from yahoo.com:
Cindy Crawford Shares Sweet Advice for Her Younger Self in 56th Birthday Post: 'Life Is a Blessing'
Cindy Crawford Instagram
Cindy Crawford is celebrating another trip around the sun!
The supermodel, who celebrated her 56th birthday on Sunday, reflected on what she'd tell her younger self in an
Instagram post the day prior.
Sharing a black and white photograph of herself sitting beside a birthday cake as a child, Crawford said she was "looking back at little Cindy and thinking about what I would tell her."
"I would tell her to be kinder to herself, to treat herself the way she treats her friends. I would tell her everyone feels nervous in new situations and sometimes you just have to fake it 'til you make it," Crawford wrote. "I would tell her not to be afraid to make a fool of herself — dance, sing, etc more — even if she isn't good at it."
"Laugh as much as possible. Be vulnerable. Risk showing her true self to people she loves — the payoff is worth it," she continued. "Practice gratitude. Keep growing and learning and becoming…life is a blessing! ."
In the comments section, the supermodel received an outpouring of love from some of her famous friends.
"Great advice for every age

Happy Birthday


," wrote
Christie Brinkley.
"Happy birthday to you, amazing woman and friend



," commented
Helena Christensen.
"Happy birthday ICON ,"
Alessandra Ambrosio added.
On her birthday, the mom of two posted a Boomerang video of herself posing with a cake in a festive display, including an oversized "C" balloon.
"Thank you for all the birthday love ," she captioned the snaps.
Back in June, Crawford
chatted with PEOPLE about aging and the empowerment of experimenting with beauty.
"The whole point of it is to empower us. It's the tool that gives us confidence," she said. "Like if you want to try a smokey eye one night or a dark eye or a liquid liner – I mean, I'm terrible at that so I wouldn't try that myself – but [beauty is] supposed to be fun."
"If we're lucky we get to age. That is a privilege. But it's also very daunting for women [to think], 'Okay, what's going to happen?' " Crawford continued.
"With skin care, my approach has been 'age-maintenance'. Gravity's still out there and things are going to happen, but let me take as good care of my skin as I can," the
Meaningful Beauty cofounder said. "And I just want women to know that it's okay, with the skin care and now with the hair care, to give yourself this little gift [of self-care] for five minutes in the morning or five minutes in the evening."