When someone we love is dying, we want to do all we can for them. We want to care for them in the best way we can. But often we feel inadequate, unsure, and scared that we ‘won’t do it right’. The reality is that things are never going to be perfect, and whatever you will have done, you will have done the best you can. You will have.

A few days ago, someone asked me what advice I would give to someone who was about to lose someone. Here are ten suggestions I have based on my own experiences of being with people at the end of life.

My book:  50 Things to Help when Life Changes can be found on my website and on Amazon

You can find out more about my offerings at archeus.nz

What I've got for you in this episode of The Soul Garden: conversations for Midlife Living, is a guided meditation that I have recorded and called Vessel of Peace.

I wrote and recorded this meditation for a client, but after listening to it she suggested Ishare it with others. So like a stone dropped into water, my hope is its medicine will ripple out to others too.

This is a meditation for those times that we need a bit of healing. Maybe we’ve gone through a medical intervention. Maybe we have had a relationship change, a loss. Maybe we are just feeling lost ourselves and need something to help us regain our equilibrium. My hope is that this meditation is for any midlife woman who may be feeling any of these things.

Increasingly these days I find myself thinking of the words of the medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen, who lived in the 12th century in Germany. She said, whatever we think and feel on the inside becomes the world we create around us. So for me, the words ‘vessel of peace’ move beyond just peace and the sense of self, but ripple out to become the world we create around us.

I invite you to get comfortable and give yourself 20 minutes for this meditation and maybe if you like it you may know somebody else who may like it too and I invite you to share it with them also so whoever you are wherever you are.

Take a beautiful, nourishing breath.

Get ready.

Get relaxed.

And let the meditation begin.

You can find my offerings at archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving

“Forget about menopause,” my guest on this episode, Dr. Wendy Sweet, urges us to focus on ageing, and the issue of ‘inflammaging’”.

I caught up with Dr. Wendy Sweet, founder of the hugely successful My Menopause Transformation, online lifestyle-change programs for Peri to Post-Menopause for symptom reduction, weight loss and fitness.

We first connected about six years ago, over a pot of the hormone-free natural balm I make for vulvovaginal dryness, and it was great to reconnect again.

Her programmes are helping women around the world, and in this interview she touches on some of the reasons why.

After many years of researching women’s health and the impacts of the menopause transition on our physiology and wellbeing, Wendy bucks the trend of ideas of the way we should exercise and eat at this time of life.

Wendy believes the answer to good health in our postmenopausal years doesn’t lie in focusing on weight training and protein, but rather on a more moderate approach to exercise, a solid understanding of the foods that help us at this time of life, and the importance of getting a good night’s sleep. This approach can help us reduce inflammation and open the door to an active and empowered ageing after menopause.

Personally, I love to talk with someone who is donkey deep in the science of a topic and right on top of the latest research around it. It’s clear that Wendy has a deep understanding of the changes we go through as women in midlife.

I hope you enjoy what she has to say, and perhaps go further and take a look at her website, mymenopausetransformation.com

You can find my range of natural products for midlife and beyond at archeus.nz.

You can find my offerings at archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving

As someone with a soulful approach to life, but who never really thought of themselves as a religious person; and as someone who tends to shy away from belonging to anything (apart from this beautiful natural world), I have found myself the bearer of a new definition, that of being an ordained interfaith minister. I’m now officially a Reverend.

And that’s taking a little getting used to. But I’m loving the inner alchemy that’s happening for me at the moment as I go through this ‘settling in’ process.

And what’s more you see, I love words. I love writing, and as such this can make me fumble and find myself at a loss as I seek to get hold of the perfect words to describe something. And this something is me as a freshly minted interfaith minister.

What does being an interfaith minister mean to me, a woman who has always found her spiritual sustenance in Nature? Why did I go on this two year interfaith seminary training with the OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in the UK?

Well the answer has to do with things like fluency, connection, soul path, lineage and good old fashioned curiosity. It’s about creating a sense of spiritual ecology and how that might help with self-care in a changing world. It’s about what the dying have shown me about spiritual peace, and dilemma, at the end of life.

It helped to speak some of this out loud and so this episode of The Soul Garden is a poke and prod at the wondering about what an interfaith minister is.

My heartSfelt thanks to my tutors and fellow cohort at OneSpirit for this two year journey. And a deep bow of gratitude to the poet Mary Oliver for always managing to have the right words, when one can’t find them oneself.

This week in the Soul Garden, I am reflecting on the tyranny of the And. What it is, what it does to us, and how we might be able to turn that around with some soul searching and the power of No. For solopreneurs, freelancers, consultants this may resonate. For women in midlife, thinking about how we can work with the menopause transition to gain clarity around our true purpose and the things that serve us well can be a powerful time for deep transformation.

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archeus.nz

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Facebook @ArcheusNaturalLiving
Youtube @ArcheusGeorgina

In this episode of The Soul Garden we explore natural perfumery and working with ancient cosmological concepts in the approach to creating aromatic portraits of ancient mystics and modern day perfume lovers.

You can find my offerings at archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving

In this episode of The Soul Garden, Georgina Langdale reflects on a book by Thomas Moore, The Eloquence of Silence - surprising wisdom in tales of emptiness.

You can find my offerings at archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving

The hormonal changes women experience as they go through menopause can lead to vaginal dryness, which is not a topic many people are keen to talk about. But over the past decade Georgina has been developing and making natural products to support women through menopause and other transitions, and has spoken to women and health professionals about this painful condition. In this episode she talks about the problem, what makes it happen, what not to do, and what may help.

NatFem Balm can be purchased at https://archeus.nz/

Courses | Coaching
georginalangdale.com
Instagram @georginalangdalesoul
Facebook @georginalsoul

NatFem Botanics | Perfume |Plant Essences:
Archeus Apothecary
archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving
Facebook @ArcheusNaturalLiving
Youtube @ArcheusGeorgina

The Leo Full Moon is here and what better time to do a Love Meditation. Get comfy and let's get started.

You can find my offerings at archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving

When life changes and someone we love, or maybe its us, is given bad news, we need to dig deep to find ways through it all. In this episode I share with you how recent bad news within my own family prompted me to write a book to offers ways to help those I love navigate the times we find ourselves in. 

You can find my offerings at archeus.nz

Instagram: @ArcheusNaturalLiving