IF MY 50'S WERE A GARDEN...THIS IS WHAT I'VE CULTIVATED

Are you living the life you want? Are you investing in yourself and cultivating the life you deserve? Here's what I did in my 50's to make life great.

COMING TO THE CLOSE OF MY 50'S

In a little over a week's time, I won't be in my 50's anymore. A new decade looms and I'm a little bit daunted, a little bit excited, and a little bit nostalgic for what I'm leaving behind. When I hit 50 I was in a completely different frame of mind. I was in a job that was 'wash/rinse/repeat' and I could do it in my sleep, my kids had flown the coop and were happily doing their own thing, my marriage was heading towards a hurdle, and I felt a little lost.

Fast forward ten years and I can't believe how much that decade taught me. I feel like a completely new person, I'm more confident in who I am, I'm no longer working, I've watched my kids make great choices, I'm a grandmother, my marriage survived its crisis and is going well, and I'm much more "me" than I've ever been. Looking back, I'm grateful I put the time and energy of my 50's into cultivating a life that feels authentic, and one that I love. Today's post is all about the garden I've made my life into...

SIMPLE LIVING, HIGH THINKING IN THE SECOND HALF OF LIFE

How to put simple living, high thinking into meaningful life experience. It's never too late to start deepening and simplifying your life.

SIMPLE LIVING, HIGH THINKING

I came across the words "simple living, high thinking" the other day and they resonated with my concept of how I'd like to live the second half of life. The expression is attributed to Mahatma Ghandi, or some say it's the Indian guru and yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), who had said:

Plain living and high thinking should be your goal. Learn to carry all the conditions of happiness within yourself by meditating and attuning your consciousness to the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new joy, which is God.

Whoever said it, I like sound of it, and how it's going to play out in the years ahead. I'm hoping it will look something like this.....

HOW TO SEPARATE YOUR SELF-WORTH FROM THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS

Do you tend to take things personally? Are you hurt by the opinions of others? Maybe it's time for a different approach.

RISING ABOVE THE OPINIONS OF OTHERS

Our daughter is currently working as a Head of Department and regularly deals with difficult people and uncomfortable situations. I'm in complete and utter admiration of how she stays separate from the issues, doesn't get caught up in them, dragged down by them, take them onboard more than necessary, or carry them home on her shoulders. She rides the waves of other people's upsets without taking it personally, deals with what needs to be addressed, and then moves on. That's such an admirable quality in my opinion, and one I wish I was better at.

I asked her how she manages to demonstrate self-differentiation so well when I struggle with it still, and this is what she said....

ARE BLOG YEARS SIMILAR TO DOG YEARS?

Have you ever thought about how blogging years seem to be different to real years - in fact they're more like dog years really...


IT'S BEEN ALMOST 7 BLOGGING YEARS

In a few weeks it will be SEVEN years since I started this blog! Sometimes it feels like I started yesterday, other times it feels like I've been writing posts forever. I looked at my stats the other day and I've written 952 posts! That's a lot of my life that's been shared here - the good, the bad, the boring, and probably the ugly too. 

But it got me thinking about how seven blogging years feels so different to seven human years and that maybe they need to be measured on a different scale - much like dog years....