Christiane Northrup - February

ALSO BY CHRISTIANE NORTHRUP, M.D.

Books

Mother-Daughter Wisdom

The Secret Pleasures of Menopause

The Wisdom of Menopause

The Wisdom of Menopause Journal

Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom

The Secret Pleasures of Menopause Playbook

Beautiful Girl

Audio/Video Programs

Creating Health

The Empowering Women Gift Collection
with Louise L. Hay, Susan Jeffers, Ph.D.,
and Caroline Myss, Ph.D.

Menopause and Beyond

Mother-Daughter Wisdom

The Power of Joy

The Secret Pleasures of Menopause

Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom

Inside-Out Wellness
with Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Miscellaneous

The Power of Joy app

Womens Bodies, Womens Wisdom Healing Cards app

Womens Wisdom Perpetual Flip Calendar

Free e-Newsletters
from Hay House, the Ultimate
Resource for Inspiration

Be the first to know about Hay Houses dollar deals, free downloads, special offers, affirmation cards, giveaways, contests and more!

	Get exclusive excerpts from our latest releases and videos from Hay House Present Moments.
	Enjoy uplifting personal stories, how-to articles and healing advice along with videos and empowering quotes within Heal Your Life.
	Have an uplifting story to tell and a passion for writing? Sharpen your writing skills with insider tips from Your Writing Life.

Visit www.hayhouse.com to sign-up today

Copyright 2015 by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast Books: www.raincoast.com Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Indexer: Jay Kreider
Cover design: Karla Baker Interior design: Riann Bender
Interior illustrations: Scott Leighton, Christiane Northrup Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Lines from We Have Not Come to Take Prisoners from the Penguin publication The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky. Copyright 1999 Daniel Ladinsky and used with his permission.

The Kiss, from Make Me Your Own: Poems to the Divine Beloved, copyright 2013 by Tosha Silver. Reprinted by permission of Urban Kali Productions.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-4516-9

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1st edition, February 2015

Printed in the United States of America

To the ageless goddess that lives in every womanand to Gaia Sophia, the Earth herself

One of my 20-something pals told me, Girl, youre a puzzle.
Youre not young, youre not old. I dont know what the hell you
are. Youre Somethin Else. Just be somethin else. That works!

TOSHA SILVER, AUTHOR OFOUTRAGEOUS OPENNESS

Recently, I went to a sporting goods store to get my ski boot bindings adjusted, and the salesperson, who was clearly younger than I am, asked me what age I was. Apparently, if youre over a certain age, they assume you need your bindings to release quickly because your balance has deteriorated and you fall more easily. I am physically active, more so than in my younger years, and I regularly dance Argentine tango, so my balance is just fine. I told the salesperson, who was looking at a formula to determine my binding adjustment, Just put in 40. I do that when Im on exercise equipment, too. I dont need the stair machine coddling me as if I am a frail little old lady who might hurt herself if the program pushes her a bit. If it doesnt feel right, Ill stop and adjust the machine. I dont let myself feel embarrassed or ashamed about having to use a lower setting. And I dont let someone elses idea about what 40, or 50, or 60, or any other number means inform how I see myself.

When someone asks you what age you are, do you even remember? Or is it so unimportant to you that you forget unless a milestone birthday is coming up? Age is just a number, and agelessness means not buying into the idea that a number determines everything from your state of health to your attractiveness to your value. You can be younger at 60 than you were at 30 because youve changed your attitude and your lifestyle. To be ageless is to defy the rules of what it supposedly means to be this age or that age. It is, quite simply, to never grow oldto never feel as if the best days are behind you and its all downhill from here.

Let me make one thing very clear: We begin to get older the moment we are born. But we dont use the term aging in this culture until we get to about 50, and what most of us associate with aging is deterioration. The truth is that when it comes to aging, there are people in their 20s or even younger who already show signs of aging: deteriorating muscle mass, unstable blood sugar, and loss of balance. Meanwhile, others who are in their 70s are the picture of health. According to Joan Vernikos, Ph.D., a research scientist and former director of NASAs Life Sciences Division, who prepared 77-year-old John Glenn to return to space, aging is nothing more than a slow form of weightlessness: its what happens to your body when you dont get up off your chair, move around, live an active life, and experience the earths gravitational pull. Getting older does