Guest post: 5 Tips for Creative Self-Care at Mid-Life by Jennifer Boire

Today’s guest blog post is brought to you by non-fiction author Jennifer Boire. See below to enter Jennifer’s giveaway.

5 Tips for Creative Self-Care at Mid-Life

Mid-life transition and menopause – doesn’t sound like fun, does it? It can be a stressful time, and you definitely need to take care of yourself, but you also have to have fun!

Now that my kids are too old to want to be seen with me, I’m rediscovering the hobbies and activities I used to love doing, and exploring new ones. For instance, when I was in high school, I remember making Bristol board-sized collages. I loved doing collage! Yet I hadn’t done it in over forty years. Two years ago I discovered SoulCollage®, which is so much fun. I also joined a Sweet Adelines chorus 8 years ago, and that led to singing with a barbershop quartet and lots of fun performances. I hadn’t been on a theatre stage since high school, but a recent musical theatre experience also made me feel happy and alive.

So take these tips as a clue to finding your own creative self-care rituals at mid-life. Take classes, experiment, find out what you are passionate about – I bet you it’s something creative!

1. Get Creative and Flow: doing any artistic or creative activity using your right brain is the #1 way to slow down and love your life: get in the FLOW. (Flow is when you lost track of time, totally absorbed by doing something you love). Try journaling, SoulCollage®, writing poems; tell your stories to your grandchildren, take up crocheting, gardening, floral arranging,  pottery classes, piano lessons; join a Zumba or Salsa class. You’ll stay young longer.
2. Listen to your Intuition: get in touch with your wise inner self; to cultivate this, allow more down time for getting in touch with your intuition. Journaling is a great way to do this. Or get out into the woods, take a walk, and breathe in the natural world around you. Pause and appreciate life.
3. Love your body:  move your body every day. Find out what foods make you calm, (greens or protein for example vs sugar and caffeine). Make friends with your emotions through body scan and relaxation exercises (see Musemother’s Relaxation CD). Listen to the small signals before they become bigger, i.e. don’t let minor health issues or emotional upsets get swept under the rug.
4. Be Mindful: the best anti-stress medicine is to use your breath in Yoga, Tai-Chi, Chi Gong or Meditation for calming the parasympathetic nervous system. New neuroscience research shows that when we meditate, the areas of the brain associated with stress slow down and the parts associated with feelings of joy, peace and compassion become active. It’s another way to experience FLOW in the body… and it’s as simple as doing some alternate nostril breathing or yoga, or focusing on a centering breath technique.
5. Play with friends! Energize yourself. Are you a couch potato? Get outside, play soccer, join a curling league, go bowling. Remember what you used to love doing –singing and dancing? Join a theatre club or chorus (sharing fun activities with others is a known endorphin booster).

Bonus tip: One more habit you can build in to feel better, is to change your negative self-talk and fears by working with affirmations. When you change your thoughts and words, you change your beliefs and core vibration. Here are a few samples to get you started:

Positive affirmations for well-being (write them down and read out loud):

1. I am centered, happy, and healthy.
2. I am competent, and confident in my abilities.
3. I fully embrace my personal power.
4. Each part of my life is balanced with my need to rest and rejuvenate.
5. I joyfully embrace my creativity.

Happy Creative Self-Care!

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Thank you, Jennifer. That was great. And my thanks go to Della Bercovitch at Book Marketing Services for arranging this post.

Author Jennifer Boire, MA, has published two books of poetry and survived menopause while shepherding two pre-teens through puberty and supervising construction of a new home. She has been blogging about menopause and mid-life since 2006 (over 50,000 hits). In her research and many interviews, she discovered what women need to hear most is that they are not going crazy. She leads Creative Journaling classes and retreats for women at mid-life to help them cultivate faith in their inner resources.

Author of The Tao of Turning Fifty, What Every Woman in her Forties Needs to Know, she blogs as Musemother. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. www.jenniferboire.com. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheTaoOfTurningFifty Twitter : https://twitter.com/Musemother.

The Tao of Turning Fifty, What Every Woman in Her Forties Needs to Know is what you need to read if you are curious about how to find balance and feel better on the perilous journey through the mid-life transition. With a light touch and gentle humour, Jennifer Boire provides her brand of women’s wisdom on matters such as Where Did My Libido Go? Tango at Mid-Life, Feeling Like You’re Going Crazy, Menopause is Not a Disease, and How to Cultivate Your Own IGS System (inner guidance system).

This is a workbook you can journal along with, answering the thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter. Don’t miss the menopause poems at the end of the book, or the appendix of helpful hints such as how to create your own mini-retreat, or the many tips for de-stressing and slowing down.

Social Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Musemother
• GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1821370.Jennifer_Boire
• Amazon Author: http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Boire/e/B001K8YML4/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
• Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/112540365206554143287/posts (?)
• Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/musemother/
• LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennifer-boire/26/b26/a67

Where to Purchase:

• Amazon.com:  http://tinyurl.com/lfcvgwd
• Amazon.ca: http://tinyurl.com/nxt2rsv
• Indigo: http://tinyurl.com/lxhkdx5
• Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/kmcdgpw

Giveaway:

• First prize: Autographed copy of The Tao of Turning Fifty, Musemother Relaxation CD, and a $25 Amazon gift card
• Second prize: Autographed copy of The Tao of Turning Fifty, and Musemother Relaxation CD
• Third prize: Autographed copy of The Tao of Turning Fifty

Click 

here for details.

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