that life is uncertain. What I can control is my response to life and the attitude with which I face each day. I never want to stop growing. When the day comes I meet God face to face, I long to hear Him say, “Well done.”
What does it mean to you to live fully at this stage of life?
My faith in God orients my outlook. To live fully is to seek to be in His plan for my life instead of my own and to live in the peace of His presence. This includes being fully present to the world in which I live, praying, taking advantage of opportunities where I sense He is leading, and increasingly embracing what is hard as part of the journey. As a part of my emotional healing journey, I am learning to reawaken emotions which I neutralized sometime in childhood in order to cope with emotional trauma. Thus, to live fully now also includes daring to feel so I can heal, even as embrace the feelings in order to thrive.
Finding Joy:
What are you passionate about? What brings you joy?
I am a writer. I am a songwriter and singer. I create soul care resources which facilitate an increase in resilience and emotional well-being. Creating these albums of song prayers, books, devotionals, and audio messages brings me such joy! I love my husband and grown children with every fiber of my being. I rejoice in trips to see long-time friends in Europe who are like family to me. When I am looking to refresh, I set out often alone on long walks where I can feel the cool air on my skin, breathe in the fragrances of life and revel in the sights of nature.
Your Fabulous Over 40 Portrait Experience:
What made you decide to participate in the Fabulous Over 40 Portrait Experience?
I spent five and one-half decades of my life hating myself because I fully believed I was not good enough. I criticized myself constantly and just knew I was incompetent and inadequate. I wanted to hide how I looked and I always wanted to control what photos were taken of me. Since realizing I struggled with self-loathing and that these self-deprecating thoughts were rooted in how I had been treated starting in childhood, I have been working on learning to love myself.
There are no words for the freedom experienced when you are no longer beating up on yourself with your thoughts all the time! I sense that many women as well as men struggle in the same way I did. I signed up for the Fabulous Over 40 Portrait Experience to encourage others who hate themselves, to consider that these thoughts are most likely lies and to walk the hard path to come free. I wanted to show them what freedom can look like, by participating in the photoshoot and letting Julie Hood take the photos she thought best, without trying to control any of this myself. Additionally, I wanted to participate in this photoshoot with the great joy within me which I did not have before.
How did the photoshoot make you feel during and after the session?
Coming into a photoshoot can feel intimidating. I felt a little vulnerable as we got ready to begin. However, Julie and her team of Teri and Leah put me immediately at ease. It was like being with old friends, where we were working together on a project but with so much joy and so many giggles. I felt beautiful. I felt seen. I felt valued and respected.
Your Business, if Applicable:
What’s your 60 second elevator pitch? What do you or your business do?
I create soul care resources which facilitate lasting change in individual lives. By listening to the song prayers I create, reading the books or listening to or reading the other materials, people find increasing closeness to God and He heals them incrementally from the inside out. The effects of the inner transformation spill over into every aspect of their lives for greater resilience, emotional well-being, life direction or just plain joy.
https://www.elizabethfulgaro.com/
https://www.drworldproductions.com/
Learn more about booking your own Fabulous Over 40 session HERE.
