Magnificent Midlife

An interview with Nicole Christina, a psychotherapist and host of the Zestful Aging Podcast which is listened to in more than 85 countries! Nicole is an utter delight and we had such a laugh together. She is also very wise.

We talk about: The joy of podcasting and why it means so much. How Nicole's podcast has provided a balance to the negativity associated with aging. What zestful aging means to Nicole. Coping with loss and the negative aspects of ageing while fully appreciating the delightful things. The magic of technology for learning things and staying in touch How the pandemic has brought ageism to the fore How shocking it is to hear leaders dismissing the impact of corona because it 'only' affects the old and vulnerable The way society dismisses the experience and wisdom of older people because of the way they look Putting a monetary value on people's lives The ugliness of the political environment in the US and the UK Big centres in New York and the UK that are being turned into hospitals Justifying going out to buy things The radical change in our day to day decisions Coping with anxiety at this time – laughter helps! Finding basic stillness is really helpful for managing stress Managing eating whether too much or too little under stress There are no dress rules under a pandemic Ditching the bra and pantyhose Needing something more in midlife How Nicole started her podcast and why The magic of fly fishing The magic of sharing stories and changing how people think about ageing The amazing things older women are doing in the world Knitting prosthetics for breast cancer survivors in Africa The nourishing aspect of learning what other women are doing You don't get to this age without experiencing tough stuff Whether or not to allow men on our podcasts Promoting the voices of older women The democratisation of broadcasting through podcasting The dual aims of entertaining and educating on the podcast Getting the right balance between sharing the hard stuff and still being uplifting

And lots more!

You can find out more about Nicole Christina:

Website: nicolechristina.com

Linkedin,Facebook

You can also listen to Nicole's Zestful Aging Podcast

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

I was so honoured to interview Dr Kathryn Mannix who has devoted her life to the palliative care of the dying. She has written a remarkable book called With The End In Mind which everyone should read! It was such a pleasure to talk to her about death! This is a much longer interview than usual but I thought the topic deserved it. Coronavirus has made it even more important that we start having conversations about death before it's too late. This was recorded before the pandemic. We talk about: • Why Kathryn was inspired to write her book, With The End In Mind • Opening up conversations about death • How our experience of death is much improved by honest communication • Denial is one way of coping which works for some people but isn't ideal • Thinking about to accommodate immobile older relatives • Sometimes being practical is better than sacrifice when it comes to caring • What normal dying actually looks and feels like – it is very gentle • Why it's important for people to understand the stages of death • What the 'death rattle' really is • Asking for more pain control if death is not progressing normally • The importance of discomfort management as people approach death – otherwise the process of death itself is prolonged • The opioid crisis – how Western addiction concerns stop pain relief availability in poorer areas of the world • Morphine used properly for pain relief is safe • Dan's death plan and how he went on TV to talk about it • The impact of faith on death • How many of us start a process of reckoning as we get closer to death • The importance of some form of belief (not necessarily religious) when it comes to evaluating our lives • The importance of being clear about what you want for your own death

And lots more!

You can find out more about Dr Kathryn Mannix:

Kathryn's Book: With The End In Mind

Website: With The End In Mind

Facebook,Instagram,Twitter

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

I talk to Dr Orlena Kerek, a pediatric doctor turned weight loss and health coach. She lives in Spain with her 4 kids, currently under lockdown. She knows a lot about managing anxiety and healthy nutrition.

• Life under lockdown in Spain
• Coping with children at home
• How best to stay sane under lockdown
• Coping with uncertainty
• Acknowledging our needs as well as everyone else's
• Letting things go
• Accepting life as it is now
• How oxygen may be all that many people need when they are in hospital with coronavirus
• Working with the information we have on the evolution of the disease
• How children are considered super-spreaders
• Working out what to do in a new relationship under quarantine
• The benefits of a strict lockdown
• Maintaining a healthy diet at this time
• Going easy on yourself if you're not always eating healthily
• Celebrate the nice things every day
• Try to plan your meals but don't overdo it – work with what you have
• Managing anxiety in this new normal
• The importance of movement for mental health
• Getting outside if you can and getting enough sleep
• Taking this opportunity to try new things
• All the online learning and connection possibilities with the pandemic happening now
• Staying sociable remotely to stay well

You can find out more about Dr Orlena:

Websites | drorlena.com, snotty-noses.com, happyhealthyeatingforkids.com

Linkedin, Twitter

You can also listen to Orlena's Fit and Fabulous Podcast

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

In this laughter-filled and very inspiring interview with the lovely Christie Glascoe, author, editor, screenwriter, creative coach, and professional life-lesson-learner, we talk and giggle about:

• Life under lockdown
• How people are approaching social distancing
• The speed at which things are changing
• Getting news from all over the world
• Day to day life in Atlanta
• Printing out permits to go outside in Paris
• The need to cooperate to make isolation last less time
• How isolation is easier for folks who usually work from home
• Dressing up from the waist up
• But it's not so easy to work from home
• Changes that will hopefully become permanent after coronavirus
• The possibilities of this sucky experiment
• How the possibilities of reinventing next chapters are now being thrown at us
• How the environment is improving because we are staying home
• Does Mother Nature have a grand plan to keep us at home?
• How the earth is cleansing and we have the chance to do that to
• Rethinking everything as creativity blooms
• How we can all be creative especially now
• The taboo of therapy in the Black community
• Using writing/journalling as therapy
• How the pandemic is a great social leveller
• Having more time and what to do with it
• No longer having reasons for not having enough time
• The opportunity to tap into the talents we'd forgotten we had
• The forgotten Generation X and how we get lost between millennials and boomers
• How millennials will never survive the zombie apocalypse
• The huge value of old school skills combined with tech knowledge
• What creative adulting means
• Living our best lives within our own capabilities not someone else's
• Being youlo instead of jlo
• Getting your story out into the world
• Not putting ourselves last on our own list
• How taking care of ourselves is not selfish
• Getting creative about being creative
• Making the most of this time to realize a dream
• Doing something positive in the midst of all this negativity
• Making something that will carry beyond this crisis

You can find out more about Christie:

Website | chatterboxchristie.com

Linkedin, Instagram , Twitter

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

An inspiring and uplifting interview with Helen Wills, a lifestyle blogger and midlife mum of teenagers. She originally started a blog in the voices of her children but as they grew older she's found her own voice including just starting a podcast! She's usually to be found wearing yellow or pink and is a whole lot of fun. We recorded this interview a week before the full coronavirus lockdown in the UK.

We talk about:

• Looking after a child with diabetes under the coronavirus lockdown
• Coping with teenagers at home during lockdown when they want to go out
• Struggling with setting boundaries during lockdown
• Working from home when there are kids around
• Taking it all one day at a time and being gentle
• In time lockdown will just be a blip on the landscape
• How to harness your anxiety as a family to enable coping strategies
• Doing what we need to do to protect the vulnerable including those with invisible vulnerabilities
• Dealing with the uncertainty of diabetes and other diseases
• Tips for working from home
• Our modern day dependence on wifi
• Managing distractions when trying to work from home
• Social distancing and how not to do it
• The lack of social distancing on TV
• Thinking beyond the panic of this unprecedented situation
• Being separated from adult children
• Helping older parents during this time
• Using technology to get through isolation
• How older people can be scared of technology
• Ageing and technology, and not allowing ourselves to become digital dinosaurs
• Having to relearn how to do things
• How everything you need to know, you can learn on the internet
• How learning new skills can be great for maintaining brain health
• Finding nice comfortable shoes not ugly sandals
• How to stop being invisible
• How marketers don't segment over 50
• How older women are ignored when it comes to advertising
• How we get more diverse as we get older not less
• It's important to represent our age bracket in a positive light
• Helen's new podcast called Teenage Kicks
• Providing advice for parents of teens because there wasn't much available
• Finding hope for dealing with difficult teens, from the experiences of adults who had problems when they were teens
• Feeling reassured that the pandemic will end and life will be fine

Helen's Blog: 10 Ways to Cope with Coronavirus Anxiety

You can find out more about Helen:

Websites | actuallymummy.co.uk spaceinyourcase.com

Linkedin, Instagram , Twitter

A return visit from the amazing Jo Moseley. Since we spoke in Season 1, Jo has completed a North of England coast to coast stand-up paddle board challenge, becoming the only woman ever to have done this at the tender age of 54. I'm so inspired by this woman and I know you'll love catching up with her adventures.

We talk about:

• How Jo doesn't consider herself a sporty person but loves to move
• How she set herself the challenge of stand-up paddle-boarding from Liverpool to Goole, 162 miles across the country
• How she ended up paddle-boarding at the Chelsea Flower Show and the fun she had there
• The importance of not taking yourself too seriously
• Being open to possibility
• Feeling the fear and doing it anyway
• Living a simple but brave life
• Envisaging a future version of ourselves and wondering what they would do or say
• How Jo trained for such a big challenge
• How she used visualization and self talk to inspire herself to keep going
• The importance of believing in yourself
• How telling everyone what she was going to do helped her actually do it
• How adrenaline carried her through the atrocious weather
• Picking up litter as she paddle-boarded
• Making friends online
• Finding help in unexpected places
• Inter-generational understanding and friendship- millenials and midlifers
• The gift of learning from younger people
• Moving beyond being fearful of life
• The importance of making the very most of life
• How the death of friends focuses the mind on how short and precious life is
• Being grateful for having the chance to try these big challenges
• Moving on from a time when just getting out of bed was hard
• Being recognized having been on the telly
• Wanting to share her story to help other women feel better

You can find out more about Jo on her website and Instagram at healthyhappy50, and on Twitter as @OneHappyRower and @HealthyHappy50

Part 1 of Jo on the podcast is Episode 3.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

Nadine Kelly was a medical doctor for many years but gave it up to be a yoga instructor. She has a fascinating story to tell about why she did that and how she lives her life now.

In this inspiring and moving interview we talk about:

• Why Nadine moved from being a medical doctor to teaching yoga
• Building a different kind of life after leaving the system when medicine became more of a business
• How Nadine is driven by respect for elders and what they have brought to her life
• Taking a holistic approach to health and wellness rather than just focusing on curing illness
• Why Nadine now focuses her work on older people
• Combining medical knowledge with yoga practice to provide a well-rounded experience
• What Nadine liked about pathology
• Adapting a yoga practice to make it accessible for all bodies
• Slowing things down in all aspects of our lives
• Breaking the myths associated with doing yoga
• No pain no gain is nonsense, but no strain no gain makes sense
• The passion and importance of life-long learning
• Moving beyond limiting beliefs and letting go of perfectionism
• If you're struggling with something, ask yourself what you're trying to prove
• Learning to be enough
• Talking about death and grief with her friend
• How we can learn from everybody
• The power of diet and lifestyle changes in extending life with a cancer diagnosis
• Holding space and being present to enable someone to tell their story
• Wanting to help people and have an impact
• How we both hate small talk
• Ageing is a beautiful natural process and gifts come with time
• We short-change ourselves by not seeing the beauty of ageing
• What Nadine has learnt from podcasting

And lots more!

Find out more about Nadine, her work and her podcast on her website.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

Buckle up for a fabulous interview with Janine Queenin and Nicole Markel, hosts of the Messy Middle Roadtrip Podcast.

In this fascinating and very wide-ranging interview we talk about almost everything under the sun from perimenopause to travel, from toxic products to being a ninja warrior! And all things midlife in between.

We cover

• How Janine and Nicole came up with the concept and the name for their podcast, Messy Middle RoadTrip Getting beyond the invisibility of getting older and the embarrassment of menopause Changing society's narratives around our worship of youth How midlife women are a huge untapped sector of society How we can sometimes make ourselves invisible by our poor self-talk Fighting against the urge to step back Starting new businesses in midlife Disconnecting through travel Eliminating toxicity from the products we use everyday Finding inspiration for a business in illness Defeating psoriatic arthritis and improving psoriasis through eating clean, using clean products and lifestyle changes, rather than medication How labels can in be incredibly misleading Regulations on products are woefully inadequate and worse in the US than in Europe How the term fragrance can be used to hide a multiple of nasty ingredients In the US only 11 harmful ingredients are banned. In Europe the figure is 1300! How hormonal changes in midlife can highlight issues that need to be dealt and it's important to listen to our bodies How stress can create a perfect storm of factors leading to ill health How positive natural solutions can be massively transformative The importance of not letting disease define you Trial and error in starting a business and not wanting to have a boss any more The importance of thinking about the environment when it comes to travelling The prevalence of greenwashing – making environmental claims that cannot be backed up How product formulations change when the small business sells out to a bigger company The impact of laundry detergent on skin The impact of inhaling vapours from synthetic cleaning products especially at home when it's cold outside The importance of checking labels on products The impact of the toxic body buildup of ingredients on fertility and other issues including our experience of menopause The amazing things midlife women are doing and that they talk about on the Messy Middle Roadtrip podcast How little we know about teenager's lives The spirit of midlife women and their willingness to share The importance of talking about health issues in particular The power behind owning your story and being proud of it

And lots more!

Find out more about Janine and Nicole, their work and the fabulous Messy Middle Road Trip podcast on their website.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

This is a special New Year's Day episode solo with Rachel. She's in contemplative mood, after a decade in review exercise and looks back at the last year, sharing three big things from 2019:

• The podcast itself
• A year of not buying any new clothing
• Christmas spent caring for the homeless with charity Crisis at Christmas

She talks about how we may all want to move forward into the new decade, finding our purpose either with a small or a capital P, but certainly feeling more fulfilled.

She encourages us all to dream big!

Marie Forleo's Decade in Review

My Year Not Buying New Clothes

Crisis

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Find out how to leave a review here: bit.ly/leavepodcastreview

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?

I interview Jennifer Louden, a personal growth pioneer who helped launch the concept of self-care with her first best-selling book The Woman's Comfort Book.

Brené Brown has this to say about Jennifer: "Jennifer shows you how to live with more courage and greater intention and how to embrace the truth that you are enough right now."

In this insightful episode we talk about:

• Being a self care pioneer
• Saying yes to everything
• Staying fit and starting to run in midlife
• Moving beyond the fear of falling
• How running is good for maintaining bone density, mood and longevity
• The importance of staying mobile
• The importance of making what we want in life
• Why it can be good to be suspicious of self care
• How self care can help get you more in touch with your values and how you want to live – not the bath salts!
• Taking the time to show up in the world
• Claiming and sharing our voices
• Making commitments to ourselves and sticking to them as we would to those made to others
• The importance of retreat in midlife and the discomfort of slowing down to do that
• How looking deeply inside can be scary
• What stops us from getting our scary sh*t done
• Tips to get your scary sh*t done

And lots more!

Find out more about Jennifer and her work on her website.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, share it and maybe leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening. Thank you!

Find out how to leave a review here.

You can find out more information and get the show notes to every episode at magnificentmidlife.com. That's also where you'll find strategies, support and resources to help make your midlife magnificent. There's a midlife wellness program, courses, midlife mentoring to help make the most of your next chapter and our online Members Club. If not now, when?