Andie MacDowell Says 'Being Present' Is a 'Superpower as You Get Older'

Andie MacDowell knows the secret true happiness.

The Groundhog Day actress shares some of her favorite things about aging with PEOPLE, including the key to finding joy in everyday life.

"It's definitely the small things. It's not about superficial things," says MacDowell, 64. "I think that really gets ground into you. It's the moments, and being present."

The idea of living in the moment "starts to become a power — like a superpower — as you get older," she adds. "That you're not caught up in superficial things."

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MacDowell also lists "holding my grandbaby" and "the education I'm getting about how to appreciate my children as adults."

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The star's new Hallmark series The Way Home follows three generations of women in one family at they navigate very different stages of life. MacDowell plays small-town grandmother Del who occasionally clashes with her daughter Kat (Chyler Leigh) and 15-year-old granddaughter Alice (Sadie Laflamme-Snow) because of their strong-willed personalities.

Though Alice has previously never met her estranged grandmother when the show begins, a turn of events causes the three women to reunite — and contemplate if their long-broken family can ever be fixed again.

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In speaking of her own family experience, MacDowell tells PEOPLE she's learned to "give them the opportunity to lead."

She continues, "There comes a time when you have to appreciate them as individuals and know that they are not you."

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The Way Home airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on The Hallmark Channel