Watch out! You're being 'stylishly' manipulated

A freelance woman journalist called me last week to get my help in finding 'subjects' 'case histories' for an article she'd had commissioned by a well known women's magazine, aimed at women over forty but probably nearer 50 and over.

The article was about 10 women who'd experienced some change in their life this year... and how it had happened. She wanted to do a story on someone who'd used my services and had some kind of change...I offered her two women who'd been on my courses and who'd had pretty powerful awakenings.

One was a 53 yer old woman - let's call her Viv - who attended the Pulling Power course and then went on to do the MythoSelf weekend I run twice a year [a more intensive personal development weekend that is designed to help people who get there is more to life and who are ready to take that next step into becoming who they truly are]. She's woken up from a dark patch when she was 17 stone... now lost most of it..and is ready to begin a new adventure... she definitely had some great personal shifts as a result of attending my course.

The other was a 54 year old woman - whom I'll call Sally - who'd been on my 'How to Attract YourPerfect Relationship' course and was now experiencing all kinds of synchronicities and opportunities in her life including attracting very different men. She'd also been inspired by the course to take off to the States and follow her dream of becoming a screenplay writer writing a story of her dating adventures.

The journalist, who is herself in her fifties was delighted and told me she'd suggest the case histories to the editor.

Both women were rejected as case histories....I was told the reason was because the first one was 17 stone [sadly the journalist had mis-understood what I said about her having lost most of it] and the second one had been married 3 times.

With all due respect to the journalist who realised what was happening, I was pretty shocked that there appears to be a policy in magazines to feature people who look good.

I've had this happen before... if someone doesn't 'look good' then they dont' want to photograph them. If someone's been married 3 times it's too many.

She's just got had the great realisation about who she was choosing to attract and why it wasn't going to be like that again. And yet they were judging her on the fact that she'd been married 3 times.

We're being stylised. The glossies are at it again... which is why I'm still looking for someone to create a magazine like the US winner 'More' for baby boomers and women over forty which features Jamie Lee Curtis on the front cover.. and her comments about why she chose to pose with all her cellulite and more ample figure...in 2002.

She said 'I did it for all those women that I'd been party to making feel less than they were'. She got it. We set up stylised ideals and then convince people that this is how life is... that all women are slim, good looking and pleasing to the eye. We make a cult of celebrity body and we're not it.. and never can be... all we can do is become healthy and make the most of our potential..

Find out here how I lost 18 lbs by alkalising, energising and revitalising my body.

We're perpetuating an image that isn't how most women are. And I know that someone would say well 'they're setting ideas for us to aim to'.. I'm not so sure. I think we're getting just what the magazines are..

a glossed over version of life...

I'd like to see stories about women who are successful who aren't great looking, but have made the most of who they are... and women who have been married heaps of times and now know better.... this is who we are becoming... more than we were...

How about you?

I specialise in but not exclusively working with women over forty to help them find new direction as they approach the most potent time of their lives.... and it's my aim to help women recognise that they can do anything they want no mattter how they were or have been in the past....

Life doesn't begin at fifty.. it begins every moment you live NOW...

For more information on my personal empowerment coaching sessions check out this link on my website.....

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Full Frontal Ahead...Life begins NOW!

My friend Carol emailed me the other day reminding me it'’s been a year since we last met. Carol and I hooked up when we were both 15 yr old nubile middle class public school girls. We were working the same Saturday job as sales-girls in an up-market trendy shoe shop on the King'’s Road in London SW3. The Kings Road was an '‘in'’ place to work and Carol and I had many wild adventures mostly throughout our teens into our late twenties.…

It was a time of easy and very loose living.. but those deliciously lurid and hilarious details are being stockpiled in cellar of memories.. for my autobiography

I like to think of those times as the '‘decade of extreme decadence'.’ Carol and I drifted apart when I went to live in Portugal with the brilliant but alcoholic bass guitarist from T Rex - He died, I returned to the UK and last saw Carol at her wedding in the late 80'’s. But 3 years ago we discovered by chance that we were living close by.

And we started to hang out again, short emails here, the odd lunch in the pub, And boy did we rock! It was like we were 20 again. One of the things I love about Carol is her icy wit and sharp repartee..and when we get together we spend time looking back on all the wicked things we did and laughing till our bellies ached..it sets us up for a positive discussion about all the great things that are waiting for us NOW

But sometimes people look back for reasons other than to remember the best times!!!

Sometimes people spend far too much time looking back and yearning for all that was not and can'’t ever hope to be and what was and is no more and THAT'’S DOWNRIGHT DANGEROUS!!!

It'’s very different from remembering all the good times and re-experiencing those moments of joy, excitement, awe, delight, sheer terror, anticipation, achievement, risks as well as petranquility and tranquillity... and really having a full on embodied experience of how good you feel because when you're like that it's simply delicious and as a Doctor of Philosophy via the School of Life.. I prescribe it to everyone...

Look back, laugh, feel the best of the best times and then get your ass on back to now! Peta

It's so much more fun and healthier and positive than looking back and missing, longing, yearning for, wishing if only, kicking yourself for missed opportunities. THAT SUCKS!

And if you do start to notice un-useful patterns... be nice to yourself and instead of beating yourself up simply say 'okay- I just did that.. I get it..' and let it go. Simple awareness is the first step to dissolving not so useful patterns... and I'’ll talk more in later blogs about how our patterns of the past can act as brakes and how we can turn them into accelerators..

What quite a few people haven't got YET is that the past doesn't exist, can'’t be changed is no more... [it reminds me of the Monty Python parrot sketch. This is parrot is dead, snuffed, gone from this world...' ] There ain'’t no Tardis [Dr Who'’s time machine] to take us back and rearrange time and even if you could.. watch The Butterfly Effect and you'll get how trying to control life's events will always lead to results other than the one'’s you tried to engineer.

If only I'’d...

John was 46, single and a client of mine. He'’d come to see me in the hopes of meeting someone...and as usual when I started to work with John his limiting patterns spilled all over the place.. one of his if only moans was how he wished he'’d gone to university instead of doing accountancy.

I told him.. "you know John, you might have been at uni, met a hot babe and on a way to a date with her been knocked down by a bus and snuffed. You can't predict what would have happened.. so why even waste time.. when there's so much to be doing..."

I had to refocus John to how he is when he'’s at his best.. and get him to look forward to the future and the potential... I call it 'attitude re-education'

Personal Empowerment Coaching with Peta - using the MythoSelf-tm process Click here to find out how I can help you move through this stage of your life and find love with someone new or with the one you'’re with. '‘Peta taught me to flirt with life'– Pam Francis - screenplay writer

It takes time to refocus ourselves on what'’s possible cos it's not what we learned to do mostly...but it'’s absolutely vital for all of us to keep our sights on what can be as we move forward towards the second and most glorious stage of our lives... the one where we consolidate all that we'’ve learned and bring back our unique and rich treasures as an offering to the world that has nurtured us,,

You'’re on the greatest journey of all - start living it to the full now

If you'’re familiar with the Hero'’s Journey or even if you're not... I recommend reading this amazing book by the guy who discovered the themes of world mythology and mapped it onto our current way of living. My favourite book of all time Joseph Campbell'’s Reflections on the Art of Living - edited by Diane K Osbon.

But if you're not yet familiar with the hero's journey and you'’ve seen Star Wars - or haven't yet I recommend you buy the trilogy and watch all 3 episodes for the first time or over again.. you'll have an experience of the heroic journey that runs thru all life.

Fact was George Lucas was screwed. He had this great idea for a film and couldn't piece it together. Then he heard about Joseph Campbell - read his book Hero with a Thousand Faces and hired Campbell as a consultant. Result... one of the all time great movies. Why? Because the structure is the structure of how life works. It's familiar to all of us.. but more of that in a later blog.

Understanding how the structure of the heroic journey maps onto your life will make sense of everything that'’s happened to you so far and will give you a real feeling of hope and excitement about the future...

If you'’re in your late forties, fifty and beyond.. and you'’re getting yearnings or feelings of not having accomplished it all...and you're sensing fluctuations and churnings it's not surprising. There is both a biological and a social change going on in you... and you can relax...becausethis is GREAT NEWS!

Pay attention to those yearnings and rumblings and churnings.. and instead of wishing they weren't recognise them as a sign that you are making your way through another door of changeÂ…to a wonderful world..

In case you haven'’t got it yet.. what we experience at this stage of our life is parallel to going through being a teen again... sometimes we can make it just as painful.. BUT we've got one great advantage... which should make it much easier for us when we get it...Unlike our kids, we'’re coming through this change with years of accumulated experience and wisdom even if we haven'’t accessed it all yet...better believe it.. it's all there waiting to be utilised!!!

Until the age of 20ish.. a child'’s brain hasn't fully formed.. The frontal lobes that are able to extend your awareness to future considerations are immature .They can'’t see a way out WE fifties and upcoming fifties have a fully formed set of frontals which means we can go through the experience with an eye to the future...and lots of hope and positive expectation..

And if it seems chaotic at times.. it's OK... sometimes it's good to do nothing...to sit and let it emerge... to relax and let go of knowing how it will turn out.. You've lived long enough to know for sure that you have to be prepared for anything to happen..... life doesn't always check with our plans before it happens

Now is the time for you...to consider who you are...to tune into and resonate with yourself... alongside your awareness that you are part of a family, an organisation, a neighbourhood all communities and that now is the time for you to take your place as an elder of the tribe..group, community...because you have much to offer to heal this modern day world.

Native American tribes do not believe a person is fully mature until they reach the age of fifty. I LIKE this concept...it fits for me.. how about you!!

I'’m going to be guiding people through the journey on the passage into the second part of your life...Gail Sheehy calls women over fifty 'seasoned women'. Her book Sex and the Seasoned Woman is a great read for seasoned women and for seasoned men who want to understand older women!

Because men approaching and into their fifties are as nicely spiced and seasoned as we ladies. We'’re all seasoned beings.. richly ripe, full of flavour, resourceful lywise...and active and healthy..and reaching the age of fifty is significant - we are past the halfway mark...we are ready to accelerate and get going to begin again...

Find out by clicking here how to have exquisite relationships whether you are single or married… learn the real secrets of creating harmony in every relationship you enter into with Peta in an intimate workshop in London W2 Feb 17th and 18th 2007

This blog is about you and I ... 'the new youth' no longer the rash teenager, or the thrive and strive career seeker..but a softer mellower seasoned adult. It's about new beginnings, about emerging into the last part of your life with a sense of rich potential.. because now is the time for the seasoned ones to come into their own...

If you'’re excited about the enormous possibilities that exist for people when they realise their age is a great asset....I'’ll look forward to conversing here with you and please feel free to leave your comments...

smiles

peta

To find the links to the books I recommended by Joseph Campbell, Gail Sheehy and Star Wars the Trilogy go here...

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Do older guys all want younger women?

It's not easy to let go... of the way we were... and it's even harder to let go when you were a babe or a hunk... desired for your physical beauty.... and desiring someone as beautiful as you...

My friend Rob is the same age as me, 54. When he and I met we were both 45. We had the hots for each other.. the physical chemistry was definitely there.. but then we were both sorting for the physical...superficial material things... the trophy man and woman.

He told me over dinner recently that he always went for the best looker in the room and he'd decided I was it.. and I loved men with fit bodies, lots of confidence and a great sense of humour.. I even managed to put him into the 'spiritual' category that's so important for me.. because we'd met on a business NLP course where I was assisting..and he was interested in hypnosis... and he was financially sorted!

I was the Flirt Coach babe with the blonde hair down to my ass..the one who'd been on TV.... the one who everyone noticed because I made myself noticeable... I talked a lot and laughed a lot...and was wild and outrageous sometimes by design. And I was sexy as hell... It's not surprising we'd think we were a match... even though I now know how very much we weren't......

At any given moment we could have slipped over the edge of outrageous flirting and before we knew it we'd have spent a night shagging each other rotten.. we may even have continued to meet secretly and had great sex in fancy hotel rooms... sending each other hot texts..and living with our pants on fire.. whilst pretending to our partners otherwise.. but we didn't...

He'd been hurt before and even though there was trouble in't mill as they say... he wasn't going to do to someone else what he'd had done to him.... I was going through some personal shifts and I knew that my long term relationship didn't really fit any more.. but neither of us were about to do anything about it...yet... and I was faithful...

So that moment passed but Rob and I kept in touch once or twice a year a quick email.. until a couple of years ago.. he contacted me...he was separated from his partner.. going back and forth ... being pulled by her and then pulling free.. living in the Caribbean..r he had a fabulous house on the beach... was making a mint but he was lonely, miserable and drinking too heavily and he'd just turned fifty....

He'd had a few women mostly in Miami where he often hung out... all of them considerably younger than him.. late 20's to mid 30's.. and all of them really sexy.... he was indulging in what most men of that age dream of.. having sex with nubile young girls.... because he could! But he hadn't connected with anyone beyond the bedroom.. he was still lonely as hell...

He'd been married fairly young and had two grown up children...that he'd brought up first on his own and then with his long term partner.. and in a way he was ripe;e for what I'll call 'old guy wild oat syndrome'

He's not the only one... a guy I'd connected with on a dating site.. and with whom I've had a few deep conversations.. about relationship.. and who definitely had the potential for a spiritual connection... wrote me honestly that a part of him wanted to do just what Rob had been doing in Miami... he'd been in a long relationship.. gone back and forth with that... and now he'd met me.. and admitted there was much possibility... yet he still had this yearning to live out the 'youth' he never had...

When a man gets married young, perhaps to his first or second real girlfriend... and then he has kids.. he misses out on the 'chase the girl' games that all his contemporaries are playing sometimes into their thirties..for some that's great.. and they never miss it..but for others... hmmm

My mentor Joseph Riggio says 'Biology rules'... and biology which is wound into the very depths of our DNA says... 'get together with someone.. f 888 like rabbits and make babies'... During these early hormonally charged years..testosterone looks for estrogen... everywhere...we're primed to sniff out prime sexual partners... and rut... and many of us do... with many different partners... and the rest who get hitched early... and then stay together until their late forties... or fifties have spent the best part of 30 years with one person..and then when they split... they're suddenly feeling a sense of freedom... and realise...

The oats got sown.. but only in one carefully ploughed field....

And suddenly the long relationship falls by the wayside and he finds himself out on his own.. and he's already more than halfway through his life... it's not surprising that he wants to catch up while he still can......And he thinks he's got to go back and pick up what he missed....

And that's why you see men of this age, newly out of relationships, sniffing around younger women..... and some of them get married to their nubile baby bearing babes...and start a second or sometimes even the first meaningful relationship and a second family....

And some of them don't!!!!! Some of them are looking for someone their own age to grow old together with... whose pace matches theirs..They are looking for companionship, understanding and deep connection [from which often arises very juicy sex]....

My friend Jennie's partner Tom had been single and divorced for five years when he went onto Dating Direct to look for someone to share his life. In fact he nearly missed Jennie... because she'd fallen prey to the 'they say' stories that try to convince women of fifty that all men want younger women....grrrrr

She'd allowed a friend to persuade her that she should put her age as 49..even though she was 52 because according to this friend men don't search for women over fifty...phooey...

In fact Tom had chosen to be matched with women between 50 and 55.. he was 57... If he hadn't have widened his search on what was going to be the last try for him... he wouldn't have found her....

And then there are those single men who've spent fifty years being single.. had relationships here and there.. lots of women and flirted and fooled around to the point that they're tired... all they want now is to have someone to relax with, to soothe their brow and maybe even give them the children they never had...

Like my friend Simon... He's just turned 50 and has been, by his own admission single for fifty years Simon told me earlier this year that he was looking for a wife.... and now he's met someone... she's 36.. It was lust at first sight and now he's talking about marrying her... after only four weeks.. he's so ready to settle down.... and the chances are he'll start a family too...I only pray that he takes some time to explore before he jumps in too quickly...

While some men regress with age others mature...Sandra 56 and a former corporate manager. has just married Alan ...They met in Ibiza whilst she visiting a friend she'd originally met on a dating site and subsequently become friends with.

Alan and Sandra are the same age..Like many people of our age they'd both been married before and evolved through their marriages. When he and Sandra met he was truly ready and willing to settle down and make a new life with her....Finally at this age they've met the one they hope to be their last soulmate....

Alan said to me when we met for the first time 'I liked doing things on my own.. it just took me time to realise I like doing them with Sandra better'. They love that they both come from the same era.. and they love that when they say 'Pink Floyd' they smile and get it... They are both into shamanism.. he had a business making camping equipment and now he's crafting new age teepees...She has exchanged her corporate suits for hippie skirts and willow weaving..They live in Santa Fe [in a hip hippie location] and visit craft events selling their amazing tepees..

They found each other late in life... and that's evidence that sometimes the best things are yet to come...

So in case you're tempted to believe the stories about all men.. think again... and whether you are a man or a woman...the key is to focus on what you want.... not what you think is available.... because that special person IS out there... and the stronger the signal YOU give out of who you REALLY ARE...the more likely you are to attract the one who's a match and fit for that...

When the man I met on the dating site wrote and told me about what a part of him wanted.. I responded with 'you'd better decide what all of you wants because right now you want what I'm not.. and there's no way I want to be with someone who doesn't want who I am totally and absolutely...

Be true to who you are and he or she will appear.. if it is meant to be...and if not it will be because something else utterly delicious has appeared to engage your energy.. and that is your path...

peta

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

The fabulous journey of life.. daahling

Well it IS fabulous... or fab as we might have said way back in the sixties.....;-) but sometimes it's easy to forget all that... and think about it as a journey... and that being this age is along the same lines of being a teenager.. only very different... because whilst we're both evolving.. and growing... we are doing it with a whole load of wisdom...and the teens are not!!
And if you're having trouble with your teens.. then I know a woman who is doing great work with mums and teens... [more about that in a later blog]

Feeling the Wisdom
I was talking with someone who is much younger than me... who has plans to set up in this field... running courses... not the same as me but different.. and I realised that she thinks she's got it all sewn up.. that she's found the key to perfect happiness...she's cooked, sorted, and yet...she's so NOT... [I do like that slang]... and I realised.... I know more because I've lived more life... not that living longer makes someone wiser... but if along the journey you've learned your lessons and even more powerful..learned from the lessons of others.. then you will be wiser..

and that's one of the blessings of getting older..of moving past the dividing line of half your life... it's that we can claim wisdom.... but if we want to be wise we have to become what we are claiming..... to let go of some of the things we hanker after.... from the past.. that have gone and can never come back.. not how they were... there ain't no Tardis or Time Machine that can do that so why bother... ????

The past is just a concept. The only thing that exists is now.

When we learn to wave goodbye to that and step or rather float.. into the future in our imaginations and see it all happening and then return to here and now and act as if it is all going to turn out for the best.. life gets juicy...

I think that's one of the blessings of having lived a life, sometimes in the very fast lane.... and of being able to let go of wanting anything to be any way other than it is now...

So. how about you....

Are you ready to let go of what was and embrace what's now and maybe new?

To get you gotta let go..

1. Let go of trying to be a babe.. don't compete with younger women whether they're ten years or thirty years younger... It's here baby.. the moment when you can no longer
rely on your looks... to get you what you want..insteat
Start to see the beauty of YOU... the jewel inside...look in the mirror, smile and see your lines turn up into a beautiful portrait of a life well lived.. and still worth living...

2. Let go of competing with how you used to be...i.e. going back into the past, remembering with a whistful sigh and going if only.. this is as bad for you as drinking4 lge G&T's or a 2 bottles of red....
Go ahead and imagine yourself evolved... a wise woman... one who has learned about life, is satisfied and content... and realises her life has been worthwhile.. even in small ways... and sometime smore..

3. Let go of Dieting and Working Out saying things like I want to be thinner, I want to get rid of this fat.. I want to work off a few calories..
Start to say that you're going to Get Fit and Healthy - saying it like that shifts your attitude... and is more useful...

Instead consider taking up things like Yoga or Pilates or one of the gentler more calming martial arts like Tai Chi...swimming...Yoga builds up all your muscles too.. but not just a chosen few.... and as for eating healthier food... that's one of the best things you can do.... IMO [in my opinion of course] I lost 18 lbs and got a lot more energy by drinking the greens...[there's a link to it on the side..]

So what is the journey of life? Find out more in a blog to come....where I'll speak about how to move into the last quarter of your life.. and discover amazing riches...

Recommended Reads
life's journey and words of amazing wisdom on all areas of life.. from a man who died a wise man having followed his journey and bliss...
Reflections on the Art of Living - A Joseph Campbell companion - Edited by Dian K Osbon.
Sex gets better after fifty - Sex and the Seasoned Woman - Gail Sheehy
Letting go and honouring who you are -A Woman's Worth - Marianne Williamson

Baby Boomers demand respect!

A large percentage of the baby-boomer 45+ generation have got plenty of spare cash and like to spend it and that makes us powerful. Ignore us at your peril!

We can make you rich - if you show us the respect we deserve !

We like spending money BUT we are discerning and we've learned a thing or two in our life. Treat us with respect, know our needs and cater to us in a way that works for us and you’ll earn our undying loyalty and our dollars and pounds will be yours.

Turn on Tune in and Rake in our Money!

Sadly, not everyone who is trying to sell to the over fifties has turned on to what we really want ... YET!

This morning awoken by a text arriving at 5.00 am – that’ll teach me to leave the ringer on – I find myself sitting at the computer following a trail that ended with a search on Technorati and Google for keywords for women over fifty.

That's because I offer a life-coaching and relationship mentoring program for women [and men too] from 46 to 64 - culminating with a divinely luxurious personal awakening week in St Lucia - but that's for a later blog. And on my search I found a store website called fifty plus – whose purpose apparently is to sell clothing to people over fifty. To find out how I can help YOU...follow the links on the right hand side of this blog

In my not so humble opinion [IMO], they haven't a clue who their customer is and what they want and I wouldn't buy from them on principle.

Give us the respect our dollar demands!

I won't buy goods from a company who's advertising thermal underwear on a model who is probably not more than 25, with fake tits - one of which is larger than the other. And even worse…she’s not wearing a bra. Every baby boomer woman I know - who hasn’t had her tits done and isn’t still living in hippie-land - wears a bra and wouldn’t dream of going out without one so why show underwear modelled on a braless body? Doh! It’s not what we do!

I want to see divine clothing modelled on people MY age AND I want the models to look normal! Can we please see clothing on different sized and aged women – skinny AND larger forty-five AND over? I want to see what a vest looks like with a bra under it because even though my body is lithe, healthy and fit and do a lot of yoga,eat 60% raw food and drink alkalising green drinks [check out my website for the amazing alkalising green drinks that helped me lose 18lbs! ] my tits are real so they don't hold up on their own as well as they used to!

I don’t see clothing for twenty somethings modelled by fifty year olds so I don’t expect to see clothing for my age group modelled by someone who’s half my age.

At least Saga, which appears to be the only UK magazine that caters for intelligent vital fifty plus people has respect for their readers. They use older models and some of them even have grey hair. But Saga isn't for everyone.. I think there's room for a new magazine that gets who we are!

I love the US based magazine 'More' which features models aged from forty to fifty plus and articles like 'Over-40 style guide' and 'Why 40+women rule Hollywood... finally! Sadly 'More' is only available in the States and there's nothing that compares to it here in the UK? Isn't it enough that I'm doing my bit to help men and women over fifty juice themselves up and have a life again??? Do I have to start a magazine too???

What I want to see is a hot, sexy, intelligent UK magazine for the 45+ intelligent, youthful, freedom loving baby boomers - please!

I know there's someone out there who wants to start a magazine that is designed for us to give us what we want. A magazine by people over forty five FOR people over forty five. And I'm sending that thought out into the universe with a full on rocket sized desire!

And now for a small commercial break. If, like me, you're into spiritual evolution, and personal growth, you'll love the spiritual cinema circle. I don't affiliate with many people but these films delivered to my door each month are stunning.

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Be big and be bold and we'll love you for ever..

And here's one final [for now] item for the 'respect us or lose us' wish list. Use bigger typefaces! If you’re aiming a site at a group of people, it’s quite useful to know a bit about them. And the fact is that most people in their mid to late forties and over who had normal near 20/20 vision, need reading glasses to read small type. AND we don't like having to put them on to ready everything that's out there.

So if by some miracle I find a site that is in a typeface I can read... I get excited... I feel cared for. I say to myself ‘these people are thinking of me’…it’s like seeing the chocolate on the pillow in a hotel or encountering the smiling doorman who uses your name or the check-out girl who remembers you probably won’t want a plastic bag because you like to do your thing for the environment... and who also remembers that your memory does have lapses and that you might sometimes forget your hemp bag and need to use the plastic!

Top of my fifty-friendly list this week is the Italian restaurant in Hertfordshire [I'll publish details in a later blog] who get that their most valued clients are in their mid forties to over fifty. They give away a credit card size magnifier cleverly printed with the restaurants contact details. These guys know who puts olive oil on their ciabatta and they treat them with the respect they're due!

And if they offered a large print menu as well as the magnifier then I’d love them even more and talking of food...

Find out how I lost 18 lbs - by changing the way I eat and drink...

Join my campaign to make the world more fifty-friendly!

Are you fifty-friendly? Do you know a service or organisation who is?I'd like to sing their praises from the rooftops of my far reaching blog.

Add a comment and post a link. Do you know someone who serves our age group and like the fifty plus clothing company doesn't tailor their stuff to us in the best possible way? Let's begin to expose them and hopefully encourage them to tailor to us or lose us!

Be fabulous, Be fun, Be fit and enjoy your Freedom...Fifty is the new Youth!

peta - 54 and three quarters ;-)

Fifty is the New Youth

Fifty is the new 'youth' market

Well...That's what my 'trend oracle' tells me and he's No 1 in his field in advertising. He's spent a career noticing trends.. These people make it their business to know what's happening in the market so that they can plan ahead..and he thinks that more and more providers of services will begin to realise that we are an important market...

In short the fabulous fifties are hip and ready to rock and roll into the best years yet..just like Richard Branson who is one of my favourite exemplars that's me with him in the pic - he used to come into my restaurant in the 70's and we renewed our acquaintance a couple of years ago.. at the British Superbikes grand prix

Finding new purpose after fifty
If you're like me you've spent enough time in the game of life to have a good measure of success in your career and now you're aware that there's more. You are evolving. I made a success as the Flirt Coach and now I'm thinking... I want to work with people of my own age, singles, divorced, couples who want to make their fifties as memorable as their halcyon days ONLY MORE SO....

You might be asking questions like 'how else can I make an impact ?'. You may have brought up kids - with a partner or on your own - and they're making their own tracks in the world.... more or less.. ;-) and you're asking yourself.. What's my purpose now that they're going their independent ways..?

Changing bodies
I had a big turn around at 52.. it all hit me. I split with my partner and suddenly after 20 years in relationship I was single. I got thin then I got fatter. And I realised that my body really was a temple. I'd said it was years ago.. but did I treat it like one NO WAY. But as my body started to change I got.. help! This is the ONLY one I'm getting in THIS life!
You're probably beginning to get how important it is to take care of your precious and potentially fit and lithe and beautifully healthy body.. you may be thinking about changing your diet, getting more exercise... or continuing to do more of what already works.. You are aware of changes and you may be finding it a bit challenging to realise you're just not the same as you were when you were 30 or even 40..

Click here to find out how I lost 18 lbs - by changing the way I eat and drink..and embracing yoga.

You realise you have every chance of living longer.. but you want to be healthy.
This is what happened to me... I was and still am working on a book proposal for my publishers and I realised I had to research...I started to think about getting fit..and changing the way I eat.. and what I can do to take care of myself..so that I enjoy the rest of my life.. and I started to take bio-identical hormones [more of that in another blog]

Hurricanes and Earthquakes - Staying in your centre
This is also an age where upheavals knock our world for six.. at first....We might lose a long term partner because andro and meno pauses do cause people to act irrationally...!!

Sometimes we get kicked out of a job... or our partner does...and suddenly everything is different... You're out there and the raft has broken up.. and you're.. facing the tides of life.... this is survival and revival time. Scary stuff... and we thought it was all so secure... hmmmm but when we get that this is a blessing..oooh... it can be brilliant..

After survival comes revival.... The forest fire destroys the entire forest and we go 'oh no' but the forest knows and if it could speak it would say . 'this is how it is.....for the new to emerge we have to let go of the old..'

Ask anyone who's come through a major life event like losing a loved one through death or divorce or had the security of a regular income suddenly removed..AND because of all that, not in spite of.. they have moved on. They'll tell you it was the greatest thing that ever happened.. that it made them sit up and examine about what their life is all about and want to make something of it. When this happens it's an opportunity to eliminate all the old doo doo and start again emerging as the new you into ...

The age of fun - even hedonism, conscious capitalism, freedom and a chance to have it all AGAIN!

This is the time to reinvent yourself.. to let the NEW YOU..emerge... feeling young, active and excited.. with all the benefits of half a lifetime of experience..and

• Changing .. for the better...
• Getting to know and crystallising who you really are
• Realising that you have much to offer the world
• Discovering a new sense of purpose
• Acknowledging and harnessing your wisdom.
• Allowing yourself... to simply be you...and blossom again..

This can be the greatest time of your life... a time for you to make use of your skills and experience in a way that benefits everyone and that you love...

A good question for you is...

How can I find renewed purpose in my life? What's next for me?

If you are single it's time for you to attract a relationship based on respect, and mutual evolution...

A good question for you is...

How do I have to be to co-create the kind of relationship I want..?

and if you're partnered it's time for you to review and renew what works in your life as a couple and evolve your relationship to the next stage.... whatever that is..Your question is

What do we both want for this relationship and where do we go from here?

I'm on a mission to motivate and ignite and incite you to go for it all...

If you want to join me on this journey to discover all the wonders of ripening and maturing and evolving..and how you can have an impact, enter into exquisite relationships and feel alive again...

I'll be commenting on and provoking you around all manner of things from the perspective of being this age..and please.. accept this provocation to share the benefit of YOUR wisdom...in the comments here..

Check out my links to the right of this blog... to find out how I can help you..

peta

"When you stand in that sliver of space that is completely and utterly you.. then will you be magnificent, awesome, wonderful!" Joseph Riggio - my mentor www.josephriggio.com