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Finding Joy and Peace in My 60s: A Journey Worth Every Step

Hello lovely people, here I am in my mid 60s, and guess what? I’m genuinely, unabashedly happy.

Yes, it took a while to get here—decades, in fact.

I’ve navigated an emotionally damaging childhood, toxic relationships, work stress that could power a small country, and a couple of serious health scares. But now, I’ve reached a place of peace and joy that I wouldn’t trade for anything.

A Rocky Road to Happiness

Let’s rewind a bit. Picture me as a kid—wide-eyed, full of dreams, and completely unprepared for the emotional rollercoaster that was my childhood.

It wasn’t exactly the stuff of Norman Rockwell paintings. But hey, I survived, and more importantly, I learned a lot about resilience and the power of humor.

After all, if you can laugh in the face of adversity, you’ve already won half the battle.

Fast forward to my adult years, which were a mixed bag of triumphs and tribulations. I had my share of toxic relationships. You know the type—the ones that make you feel like you’re starring in a never-ending soap opera.

And let’s not forget the work stress. Oh, the work stress! It was like juggling flaming swords while riding a unicycle on a tightrope. But through it all, there was a constant source of light and joy: my beautiful, kind-hearted daughter.

The Light of My Life

My daughter is the embodiment of everything good in the world. She’s been my rock, my confidante, and my biggest cheerleader. Even during the darkest times, she was there, shining brightly and reminding me of what really matters.

Her kindness, compassion, and boundless love have been the anchor that kept me grounded. Honestly, I don’t know where I’d be without her.

The Path to Peace and Joy

Now, in my 60s, I’ve finally cracked the code to happiness. Spoiler alert: it involves good boundaries, positive people, and living life on my own terms.

I’ve become a master at setting boundaries—no more energy vampires or drama llamas for me. I surround myself with kind, positive people who lift me up and bring out the best in me.

It’s like curating a personal museum of joy and laughter, and the exhibits are all my wonderful friends and loved ones.

Living life on my own terms means embracing what brings me joy, whether it’s spending time with my daughter, indulging in my hobbies, or simply enjoying a quiet moment with a good book.

It means saying no to things that don’t serve me and yes to the things that do. And let me tell you, it’s incredibly liberating.

The Silver Lining of Aging

They say with age comes wisdom, and I have to agree. In my 60s, I’ve learned to appreciate the little things, to find joy in everyday moments, and to cherish the relationships that truly matter.

I’ve also learned that it’s okay to prioritize myself and my wellbeing. After all, you can’t pour from an empty cup.

And let’s not forget the humour. Oh, the humour! There’s something wonderfully freeing about being able to laugh at life’s absurdities.

Whether it’s the inevitable “senior moments” or the quirks of getting older, laughter has become my secret weapon. It’s like a warm hug for the soul, and I embrace it wholeheartedly.

A Life Well Lived

So here I am, in my 60s, happier than I’ve ever been. It’s been a long, winding road to get here, but every step has been worth it. I’ve learned to keep good boundaries, surround myself with positivity, and live life on my own terms.

And through it all, my daughter remains the light and joy of my life, a constant reminder of love and kindness.

To anyone out there still navigating their own rocky road, take heart. Happiness is within reach, no matter how long it takes to find it.

Keep laughing, keep loving, and most importantly, keep living life on your own terms. You’ve got this!

imagecredit:shweni

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Who am I? A year of learning about myself, more than I ever thought I could be!

I caught up with a good friend of mine for lunch today. We always talk about random things and deep dive on any issues we might have and untangle thoughts and feelings to get at the core of things.

It’s wonderful to have friends like that and she is an absolute gem!

We talked about my health which has been a bit of a dumpster fire this year. My friend talked about my identity as a healthy and fit woman. She is correct, my identity is very much wrapped around health & fitness and being a role model for women in their 60s.

Heck, one of the reasons I started this blog was to talk about health & fitness and how to stay well as one ages!

My family of origin has and is riddled with heart disease, metabolic illness, and COPD.

My whole life and part of my motivation to stay healthy and fit was to keep, primarily, heart disease at bay and I can say I have been overwhelmingly successful in this endeavour.

So, you can imagine my utter shock when cancer decided to knock on the door earlier this year. Specifically, breast cancer. No-one in my family has had breast cancer and it took some time to wrap my head around it all and what that meant for my health, fitness, and self-identity.

This year has had enough plot twists to write a book about. On top of the breast cancer, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgin Lymphoma, Lymphocytic Colitis and then Sudden Sensorineuro Hearing loss in my left ear – meaning I will need surgery to be fitted with a Cochlear Implant.

In amongst all of these hectic challenges, I have kept my spirits up, dealing with one thing at a time. I have kept up my exercise regimen when I could.

There were some weeks when recovering from a procedure or two, that I have had to take a break to rest and recuperate. I have had to take the time to allow my body and spirit time to rest and recover and to get better.

If I couldn’t go for a run, I’d go for a brisk walk. If I couldn’t go to the gym to do weights training, I’d pick up an extra yoga or Pilates class. Going for a swim is always a nice option, gentle, weight bearing and slow. Dancing is a constant too.

If it was all too much, then resting, reading, walking my dog, and spending gentle time with family and my friends were the order of the day!

I also had some emotional turmoil to deal with this year. A person whose sole purpose in life seemed to be to relentlessly bully me via my blog and to get his minion to do likewise.

Generally, I am very much of the opinion that bullies are just cowards that if you ignore them, they eventually go away. But this one was unrelentingly persistent.

In the end I got rid of them, but it took some work to do so and if they ever rear their heads again, I will go straight to the Magistrate and get an AVO. I have all the written evidence and witnesses of in-person bullying and harassment. Plus, nasty sh*t sent to friends of mine, that has also been kept as evidence.

All up the year has presented some unique issues for me to deal with and overcome.

But you know what? I am resilient, I am strong, I fully believe my fitness has enabled me to deal with the health issues effectively. Exercise and eating well also helps with emotional upheaval.

The other thing I have in my favour is a supportive family and the best friends and community. They literally wrap themselves around me like a warm hug!

I am blessed and honoured and humbled by the love and support I have received this year.

imagecredit:negativespace,quotebyauthor

 

 

 

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Impulsive decisions…

Eyebrow lamination!

Is something that I had never heard of until this week! I have my eyebrows waxed and eyelashes tinted every few weeks. The brows because they can look a bit wild and woolly if I don’t and the lashes as it saves me spending time putting on mascara – because I can’t be bothered with fussing to go out or go to work.

I had my usual appointment on Monday night with the woman who lives around the corner from me and has her own home beauty business. As it’s a week out from Christmas, she said why don’t you do something different?

And because it’s close to Christmas and I can have a tendency to be a tad impulsive I said sure, what did she have in mind? She said why don’t we do an eyebrow lamination and tint and an eyelash curl and lift and tint.

I’m like “go for it”. Then I said, wait, what exactly is eyebrow lamination? Laminating to me is a thing you do where you heat plastic sheets to preserve documents or pictures and I couldn’t quite get my head around having something like that done to my eyebrows.

Kim, my beauty therapist, explained that it was a process whereby the eyebrows are treated with a straightening chemical and then brushed into place. So ok then.

The whole process took almost two hours! To be honest I can’t say I loved the eyebrow look, they certainly were dramatic (see pic above). I’ve never had such dark eyebrows and I felt they looked absurd.

The eyelashes on the other hand, I did love – they curled up and looked longer! Cute….

I was a bit nervous going into work the next morning, but I actually got a lot of compliments on my brows. My beloved partner did not notice at all! 😂 😂

Anyway, not that this was challenging in any real way, but it does prove that you can try new things when you get older. The outcome may be great or not so great, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a bit of fun for the festive silly season!

 

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Waking in the night…

One of the not so great elements of getting older…

Is that you tend to need to get up to pee more often during the night. Sometimes once, sometimes (like last night) literally every two hours!

That just leads to disrupted sleep and feeling tired the whole of the next day. Not only did my bladder give me a hard time last night, my smoke detector alarm also decided to join in!

Wired in smoke detectors are required by law and I have two. One outside my bedroom door and one in the passageway leading to the garage. They also have back up 9volt batteries in case there’s a power outage.

Of course the back up battery in the one right outside my bedroom door decided it was done at midnight, because of course midnight is the time for batteries to die.

Which means that the smoke detector alarm starts emitting this really loud intermittent squawk and it won’t stop. Woke me up, woke my dog up and wouldn’t let us get back to sleep. Sigh!

So I got up, turned on the light (which I hate doing in the night, my poor eyes do not appreciate bright lights in the night), unscrewed the smoke detector from the ceiling, then unscrewed the unit and yoinked out the battery.

Silence!

Then an hour later I woke again to pee! Seriously bladder? Calm down! Image of Rolling on the Floor Laughing emoji

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Not a grandmother and that’s ok!

Not a grandmother and I’m totally fine with that!

First up I will say that grandparents are awesome and I’m happy for you if you have grandies. Ok, now onto my story. My daughter, who is in her early 30s, told me a couple of years back that she decided she did not want to have children. She is of that generation of women that carefully consider their life choices and make decisions based on what is right for them. 

I recall back when I was younger, in my early/mid 20s (in the 1980s, sheesh that was a long while ago!) there was a lot of pressure to have children. Whether you would make a good parent or not, the societal expectation was very much that you marry and have children (not always in that order 😂) but you get my drift, yes?

I was called selfish as I wasn’t sure I wanted children and dared to voice my opinion (I also didn’t get around to having my daughter until I was almost 32, which was not so common back in the day). I was puzzled at the idea of being called selfish for not wanting children. I still don’t quite get it. Young women make different and better choices these days, but there is still pressure and the ‘selfish’ word still gets thrown around a bit.

Choosing to live a full and happy life of work, travel, relationships, friends, volunteering, pets, hobbies, interests, fitness and fun seems a sensible choice to me. The world can be a bit of an unsettling place and not one we necessarily wish to bring children into. That said, I realize that people choose to have children as it’s a deep seated desire/need for them and again, good for them, but it’s not for everyone and that is fine and dandy.

I also hear folk of my age group who pester their adult children into having children as they want to be made ‘grandparents’ and have meaning and purpose in their lives. Heck, my mother pestered me and she already had a few grandies before I got around to producing another. She used to point to a space on the wall that she left ready for my child’s portrait, in between all the others. I told her I’d give her a photo of my cat, I think I was ahead of my time or just cheeky. Same/same!

I do not need grandchildren to add value to my life. I am content with my life and my relationship with my daughter is loving and close.

The photo for this post is of me and my daughter when she was a baby 🥰 and I 100% support her in any decision she makes about her life as an adult and I am incredibly proud of the way she has turned out. She is loving, kind, generous, thoughtful, smart and absolutely my best friend!

 

 

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Seniors Card!

It finally arrived in the mail…

I am so excited! My partner laughed at me, he said he’d never seen anyone so happy to be getting older! And I’m like “but, senior’s card!” What’s not to be happy about? 😊

I became eligible when I turned 64 and I started working part-time. It’s a fantastic card to have if you ask me. I get a whole bunch of discounts which are really helpful.

The discounts include my council (shire) rates and water rates; free public transport (trains & buses) and a concession rate during peak travel times; cinema, gym membership, swimming pool, home security & hearing aids (not that I need those yet!) and a 10% discount at my local vet (perfect for my dog, those vet bills can be steep!)

There’s also a number of competitions and prizes being run. There’s one I’ve entered for a trip to Vietnam which would be really cool. There is a photography competition and I’m thinking of entering in a couple of the categories. I may or may not win any of these competitions, but I certainly enjoy having the opportunity to enter.

Having this card has opened up a whole new world and I am thrilled!

If you live in Western Australia, here is the link to the website so you can see if are eligible!

 

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