Ageism Causes Unhappiness and Not Just for the Old

Why Anti-ageing Products Are Offensive Recently, I saw a post on Instagram promoting ‘body positivity.’ It was part of a great campaign that aims to dispel the stigma around differences in appearance. Those differences can be visible or hidden and include, for instance, scars. In the video post, a young woman with psoriasis affecting her face and scalp was talking to camera when suddenly she paused, gasped and looked closely at her scalp. Her horror was not due to her

By |2021-02-26T13:32:48+00:00February 26th, 2021|Advice, Psychology, Social, Well-being|0 Comments

How to Grow Old with Youthful Spirit

Making the most of every moment Recently I have taken up a new mantra and it’s this: “Live as though you will last forever but stay mindful that it could all be over tomorrow.” It’s a blend of the stoic reminder Memento Mori, literally ‘Remember that you must die’, with a prompt based on my belief that in order to age well we should be willing to keep moving forward, be curious to learn new things and think new thoughts.

By |2021-02-01T13:43:45+00:00February 1st, 2021|Psychology, Inspiration, Well-being|0 Comments

Five Self-Talk Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Improving Your Self-talk Will Make You Happier We often equate self-care with physical care, taking enough exercise, rest and relaxation and eating well; we may also meditate or practice yoga to help us relax and reduce stress. But one of the key areas I’ve been working to improve recently is my self-talk — the way I talk to myself. It’s easier said than done, but a good start is recognising that we all have habitual ways of thinking that affect

By |2021-01-05T18:37:17+00:00January 5th, 2021|Advice, Life Lessons, Psychology, Well-being|0 Comments

Change Your Perspective and Change Your Life

How Some New Thinking Could Help You Live Longer Critical thinking and becoming open to change could be the key to improving your physical and mental health, helping to change your perspective, your life, and maybe even increase your life span. As a health professional, it was my role to discuss healthy lifestyle changes with my patients. They usually had long-term conditions such as diabetes and getting them to accept any change was challenging. Earlier in my career, this

By |2020-10-28T13:57:36+00:00October 23rd, 2020|Advice, Life Lessons, Psychology, Well-being|0 Comments

My Relationship Advice After 40 Years of Marriage

Being in lockdown with my husband for the last four months has been a good test of our relationship and caused me to wonder whether there are key things that keep couples happily together. I don’t usually presume to offer anyone relationship advice, because I truly believe that there is a lot of luck involved in maintaining long-term relationships. As human beings, we are bound to change over the years as we go through various experiences and challenges. It is

By |2020-10-08T11:17:50+00:00October 8th, 2020|Advice, Relationships, Well-being|0 Comments

Does Everything Make You Angry Now You’re Older? Let’s Just Be Kind to One Another

When my daughters were young and having a typical sibling squabble, in desperation I would often ask them ‘are you being kind?’. It was an attempt to avoid becoming involved in their argument and to get them to think about what was really important at that moment. Amazingly, it usually worked. Lately, I have had to remind myself of this tactic as I try to bring more kindness and compassion into my thinking. Kindness or being kind is a trait

By |2020-10-13T10:59:00+00:00July 25th, 2020|Advice, Life Lessons, Psychology, Social, Well-being|0 Comments

The Surprising Benefits of Regular Foot Care

Why healthy feet can make all the difference as you grow older Is it possible to write a witty and profound article about feet? Possibly not. But this is important stuff. It could save your life. In his wonderful book ‘Being Mortal’, the surgeon Atul Gawande describes sitting-in with a chief geriatrician for some routine consultations. He noticed that the doctor spent a lot of time examining the feet of one patient who had several issues related to ageing although

By |2020-07-06T14:27:34+00:00July 6th, 2020|Advice, Health, Life Lessons, Well-being|0 Comments

The Troublesome Mother/Daughter Relationship

Coming to terms with the loss of my mother We celebrated my mother’s 90th birthday last August. Family and friends held a lovely afternoon tea in the sunny dining room of her care home, where she had been living for just a few months. She had fallen earlier in the year and had rapidly become immobile but seemed to be adjusting. Then, following a very short illness, she was admitted to hospital as an emergency and sadly died on

By |2020-07-01T12:17:09+00:00July 1st, 2020|Life Lessons, Well-being|0 Comments

Why You Don’t Need the Best Anti-wrinkle Cream

How to stop worrying about Crows’ Feet and Smile Lines Oh, the horrors of the passport photograph! No matter how I tried, in order to comply with the regulations, my photograph had to be brutally honest and that image didn’t look like ‘the me’ in my head. Now, I declare that I am perfectly at ease with my ageing face, unconcerned about the best anti-wrinkle cream, but the reality did make me think. Mainly though, it made me wonder —

By |2020-10-23T11:34:44+00:00March 9th, 2020|Life Lessons, Psychology, Skin Care, Well-being|0 Comments

A Lesson from the Harry and Meghan Episode

Why a rush to judgment is unhelpful and bad for your health The recent announcement by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex that they wish to withdraw from their senior roles in the Royal Family has inevitably provoked a reaction in the press and on social media. I noted (but was not surprised by) how willingly people rushed to voice their opinion about this situation. It caused me to wonder about how many of our thoughts are judgments and opinions

By |2020-02-11T17:41:07+00:00February 11th, 2020|Psychology, Well-being|0 Comments
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