In an increasingly digital world, guess where we found ageless diva Angie Weihs, the creator of The Ageless Rebel journal? Why, on Instagram of course!
Angie is a fabulous woman rocking her sixties in Los Angeles. She inspires not only through her contagious smile, but also with the vibrancy of her words and her ageless attitude.
At this stage of life, we all have a past and we were curious about hers.
This ageless rebel has lived in France, Germany, Portugal and England, to name a few countries. She´s worked as a photographer, journalist and author, with an M.A. in Literature from the University of Hannover.
She´s also been the owner and manager of a construction and design company, built and managed an art gallery and opened a holistic clinic.
She knows marriage, divorce and life as a single mom, which she initiated in New Mexico, where she also studied art therapy and experimented with shamanic journeys and experiential learning.
In 1997 she invested in the stock market and lost everything she owned.
Odd jobs kept her and her son afloat until she founded EcoandthePrincess.com, which produced mid size and high end eco weddings in unique locations.
After 2009 she was forced to deal with a series of losses, such as her son going to college, the death of her stepmom and her dad and took to writing again.
In 2013 a car crash shook her to the core and in 2016 she took the plunge to quit a safe but unfulfilling life to throw her heart and soul into coaching and writing.
We did a Q&A with her which we hope will inspire!
About The Ageless Rebel
Viva Fifty.- What motivated you to create the Ageless Rebel planner and whose hands would you like to see it in?
Angie Weihs.- While writing my forthcoming book Honey, You’re Ageless I got so involved creating it that I did not follow my own medicine, I gained weight, had a heavy migraine attack, didn’t like my tired looks…
Initially I created the Ageless Rebel playbook as a sidekick for myself; I seriously needed a commitment buddy.
Hand writing my intentions was like talking to a deeper part of myself. I repeated affirmations and mantras and stuck to my plans; I slowly shaped up on all levels.
What got me excited was checking what I had accomplished at the end of the day. I was so proud to note that I had actually hacked my day mindfully with a dishwashing meditation and uncluttered my wardrobe.
I was thrilled to see black on white that I had worked out three times during my five hour writing time. It motivated me to do the same the next day and so on.
I felt so much happier and thought that I have to share this before I finished the book. Which took me off the book for a couple months.
The Ageless Rebel is for anybody who is stuck in the mindset of OLD or on any other level of not good enough.
With its help women establish their very personal and unique path to true confidence; made up of rituals, adventures and reflections that make their ageless soul smile and their body shine.
It’s for women who want to reach their goal with their soul. We write and play ourselves alive.
Defying the stereotypes of aging
VF.- How do you defy the stereotypes of aging on a daily basis?
AW.- By exercising my body, mind, soul and spirit every day and having reminders in my phone that I love myself. Repetition is important for our brains to get the new messages and change our mindset.
I am self-made, most of what I create from graphics to website, Youtube channel to marketing, I have to learn first and as most of what I do is online it’s tons of tech stuff. It drives me nuts sometimes but I got the will to get there.
I hear my Millennial son in my head “Mom, that’s what we all do. If you wanna be young just try it out, when it crashes try again…” So I’m exercising Google Foo and my brain every day. I take courses and webinars all the time.
I work out and happily carry my heavy Mountain Valley glass jars from my porch to the kitchen. (I was told I couldn’t) I trim the trees in my garden and actually climb them. It’s a giggle to say NO to conventional expectations with my actions.
I’ve got a bunch of mantras for situations like walking into a party, book reading or seminar, knowing that nearly everybody will be 20 or 30 years younger than me.
I fake it to make it with role play when I feel doubts and self-critique sneaks up on me. To walk our age with confidence is warrioress-worthy, it really is like weight training, when you stop, your muscles get weak again.
I never believed in aging, so it passed me by. I was the same non-age all my life. My fear of wrinkles on the other hand manifested… Vanity won, past tense.
To monitor what we think and feel and to rephrase our beliefs is one of the answers and to play. Many of our secrets are hidden in our inner child and she doesn’t come out of hiding if we’re not entering her playground.
Women together to fight ageism
VF.- How do you think women can come together to fight ageism?
AW.- By joining VivaFifty! and the Ageless Rebellion. I am creating a meet-up in LA and I think there should be many more everywhere; we support each other and exercise our truth in these groups, online is great, in person is even better.
When we learn to be fearlessly authentic in these safe spaces we can that it with us into the outside world like a new mojo we learned in a dojo.
One of the important exercises is to let go of judgments; who cares if you sport your wrinkles or a bunch of Botox and fillers, if you’re overweight or bony?
In a safe space we can find out what of who we are is really our truth and not society’s expectations and then chisel out what our idea of our beauty is. No more excuses.
We create projects of importance, not just cute looks. Several of the fashion-oriented over 50 projects are amazing and already have deeper values, add communities of women writers, women in tech, women scientists and we change the world.
VF.- How have you created your own opportunities?
AW.- For decades I went with my head through walls. I did not believe in limitations because I am a woman, I simple did the stuff I wanted to do.
Fierce, focused, passionate and highly improvisational, and sometimes relentless, which is okay for a man but women with elbows are easily called a bitch. I was that for some.
In less aware times I also used my feminine attributes to my advantage, bad girl, but I did.
I was a bit too convinced that nothing could go wrong and got the answer in Santa Fe when I gambled the stock market and lost everything.
I came to LA in a two door SUV, my kid, my dog, a couple of suitcases, a few pieces of furniture and overdrawn credit cards to house-sit.
I was crushed and angry. Imagine being a busser at 40… But I did what needed to be done. Opportunities pass you by when you wallow in self-pity.
Over time I realized that this hell of a job was my “purgatory”, burning off my limiting beliefs.
I had to shake off my pride when I cleaned the toilets of a mostly drunk socialite and sold cheap hippie clothing.
I had to swallow a lot of demeaning moments when climbing up from hostess, to busser, to server, to banquet manager and wedding planner.
I didn’t know then that I needed to experience the depths of human feelings to find true understanding and compassion for what waited at the end of the tunnel – to empower other people as a writer and coach.
But what was like a broad flashlight before is now a laser. I think, feel and ACT on my ideas every day. I don’t just react; I am proactive.
I consciously chose my social media and what I would like to communicate, with whom to connect, do joint ventures and whom to support. But more than that, I’m not staying in the comfort of my digital homes.
I was looking and longing for my tribe of amazing women for a long time, now I create the opportunity to meet them not just by visiting soulful women seminars, I create my own meet-ups.
It took me a couple months of filling Ageless Rebel planners and only a couple hundred mantras of “I am Courage” but I got there.
VF.- What is the good, the bad and the ugly of being over a certain age?
AW.- Let’s complain first. Isolation sucks, the feeling of not belonging anywhere. The Millenials with whom I personally vibe more than my own age group were way too young and my age people were often way too old, especially men, sorry. I tried Match.com and it was a disaster.
I say in my book that “aging is a bitch but I turned her into a life changing guru.” Meditating over the word ageless was an epiphany.
The physical decline is annoying, just to keep the status quo costs a bunch of time and money. Should I Botox or not isn’t a question I fancy… It started to hit me around 60.
I’m invited to RAAD, a conference about radical longevity and life extension and will report what amazing news they have to offer to be our most vibrant physical selves.
What’s good? I love to be finally over the need to please and find approval. I went through that extensively. My focus is on polishing my essence not so much my fingernails.
I see us as art objects, beautiful, unique creations often waiting in the cement of our past to be chiseled free.
A woman of the world
VF.- Has your cultural background influenced the way you face the passage of time? How so?
AW.- I always saw myself as a woman of the world. I feel like a Latina at heart and at home in Portugal and Spain. My spirit loves Santa Fe, New Mexico where I had experiences of being one with everything; there was no time or limited space. In these moments I was my age-free essence.
My intellect, the power not giving up stems from my German upbringing; I do not accept decay and will research other options until I die or not.
My belief in magic and mystery comes from that part of me who still lives in medieval times, which I first felt in the Langue d’Oc / South of France. Magic transcends age.
My body tells me that aging is absurd and she’s at home in memories of the future. Does this make me a fictional character?
VF.- What would you say to women who feel they are “over the hill” and too old to pursue their dreams?
AW.- I would time travel with them through their lives and find the dreams and ambitions they have not lived. Make them feel the “what if…” Let them visualize the beauty of manifesting their inner movies. If I can awaken their passion and longing it will become their motivation.
With that we’ll have a great chance to turn tired into many baby steps to renewed power. When we have a goal from our soul it makes all the difference.
VF.- Anything else you may want to add that we missed
AW.- The fear of aging really is the fear of decay that leads to death. To face that fear can change our attitude to life. Spiritual or religious people, who are looking forward to experience the next level of beingness after the physical form, feel relaxed about death.
If you don’t, the question is what does life mean to you? What makes it precious? And then you live that preciousness as long as you can, you’re a badass at any age.
If you’d like to join me on this exciting journey, stay connected for the announcement of my Honey, you’re Ageless book (September 2017)
A friend once said to me that we don’t want to die because we don’t want to lose the continuous stories in our heads. I don’t want to die because I love to touch and feel, to be the movies in my head, to jump into embodiments like the hero of Quantum Leap – as long as I like and not as long as biology demands; I’m a rebel after all.
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