Crystal Arredondo

Age 44

My favorite thing about being a woman over 40 is feeling good in my own skin. My 40s so far has been a journey of going inward. I am truly starting to understand the meaning of being still, inner light and inner beauty. I also embrace (and sometimes want to forget) the many learning lessons that life has taught me in my teens, 20s and 30s. Now I can reframe them as experience and maybe even wisdom. When life tries to teach me lessons in my 40s, I catch on a whole lot quicker!

I am living my most extraordinary life right now by being present as much as possible and not worrying about the past or the future. All we have is right now. I am practicing gratitude all the time and learning to be a friend to myself. Whenever I start to get critical of myself, I ask myself if I would say that to a friend? Acceptance, acceptance, acceptance.

In the next decade, I aspire to travel internationally. The world is magnificent and we need to be kinder to it. I aspire to find a way to make it easier for us to do that. My second goal is to reach 1000 yoga classes.

When I saw my portraits for the first time, I felt as if I was looking at myself from outside of my body. I thought… is this how people see me? She’s pretty rad! And then it hit me that over the years I always tried to make important people in my life proud. I didn’t take the time to realize I am a person that I am proud of. I have the portraits in my closet with different outfits to remind me to keep working on all sides of myself – professional, social, physical and spiritual.