When you lie about your age, Oprah believes you are "denying your very existence." That's the central message in this clip from an episode of "Oprah's Lifeclass," where Oprah looks back at a conversation she had with actress Cybill Shepherd in 2010.
"Learning to love ourselves as we age is one of the most challenging things we can do," Shepherd said on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
The truth is, Oprah says in the video, everything external eventually changes and dissipates. "But if you have cultivated the internal, if you've cultivated your inner life, your inner wisdom, your inner spirit, a connection to what really matters in your life, the aging process will not be difficult because you will know who you really are and you will accept it and stop resisting and pushing against what is," she says.
Oprah says it's aggravating to her when women lie about their age. "You're denying, energetically, the years you have earned here on the planet earth," she says. "You're denying those experiences. You are denying your very existence by trying to lie about your age."
Oprah says she understands the fear that a lot of women have about aging. "But I think that I am blessed because not only was I not defined as pretty in the culture -- so it's not something I'm trying to hold on to -- but even more so than being considered smart, or a good reader, or intelligent, I started to cultivate an inner life -- a life that is spiritual, a life that is deep, that is wide, that I understand that I am more than what I look like," she says. "I'm more than what I do, I'm more than what other people's image of what I look like and what I do is."
That realization was an "aha" moment for Oprah. "The understanding of who you are is necessary as you get older, because as you begin to lose the external attraction, it is your responsibility to cultivate the inner attraction," she says.
"Oprah's Lifeclass" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.