Bringing the light
Aleksandra, Moscow, 75 y.o.
Model: Alexandra Uspanova
Think back to yourselves as young high school girls. Exams, dates, friends, a thirst for freedom. We are free artists, expressively throwing more and more colours onto the canvas of the future. And certainly the most vivid, the brightest future. The picture of our life must be glued to the eyes, it will never crack or fade. It doesn't even need a safety glass, it can withstand heat and damp. OUR picture is flawless.
What was the least of our worries at the time?
About health, about the inevitable grief of life's journey, about being 50, 60, 75 someday. My God, 60 years old! Are these flabby grannies with shabby bags on their knees in the tram, in the queue at the savings bank? In fact, not long ago, at 50 they were already getting ready for retirement and put not only the sum of money in that word, but also the total sunset. The plan: remove the flaking painting from the wall, take it to the closet, hang a kitten calendar instead, celebrate the grandchildren's birthdays there and count the days until complete dementia.
But here's a jubilee peeking out from over your shoulder. And if you're glad to see it, like a friend who's been promising to stop by for a long time, you're in luck. If you've realised that 50 is that age of freedom, you're a lucky person! YES, 50 is what psychologists consider the age of freedom, happiness and a new youth. Those over 50 will confirm it. And for those who still don't believe it will be there, we'll show you. We'll introduce our new heroine, Aleksandra!
What was the least of our worries at the time?
About health, about the inevitable grief of life's journey, about being 50, 60, 75 someday. My God, 60 years old! Are these flabby grannies with shabby bags on their knees in the tram, in the queue at the savings bank? In fact, not long ago, at 50 they were already getting ready for retirement and put not only the sum of money in that word, but also the total sunset. The plan: remove the flaking painting from the wall, take it to the closet, hang a kitten calendar instead, celebrate the grandchildren's birthdays there and count the days until complete dementia.
But here's a jubilee peeking out from over your shoulder. And if you're glad to see it, like a friend who's been promising to stop by for a long time, you're in luck. If you've realised that 50 is that age of freedom, you're a lucky person! YES, 50 is what psychologists consider the age of freedom, happiness and a new youth. Those over 50 will confirm it. And for those who still don't believe it will be there, we'll show you. We'll introduce our new heroine, Aleksandra!
Aleksandra is 75 y.o., she's a practising yogi.
Model: Aleksandra Uspanova
She is a Don Cossack, born in the Rostov region, and has lived in Rostov-on-Don almost all her life. At the age of 73, she sold everything in Rostov, bought a flat in Moscow and moved there.
“
Everyone asks at once: Why did you do that?
I'll answer!
I have two sons, and they live with their families in Moscow, nobody forced me to come here. I thought that I didn't want my boys to worry about me, about their mum and so on.
I will go to them on my own, that's what we decided, I don't regret a thing.
I'll answer!
I have two sons, and they live with their families in Moscow, nobody forced me to come here. I thought that I didn't want my boys to worry about me, about their mum and so on.
I will go to them on my own, that's what we decided, I don't regret a thing.
Model: Aleksandra Uspanova
Started practising yoga at the age of 60. Although I read the book "Yoga for You" by Indra Devi (one of the first female yogis to become world-famous, born in 1899, and passed away at the age of 102) in one night at the age of 22.
"I stayed up all night writing out everything that was particularly interesting. From then on, the word 'Yoga' stuck in my heart".
At the age of 50 Aleksandra started looking for where and who teaches yoga. At the same time she became a vegetarian.
“
I was living in Rostov-on-Don and guys from Kharkiv came to visit us twice a week and taught us something, I kept looking.
I went to Moscow after 55 years, I went to Egypt with a fitness tour where they taught us B.K.S. Iyengar yoga.
The next step was into ashtanga yoga, I was even certified as an instructor at 59.
It wasn't until I was 60 that I went to India, Rishikesh, Patanjali International Federation of Yoga to study with Dr. Jitendra Das and Tanya Morozova.
I went to Moscow after 55 years, I went to Egypt with a fitness tour where they taught us B.K.S. Iyengar yoga.
The next step was into ashtanga yoga, I was even certified as an instructor at 59.
It wasn't until I was 60 that I went to India, Rishikesh, Patanjali International Federation of Yoga to study with Dr. Jitendra Das and Tanya Morozova.
Aleksandra is a health expert in Ayurveda (the science of harmonious living), so her blog has a number of helpful tips for everyday life.
Aleksandra asked her teacher Jitendra Das: should I practice yoga or go into sanyasa*?
*Sanyasa is "putting everything aside", giving up the corporeal life and concentrating on the spiritual life.
The teacher replied, "Live your life and be useful to society". And that is what Aleksandra did.
At the age of 63, she left an insurance company where she had managed a work team of 200 employees. By that time she had already become a yoga teacher.
But she herself has not stopped learning until now. A couple of months ago she flew again to India, to Rishikesh, her favourite Ashram, to do her learning. Alexandra helps both those who have started practising yoga and people who would simply like to introduce healthy habits into their lives.
That's why I wrote a useful guide.
Aleksandra asked her teacher Jitendra Das: should I practice yoga or go into sanyasa*?
*Sanyasa is "putting everything aside", giving up the corporeal life and concentrating on the spiritual life.
The teacher replied, "Live your life and be useful to society". And that is what Aleksandra did.
At the age of 63, she left an insurance company where she had managed a work team of 200 employees. By that time she had already become a yoga teacher.
But she herself has not stopped learning until now. A couple of months ago she flew again to India, to Rishikesh, her favourite Ashram, to do her learning. Alexandra helps both those who have started practising yoga and people who would simply like to introduce healthy habits into their lives.
That's why I wrote a useful guide.
— What are healthy habits?
— For this example: waking up early before 6:00 am and going to bed no later than 10:00 pm, self-care, tongue cleaning and drinking hot water with lemon on an empty stomach, habit of writing Thanksgiving early in the morning, breathing and cleansing practices, greeting the Sun — Surya Namaskar.
Aleksandra has 2 sons: 47 and 36 years old. Three grandchildren.
Is it possible to say that Aleksandra is 75? She has recently had a medical check-up in Germany and all the tests are fine. Without any tests you can see that Aleksandra is a woman without age. Energy and light.
— For this example: waking up early before 6:00 am and going to bed no later than 10:00 pm, self-care, tongue cleaning and drinking hot water with lemon on an empty stomach, habit of writing Thanksgiving early in the morning, breathing and cleansing practices, greeting the Sun — Surya Namaskar.
Aleksandra has 2 sons: 47 and 36 years old. Three grandchildren.
Is it possible to say that Aleksandra is 75? She has recently had a medical check-up in Germany and all the tests are fine. Without any tests you can see that Aleksandra is a woman without age. Energy and light.
I get on pretty well with myself, go out a lot, support the people around me, never feel sad or bored
— What is it like? What advice do you have for avoiding depression? We live in such violent times...
— Yoga is a friend for a lifetime! Yoga classes help to reduce stress, give you freedom to feel your feminine strength and energy, free us from fears, irritability and the feeling that we are alone.
Yoga works on the mind through the physical body, anxiety goes away and one regains physical and emotional health.
In difficult times, you need to find positivity in everything, observe nature, for example, read, hike or swim, go to museums, the theatre, in other words you need to keep yourself busy, avoid criticizing yourself, avoid judging, be interested in style and live, because there is so much to see around you.
— How do you feel about your own age?
— I'm definitely not old, I'm rare after all.
Life shouldn't just be about ageing, it should be about growing in intelligence, hobbies, and career.
My rules are:
❤️ Accepting yourself without comparing or competing with anyone
❤️ Doing only what you love and want to do
❤️ Loving life and enjoying every moment
❤️ Practising yoga every day, taking small steps in everything, constantly improving your results
❤️ Creating purity of intention in what you bring to people through yoga, Ayurveda, style, your account
❤️ I am alive, and my life is full of purpose!
— Yoga is a friend for a lifetime! Yoga classes help to reduce stress, give you freedom to feel your feminine strength and energy, free us from fears, irritability and the feeling that we are alone.
Yoga works on the mind through the physical body, anxiety goes away and one regains physical and emotional health.
In difficult times, you need to find positivity in everything, observe nature, for example, read, hike or swim, go to museums, the theatre, in other words you need to keep yourself busy, avoid criticizing yourself, avoid judging, be interested in style and live, because there is so much to see around you.
— How do you feel about your own age?
— I'm definitely not old, I'm rare after all.
Life shouldn't just be about ageing, it should be about growing in intelligence, hobbies, and career.
My rules are:
❤️ Accepting yourself without comparing or competing with anyone
❤️ Doing only what you love and want to do
❤️ Loving life and enjoying every moment
❤️ Practising yoga every day, taking small steps in everything, constantly improving your results
❤️ Creating purity of intention in what you bring to people through yoga, Ayurveda, style, your account
❤️ I am alive, and my life is full of purpose!
Model: Aleksandra Uspanova
~
We took some of the women's insights from Alexandra's page, because we feel that women like Alexandra are worth listening to:
⭐ Be the woman one fears to lose.
⭐ Create your own moods, points of reference and points of orientation.
⭐ Believe in your own strength and that nothing is in vain.
⭐ Win quietly.
⭐ Be clear about the life you deserve, be picky about whom you choose to be honest with!
⭐ Make your music louder and don't look at other people's opinions.
⭐ Instead of hanging on to those who let you down, better make up your eyes, put on lipstick, breathe deep into your freedom and don't expect too much from people.
⭐ Wear your favourite linen sundress and remember the courage hidden in you.
⭐ Not going back to where you wanted to go is one of the hardest things in the world.
⭐ Create your own moods, points of reference and points of orientation.
⭐ Believe in your own strength and that nothing is in vain.
⭐ Win quietly.
⭐ Be clear about the life you deserve, be picky about whom you choose to be honest with!
⭐ Make your music louder and don't look at other people's opinions.
⭐ Instead of hanging on to those who let you down, better make up your eyes, put on lipstick, breathe deep into your freedom and don't expect too much from people.
⭐ Wear your favourite linen sundress and remember the courage hidden in you.
⭐ Not going back to where you wanted to go is one of the hardest things in the world.
⭐ Be more selective about whom you share your bed with, so you don't sob on your knees later.
⭐ Don't devote your life to someone who isn't worth a minute of your time!
⭐ Don't give your unspent tenderness to anyone, stay alone until you meet someone with whom you can spend sunsets, who will be interested in what is in your soul and not under your clothes, be always a choice, not an option.
⭐ Travel around the world, find your Path and don't give up!
⭐ Know that whatever you're looking for is already inside you.
⭐ Don't make empty vows and second chances, get out of old dresses, uncomfortable relationships, painful depressions and, of course, smile...
⭐ Don't devote your life to someone who isn't worth a minute of your time!
⭐ Don't give your unspent tenderness to anyone, stay alone until you meet someone with whom you can spend sunsets, who will be interested in what is in your soul and not under your clothes, be always a choice, not an option.
⭐ Travel around the world, find your Path and don't give up!
⭐ Know that whatever you're looking for is already inside you.
⭐ Don't make empty vows and second chances, get out of old dresses, uncomfortable relationships, painful depressions and, of course, smile...
~
What could one say in the end after getting to know Alexandra?
Keep painting YOUR picture of life. Always. And at 50, 60 and 75 years old. Add colours, mix colours, change the subject and most certainly cherish it. It deserves to hang in the centre. It will always catch the eye and even then, someone will want to hang it on their wall next to theirs!
Keep painting YOUR picture of life. Always. And at 50, 60 and 75 years old. Add colours, mix colours, change the subject and most certainly cherish it. It deserves to hang in the centre. It will always catch the eye and even then, someone will want to hang it on their wall next to theirs!
And Aleksandra wishes you:
May your Heart be kind, your Mind be alert, and your Spirit be brave!
Model: Aleksandra Uspanova
Aleksandra's bright photo story was created by:
Producer — Ksenia Leus
Photo — Alisa Printseva
Make-up — Valentina
Producer — Ksenia Leus
Photo — Alisa Printseva
Make-up — Valentina
Create YOUR story in our blog!
BECOME OUR MODEL!
Our media and photographers are always ready to spotlight your beauty and tell your story!
Read all the stories HERE.
BECOME OUR MODEL!
Our media and photographers are always ready to spotlight your beauty and tell your story!
Read all the stories HERE.
Contents by
Aesthetics of Age
Aesthetics of Age