The most radiant people in their 70s aren’t chasing youth—they’re living by a different set of rules entirely.

I met a woman named Rosa at a farmer’s market once, and I’ve been thinking about her ever since.

She had silver hair, unapologetically red lipstick, and a linen outfit that looked both effortless and very expensive. She laughed loudly, asked good questions, and somehow made you want to stand up straighter without saying a word about posture.

When I asked her age, she said, “Seventy-three and better every year.”

This wasn’t glow from face cream. It was inner radiance—earned, not applied. And it made me wonder: what does it actually take to get there?

Here are the seven rules I’m using as my compass.

1. Stay curious longer than most people do

I used to think aging well meant preserving what you already know—your health, your friends, your routines. But I’ve come to believe that it’s more about expanding.

Staying curious isn’t just a nice trait. It’s active nourishment.

Neuroscience backs this up. Studies from the University of California, Davis, show that curiosity stimulates the hippocampus—the part of your brain responsible for learning and memory.

Translation: the more you follow your curiosity, the more resilient your brain becomes.

People who glow later in life don’t cling to “how things have always been.” They learn new instruments, take up improv, start side hustles, or fall in love with something unexpected. They evolve. And that keeps their light on.

2. Stop outsourcing your worth to productivity

This one took me an embarrassing amount of time to learn. For years, I tied my self-worth to how many items I checked off before noon. Which is hilarious, because no one ever gave me a prize.

If you want to glow from the inside out, you have to uncouple your identity from your output.

This doesn’t mean you stop trying—it means you stop over-identifying with your to-do list.

You are not your inbox. You are not your laundry pile. You are not the sum of errands completed.

When your value stops swinging on the tightrope of performance, something really peaceful happens: you stop burning out trying to earn rest.

3. Practice daily acts of self-loyalty

Forget the term “self-care” for a minute. Let’s talk about self-loyalty.

Self-loyalty is choosing the glass of water before the third coffee. It’s speaking up when your boundaries get nudged. It’s choosing not to scroll when what you really need is silence.

It’s not glamorous. In fact, it often feels inconvenient. But the glow it creates is subtle and sturdy because you’re not faking well-being—you’re building it.

I think of self-loyalty like a savings account. Most days, you’re depositing pennies. But over time, those deposits compound.

And one day, when life throws a curveball, you’ll realize you’ve been preparing for it all along.

4. Learn to sit with your feelings instead of fixing them

This rule has changed how I think about longevity—not just in terms of physical health, but emotional metabolism.

I recently read Laughing in the Face of Chaos: A Politically Incorrect Shamanic Guide for Modern Life by shaman Rudá Iandê, and it cracked something open for me.

This unconventional book inspired me to look at how often I try to “solve” discomfort—label it, fix it, reframe it—when really, most emotions just want to be heard.

One line that’s stuck with me is this:

“Our emotions are not barriers, but profound gateways to the soul—portals to the vast, uncharted landscapes of our inner being.”

That reframing helped me stop treating fear and frustration like glitches. Now, I see them as signals—parts of me trying to speak up.

Letting myself feel instead of fix has made me stronger, not weaker. If emotional intelligence is the language of inner radiance, this book helped me become a little more fluent.

5. Nourish your body like it’s your creative partner

If your body is still upright and mobile in your 70s, you’ve got a pretty amazing creative partner. That’s how I try to think of mine.

It’s not a machine. It’s a collaborator. One that asks for hydration, movement, rest, and color on your plate—not because you’re trying to “get fit,” but because it’s your foundation for doing literally anything meaningful.

This doesn’t mean green smoothies or daily yoga if that’s not your thing. It means paying attention. Asking, “How can I support you today?” and being okay with different answers.

I once kept a food journal, but instead of calories or macros, I tracked one question: “How did I feel two hours after I ate this?”

The clarity it gave me was wild. When you stop trying to control your body and start trying to cooperate with it, the glow becomes sustainable—not performative.

6. Build relationships with people who reflect your integrity, not just your history

Longevity isn’t just about physical health. The Harvard Study of Adult Development—one of the longest-running studies of its kind—found that close relationships were the strongest predictor of life satisfaction and well-being.

But not all relationships are built to last just because they’ve lasted.

If you want to glow in your later years, start now by choosing relationships that reflect who you are becoming, not just who you’ve been. Choose people who help you grow, not just people who never left.

One practical thing I do is keep a mental note of how I feel after spending time with someone. Not during. After.

Uplifted? Drained? Energized? Disoriented? That’s my litmus test. And it tells me more than years of shared history ever could.

7. Replace perfection with presence

One of the fastest ways to dim your light is to obsess over how it looks.

Whether it’s your house, your skin, your career path, or your Instagram grid—chronic perfectionism is the enemy of internal radiance.

Why? Because it steals the joy from the present moment and replaces it with constant correction.

When you shift from trying to look whole to simply being present, things change. You catch the light differently. You make room for joy, even in the middle of chaos.

You laugh more. You forgive faster. You stop apologizing for your face in candid photos.

Presence doesn’t mean life is neat. It means you’re actually living it. And that kind of glow doesn’t fade—it deepens.

Final words

There’s no serum that can replicate the glow of self-trust, emotional fluency, and hard-won joy.

So if you’re aiming to thrive in your 70s and beyond, maybe don’t focus on the “anti-aging” routines. Focus on the pro-living ones.

Start now. Stay curious. Stay soft where it counts and strong where it matters.

And every so often, laugh loudly in public while wearing red lipstick—just like Rosa.