SEXAGENERIAN WOMEN ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD
Or so it would seem......
Dear lovely readers
I hope this edition of the newsletter finds you well? And you are ready for the gradual decline into Autumn as September is staring us in the face? There is a chance we may have an Indian Summer before then, but given how this summer has fared, that’s unlikely. But one can hope….
But what has brought me hope recently, is how many wonderful women there are that have crossed my radar recently who are aged 60 and above. These are women who are often in positions of influence and are just getting on with what they’re doing. Their age isn’t an issue and they neither promote nor deny their age. They don’t need to!
I think why I’ve become more aware of fab women in this age range is because I turned 60 earlier this year, and whilst deep down I was uncomfortable with this (I know, shame on me!) I’ve been working on myself to find and celebrate the positive in reaching this age. And part of that process involved becoming aware of fab, fab women who are in the public eye (and behind the scenes too) and are having the most wonderful times of their lives.
One of the first who springs to mind is Lesley Manville. She’s an actress who has been around for decades, and you will know her face from bit parts in films and TV series, until recently she has fabulously played an older Princess Margaret in the recent series of The Crown and then, in 2022 aged 66, she had the title role of Ada Harris in the very comforting and lovely film Mrs Harris Goes To Paris. And is wonderful in it. It’s so inspiring to see a women in her 60’s having a re-birth in their career.
But it’s not just actresses who are smashing it in their 60’s. Another one to celebrate is Diana Nyad. She is a US citizen, who, at the age of 64 completed one of the most gruelling swimming challenges known to mankind. She swam the 102 miles of open sea from the Bahamas to Florida. She made a couple of attempts in her 30’s and each time the challenge was too much for her, but having a bit of an epiphany in her 60’s, decided to try it one last time and succeeded. What a woman! And there’s a very inspiring film about it too - NYAD - which is available on Amazon Prime and Netflix.
I could go on for quite a bit longer covering women in their 60’s who are smashing it. But isn’t it amazing to see? Unfortunately, the immediate default image of a woman in her 60’s is still a woman with a headscarf dressed in a pinny and slippers. At least that’s how the media likes to portray us.
But, with women like this still prevalent in society and hopefully becoming more visible, then the tide will turn little by little. I love the fact that there are so many other communities and platforms like 45 Not Out shouting loudly for older women. This has got to have some impact, however small.
And to those of you who are also part of the 45 Not Out community on the Facebook group , I thank you for staying the course with me. And for those of you who don’t know about the group - it’s the very hub of the 45 Not Out community. It’s a closed group of around 250 fab mid-life women who think like you do and it’s a safe place where members can share and support each other on the issues we face as women in at this age. If you’re not part of it, and would like to be, click on the link above and you can become one of the community too!
One of things I’ve discovered in mid and later life is how much sleep can drop off a cliff once you hit menopause or a certain age. It’s been one of the worse symptoms of menopause I’ve experienced - mainly because of how much it affects the rest of your everyday life. With me, it affected mood, creativity and inspiration (which is crucial for my livelihood) and probably affected me physically as well.
My period of insomnia lasted 4 years, and I tried anything and everything to try to repair my sleep. I actually succeeded in that earlier this year, and because I know how very common this amongst women our age (but they just carry on, as we all do!) I’ve written a little e-book outlining what I did to help me regain my sleep. It wasn’t just one thing and it didn’t happen overnight.
In the book I talk about the things I tried. Most of them were scientifically backed and where the study is published online, I have referenced each study at the back of the book. And because we’re all different, and I’m very aware that works for one person may not work for another, I’ve listed the solutions that were highly recommended by the scientists, but didn’t necessarily work for me. Because one man’s meat and all that…
The book will be published on the 2nd September, but I’ve already listed it on Etsy. And because you lovely lot are getting the heads up before everybody else, I’m offering y’all a 10% discount on the book, which you can find here. For the discount just add SLEEP24 in the code box, and your 10% discount will apply.
Happy reading, and if you have sleep problems, I hope it helps you get back to sleeping well.
Wishing you nights and nights of good sleep
Una x
