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Posted on Thursday, July 01, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
I love the idea that we can map our lives as one action to clarify where we've been. If you like maps and have a sense you've travelled a lot to get where you are today, this may be a book you will also pick up repeatedly.
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Posted on Sunday, May 23, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
While the bottom line is that we are each responsible for creating our own happiness, it doesn't hurt to have some help in identifying the areas we need to work on first.
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Posted on Saturday, April 24, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
Having discovered some broccoli in the microwave this morning, several days after I must have put it in there to cook, I am forced to wonder — once again — whether senility can be far away?
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Posted on Thursday, April 01, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
As someone who has battled her weight much of her life, I liked this offering on the AARP site.
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Posted on Monday, March 08, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
Every so often we all hit a point when we start to question what we are doing and whether it is actually taking us where we want to go. I thought I’d re-evaluated my life pretty thoroughly a few years ago when I found myself newly single and in charge of my own life after 20 years of marriage.
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Posted on Monday, February 15, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
I don't know about you but I love being online, but as I have got older I have noticed that it is more often assumed that I don't know much about computers or actively engaged online. This belief is sometimes frustrating, but has also been the cause of much laughter when I show it isn't true!
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Posted on Monday, February 08, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
Some of us are lucky enough to still experience those times when we notice we are feeling really good - much younger and fitter than we know we are. Sadly as we age these times tend to be followed by aching bodies and the sad realization that we really, truly, can't still do what we did at 25. Or is that really true?
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Posted on Monday, February 01, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
Given the discouraging messages the media often gives us about our bodies, I was encouraged to realize that upping my exercise level a bit and carrying a bit of extra weight isn’t all bad!
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Posted on Saturday, January 09, 2010 by Gillian Lancaster
Wouldn’t it be amazing to see designers and magazines working as hard to appeal to real midlife women with exciting and flattering clothing designs that reflect who we are now, on models who look like us?
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Posted on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I imagine that the specter of memory loss hunts all of us as we age, so finding that I had memories tucked away that I’d forgotten yet which were so easily uncovered, gives me hope that my mind is still functioning reasonably well. In the light of my discoveries, what pleasant surprises has your memory offered you?
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Posted on Monday, December 14, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
As a child you probably spent a great of time wondering what it would like to be an adult, and thinking about the things you would like to do when you finally got to be in charge of your life.
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Posted on Wednesday, December 09, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I usually go through the ’self checkout’ lane in stores when they are an option, largely because they have shorter lines so assume I will get through faster. Like most people, I have been frustrated by items that don’t weigh enough for the machine to acknowledge they are in the bag, such a greeting card, and the times when the machine imperiously demands I put the 20 lb tub of cat litter on the small surface area among the salad vegetables before it will let me proceed. Despite this, I still prefer these lanes when I’m in a hurry and don’t have many items to scan!
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Posted on Friday, December 04, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I just read an interesting article in Psychology Today called, So you think you're having a senior moment? Think again, by Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. In it she says that the all-too-familiar lapses of memory that seem to get worse at midlife are not symptoms of imminent Alzheimer's, but instead are caused by our determination to multi-task.
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Posted on Sunday, November 29, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
It turns out that Penn has a department of positive psychology, and their website has a battery of quizzes you can take to find out how happy-or depressed-you are. As a longtime answerer of quizzes and questionnaires, I immediately signed up (the results become part of the research so your consent to participate is required) and got going.
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Posted on Thursday, November 26, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Since I am actively trying to notice when I am nudged in the same direction by a variety of sources, it seemed appropriate that today's post should be about the things I am truly thankful for.
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Posted on Sunday, November 22, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
It has been a while since I last posted and feel you deserve an explanation for my absence. As with so many things, it was the result of a sense of uncertainty about the direction I was taking. I realized that although I had set up my midlife sites as ideas evolved, nearly a year later it was no longer clear to me what purpose each site was aiming to fulfill. Clearly the sites needed rationalizing, and the time had come to create order from the emerging chaos - and to clarify for myself what I was trying to accomplish.
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Posted on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I’ve begun to realize that things that have stood the test of time have something to teach us.
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Posted on Saturday, October 17, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
The worst kind of peer pressure seems to have risen to the surface so those who are least interested in education are imposing their values on everyone else. Gaining or displaying knowledge is now apparently something to hide.
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Posted on Monday, October 12, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I was intrigued by this story on the BBC website about a new installation at the Tate Modern in London. The installation is a huge box that the visitor can walk into, however it is completely black, and the visitor is left to work out for themselves what is inside. The goal of the artist is to allow the visitor to work out that even when they can't see where they are going, the outcome is seldom as scary as they imagine it will be.
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Posted on Tuesday, October 06, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
In amongst the decision-making about shedding activities, roles and attitudes that no longer work, it was something of a surprise to discover that what I most urgently need to shed was failing to make time to do things that energize and excite me. In my over-achieving mind taking time out for fun is time 'wasted'. I hadn't consciously realized that in doing this, although I initially got a great deal more work done, I was now stalling and losing impetus.
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Posted on Saturday, October 03, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Basking in the glow of realizing (once again) that stepping back from a situation is sometimes the best thing to do, I wondered if there was anything else I needed to let go of? I recognize that there is a fine line between letting go of things that you can no longer do anything about and simply bailing out when things get tough, so tried to think what fell into the first category.
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Posted on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Have you noticed how an idea or concept suddenly appears in your life, only to be repeated in different contexts over the space of a few days? Whatever the psychological back story is to this phenomenon, my message from the universe is currently that whatever is on the inside will be evident on the outside. Not earth-shatteringly new information, I'll admit, but over the past three days I've encountered it in writing, in a discussion and on television.
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Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
It surprises me how many conversations I've had lately about the need for quality sleep, and the difficulties of achieving it. Despite knowing what we should do to get better quality sleep, our bodies don’t seem to be on the same page.
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Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
The results also remind me that we are all works in progress. We don't suddenly wake up at midlife fully evolved, but find it to be a wakeup call to check in with ourselves and see what needs tweaking and tuning up to get closer to who we feel we fundamentally are. The good news is that growing awareness brings about the desire to act - or to decide to stay in place. So, who are you now?
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Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
The other morning I caught an interview about women who had changed direction at midlife. As I fumed gently that the story was being aired on a holiday morning when fewer people would be watching, I was still glad that their stories were deemed newsworthy enough to be told.
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Posted on Tuesday, September 08, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I have always loved to read, and while I'm apt to pick only books that appeal, I belong to two book clubs that read a variety of books which stretch my horizons and introduce me to new authors and genres.
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Posted on Tuesday, September 01, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
After I had finished writing my post about clutter and hoarding behaviors being more than just untidiness, I realized that there must be many more people who fall into the central ‘mildly untidy’ range of the neatnik/pathologically untidy spectrum, than dwell at the more psychologically complex ends. Given that for most of us keeping our homes and work areas tidy is an ongoing issue, it made me wonder whether such untidiness is a reflection of what is – or isn’t – going on in our minds as well?
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Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
It may just be an over-exposure to lifestyle television shows, but shedding excess ’stuff’ seems to have become the latest method for revealing the person you always knew you were, but had lost amongst the stuff. At first glance it is easy to assume these home owners were just untidy, that their mess built up and up until in they no longer saw it. Now I’m learning that this behavior is a recognizedpsychological illness; a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and has very little to do with self-rediscovery.
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Posted on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Life happens! We may get downsized, divorced, widowed, or have grown children who no longer need us as they did before. When we find ourselves at one of these transition points, while we may first feel we have been pushed out of a plane without a parachute, as we recover our balance we notice that there are new options available to us that hadn’t been possible before.
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Posted on Monday, August 24, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
So much of the journey through midlife seems to involve reviewing the things that we did, and the experiences we had, to find out more about who we were, and who we are now. It seems easier to look back with compassion on our younger self from this distance, and also to handle emotions that were present as they are that much more remote now. It worries me that I am spending so much time reviewing my past, but am also aware of the adage about those who ignore history being doomed to repeat it, so console myself with the thought that I'm actually saving myself from repeating mistakes!
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Posted on Saturday, August 22, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
With the popularity of television talent shows, singers who are tone deaf are frequently shown on audition reviews as their ’singing’ makes other singers sound so much better by comparison. We can see the happy expressions on the faces of the tone deaf singers turn to puzzlement as it becomes clear that those auditioning them aren’t enjoying their performance.
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Posted on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Having grown up in England I am much in favor of a universally accessible health system, because I feel that healthcare is a right and not a luxury.
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Posted on Monday, August 17, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I discovered that the British have mostly stopped buying knives, favoring the informal American style of eating with just a fork in the right hand.
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Posted on Friday, August 14, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Like many other boomers, there are things from the past that I’m happy to leave there. They were fun at the time, but didn’t have good shelf life, and newer ideas and options have emerged to replace them.
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Posted on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
The underlying social rule was that anyone older was due respect and considerate behavior, which included not answering them back or trying to justify my actions when apologizing.
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Posted on Monday, August 03, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
I have noticed that people who have never really been anywhere unfamiliar have a mindset that feels threatened whenever an alternative option is offered.
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Posted on Friday, July 31, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
Although there are people who simply can’t distinguish one note from another, there is no limit to anyone’s ability to be moved by music, equally there are ways of writing and creating art that are satisfying without having to be able to use perspective or recite rules of grammar!
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Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
It seems as though brides have moved away from viewing marriage as a move into adulthood towards seeing it as an opportunity to relive childhood – complete with Disney princess dresses, tantrums, tears and pouting.
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Posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Friday, July 24, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Thursday, July 23, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Monday, July 20, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Monday, July 13, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Thursday, July 02, 2009 by Gillian Lancaster
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Posted on Thursday, July 10, 2008 by Gillian Lancaster
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