Jennifer Aniston opens up about hopes for her future: 'I see kids running'

Jennifer Aniston is celebrating her 51st birthday by getting personal and revealing some of her plans for the future.

Aniston, who has a successful acting career spanning decades, opened up in Interview magazine's March issue to her longtime friend Sandra Bullock about the picture she envisages in her head.

"What is it that you haven't done yet that you are looking forward to doing?" Bullock asked Aniston. "Is it on a work level? Is it on a spiritual evolvement level? Is it all of the above?"

"My gut reaction was to say all of the above," Aniston said. "It's not so much what I see myself doing, but it's more like a little screenshot in my brain, where I hear the ocean, I see the ocean, I hear laughter, I see kids running, I hear ice in a glass, I smell food being cooked. That's the joyous snapshot in my head."

Aniston and Bullock, who met after they both dated OC star Tate Donovan, also reflected on Aniston's ability to consistently embrace "joy and buoyancy."

The Friends star credited her parents: "I think that it comes from growing up in a household that was destabilised and felt unsafe, watching adults being unkind to each other, and witnessing certain things about human behaviour that made me think: 'I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that'."

"You can either be angry or be a martyr, or you can say, "You've got lemons? Let's make lemonade," Aniston added.

"That's another way we can relate to each other, in that the destabilising things in life can either sink you or invigorate you to change and do better," Bullock responded.

Aniston is having a ball for her 51st birthday celebrations. Her former Friends co-star Courteney Cox posted a snap of them dressed in identical outfits to mark the occasion.

Cox captioned the Instagram post on February 12, "No matter how hard you might try... there's only one Jennifer Aniston. Happy birthday my dear friend @jenniferaniston! I love you!"