Forgiving Yourself and Moving Forward The Best Gift to Start the New Year: Forgiveness As we round up December and begin to look forward to the fresh start of a new year, it may be the perfect time to give ourselves the best gift of all for new beginnings – forgiveness. I don’t mean forgiving yourself for burning a batch of cookies, I’m talking about releasing the deep guilt and shame we may be carrying for past missteps. Time to come clean with ourselves. Most of us have not arrived…
What is mindfulness, why should we care and how do we start? Last weekend, I attended a talk specifically on the subject of mindfulness at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, scientist, speaker, author of several books on the topic and a pioneer in the meditative approach to treat pain and depression, was the presenter. His accomplishments are impressive and his speaking style was relaxed and… thoughtful. He spoke about how important it is to be mindful. To take time to notice our thoughts. To pause our racing minds…
We’re all familiar with the saying that comparison is the thief of joy. Yet knowing that, how often do we still find ourselves unnecessarily bummed because we allowed unhealthy comparisons to sneak into our minds? And psssst… our kids are doing it to themselves too. It’s all around us – from our careers, to our homes, to our vacations, to holiday shopping, to the cars we drive, to our marriages, even down to our kids. No one is consciously keeping track of each other’s lives, but comparisons still manage to…
Stop Letting OPS Mess with Your Head! Living your best life after 50 (or really any age) includes keeping a healthy separation between your emotions and other people’s drama. What I learned this last weekend comes down to this: Their sh*t ain’t my sh*t! It’s a lesson in learning how to hear and digest hateful angry words and being able to let it go and find a healthy perspective. Admittedly, it took me a few days to work through this. Ultimately, I needed to consciously recognize that the situation was…
At the end of the summer, fed up with feeling bloated, gross and not my best, I decided to embark on a midlife Whole30. I didn’t do it specifically to lose weight, although I did lose several pounds, which was a bonus and helpful for fitting back into my fall non-stretchy pants. I wanted to figure out how I could reduce the number of migraine headaches I was having, lessen the achiness in my finger joints – and control my eternal addiction to sugar (aka, the devil). I generally cook…
Much that’s written about life after fifty focuses on our physical well-being but not as much attention is given to midlife mental health. At any age, mental health is crucial to our well-being. From childhood straight into midlife and beyond – how we think is interconnected with how we feel. Most of us have experienced how anxiety can lead to a stomachache and headache. We don’t need to be doctors or psychologists to understand how stress and worry can make us physical ill. “Stress can increase hormones like adrenaline and…