What does the term ageing well mean to you? Is it looking good, feeling great, having plenty of energy or still being driven and focused into your twilight years?

Society often drives home the message that ageing well is all about looking young. They feed the belief that ageing well is a purely aesthetic quality, having wrinkle-free skin and looking like you are in your 20s.

The fact is, ageing well is more, much more than this. It is a whole holistic package. It is of course how you look to some extent but also how you feel, behave and what you believe.

Someone can be 25 going on 85 if they have the wrong mental attitude, no matter how young they look. Whereas, someone in their 80s can have the mental attitude of a 30-year-old and can still come across as young and vibrant.

Menopause can be a highly stressful time for many women. It is a stage in life that brings much transition and there are many symptoms women will need to confront, emotional as well as physical.

During this period in a woman's life, which can be anywhere from their mid-forties to mid-fifties, they need to pay attention to what is happening in their mind and body. Many of the symptoms of peri menopause and menopause can mimic other conditions so it is important to understand your body and the symptoms you are presenting with.

There are many amazing tips for spring cleaning your mind, body and soul that can totally transform your life.

In the same way that you clean your home and prepare for the warmer months ahead after winter has passed, you can cleanse your mental and emotional state by cleaning your whole self.

This is the time of new beginnings, everything is starting to reappear after the dormant winter months, flowers are blooming, temperatures are rising and emotionally and mentally, you probably feel brighter and more positive.

What better time then is there than now to give your mind, body and soul a good clean?

Many people approaching retirement will be filled with joy at the thought of never working again but there are many others who will find the transition very difficult and will be looking for ways how to stop feeling lost after retirement.

woman sitting crossed leg with cup of tea

Retirement is often seen as being a time in life when you can start to kick back, slow down and take your golden years easy. If you have worked full-time until your retirement, the thought of being able to do what you like when you like can be liberating, to say the least.

Why then do many people struggle when they retire and find it a difficult transition?

Retirement can come with many new adjustments to life, and this is where some can find themselves feeling lost as they start to negotiate this new chapter.

Shame is a very coming emotion for humans but can cause great suffering and pain. We often feel it as an unpleasant, disturbing sensation in the pit of our stomach. It is often related to a sense of failure or the thought that we have done something immoral or embarrassing.

It is a complex emotion that will feel different to each person but is an emotion that everyone will have experienced in their lives. Many people can carry shame around with them for many years. Situations from when they were children can still cause them to feel shame many years later.

black and white image woman

We will all react to shame in our own way, and we can all experience it for different reasons. The one thing that many people will have in common is their desire to know how to change their thinking about shame.

Let’s be honest no matter how we sugar coat it, it isn’t easy getting older, and the big milestones, seem even more daunting. Changes that occur in our body can make us start to think about ageing and our own mortality. Those little aches and pains we get, joint stiffness when we move, and our eyesight deteriorating can all be depressing signs that we are getting older.

Newly divorced, separated or bereaved and starting your life again on your own can be overwhelming. All of the couples things that you used to take for granted, dining out, holidays, always having a plus one may now have ended but that doesn’t mean that your life has. Navigating through can certainly have its hard moments but there are ways that you can get through and come out much stronger.

One thing that we all need to be aware of in life, is that there are going to be times when it really sucks, times when we seem to just keep getting knocked down and don’t seem to be able to get up. These feelings are going to happen to everyone at some time in life, no one will escape them. Life is all about positive and negative experiences. What we need to know is how to deal with them when it happens, how to face up to living when it feels like you are falling apart.

It isn’t just people who suffer from SAD (seasonally adjusted disorder) who suffer from winter blues. For many people, the winter months can prove to be a source of unhappiness and lethargy, that can leave them feeling depressed, unmotivated, and unhealthy. With shorter days, less natural light, and colder weather it can mean that even the most positive person can have days where they feel a bit blah!!

We all know the scenario, you wake up and before you even check your clock, you know that it’s going to be 3.00 am and that you will then spend the next hour or so, tossing and turning, trying to get back to sleep, all the while your brain will be ruminating on all of the things that you really don’t want to be thinking about. Everyone will have been in this situation at some time or another but why does it happen? And what can we do to stop it from becoming a regular pattern?

Even though we now live in an age where we have more time-saving devices than ever before, many of us never have enough time and the time that we do have is spent in a whirlwind. The time-saving devices have meant that we take on more and more commitments and, as a result, our lives have become more hectic.

Instead of revelling in having more quality time to enjoy doing what we love, we often find ourselves bemoaning the fact that we don’t have enough time which leaves many of us stressed and unhappy.

Who remembers sitting in their bedroom when they were younger, writing in their diary. Writing down all of that was going on in life; who said what, who did what, and most importantly, how you felt about it all.

Childhood diaries encapsulated our personalities; stickers of our favourite pop stars. actors or celebrities, written in multi-coloured ink with drawings inside; or diaries with a lock and key so nosey siblings couldn't go peeking to see what had been written.

Self-worth, one of those buzz words that we hear so often now, but what exactly does it mean? There seem to be so many “self” words, from self-worth, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-care, that it is hard to distinguish one from another.

Self-worth comes from within, it is an internal sense of being that is achieved by acquiring self-love, self-acceptance, and self-understanding.

At different times in our lives, we are all required to take risks; without them, there can be no real growth in life. This ability to take risks and step outside of our comfort zone can change our lives in many ways.

For many though, the mere thought of stepping out of their comfort zone brings about severe anxiety which leaves them rooted in the same place in life.

From time to time, we’ve all had that feeling, a sinking sensation in the pit of our stomach when we realize that we have done something wrong; forgotten someone’s birthday, spent too much money on a purchase, made an excuse to not socialize with a friend, usually harmless occurrences, but they leave us feeling guilty none the less. Guilt, a powerful emotion that we have in life that can overtake us at times.

We are often led to believe in life that following a certain path and achieving set goals will give us everything that we want and that this will lead to us being happy as if in some way, happiness is a goal to be reached, an endpoint in life. This is not what being happy is about. Happiness is not some final destination or something to be earned once you have put in the hard work, happiness is about living, day to day doing things that you love, that bring you satisfaction, and things that you want to be doing.

We will all have many varied relationships during our lifetime, from school to work to home life and social life. These relationships will bring us joy and sorrow, will be complex and long-lasting, fun and fleeting. They will see us through the good times and the bad times of our lives.

We live in a society where we are led to believe that there are certain markers we should hit by a certain age; finishing school, college, getting your first job and meeting your life partner usually by your late 20s. Then marriage, family, buying a home, career advancement by your late 30’s. Life up until this point is all mapped out. We are programmed from an early age to follow this formula to bring us success and happiness, and to set us up for our later years, with a family we can rely on as we get older, financial security as we retire, and all the trappings of the world that we live in.

When people think of investment their minds will go straight to shares, hedge funds, property, or business. These are the areas in life that people tend to place real value on when it comes to investing short-term for long-term gain. The reason generally is, that people value wealth and material possessions above everything else. For many, it’s a way of showing their worth, other people can see how far they have come.