We all need to find a way to embrace ageing: Gillian Anderson

British actor Gillian Anderson believes it is important to "embrace" ageing because the experience of growing old can be traumatic.

The actor said it is impossible to stay young so celebrating the changes is a better option.

''If you watch yourself on film, there is a certain point where you see yourself change. It's arresting. It can either be completely traumatic or something that instigates a shift of consciousness towards thinking about what's important. But you have to go through that trauma first, to mourn.

"The thing to remember is, how one looks in the mirror is the youngest one will ever look again. So you can't do anything but celebrate it. Ageing is something we all need to find a way to embrace - the inevitability of age, of decline, of... rot," Anderson told Vogue magazine.

The 50-year-old actor can currently be seen in Netflix comedy drama "Sex Education" as sex therapist Jean Milburn.