It never ceases to amaze me how little respect people have for their body. Particularly young adults.

Constantly bombarding their digestive system with substandard fast food swished down with fizzy sugar solution. Inhaling cigarette smoke (or worse) like the dangers don’t apply to them. Inhaling the so-called safer vaping concoctions – how can filling your lungs with polluted air be desirable?

Adding work-related stress to the mix – in or out of work, money or no money: handling stress requires a strategy. A strategy that requires us to be able to move away from the stress, perhaps by taking part in sport, art or meditation. Self-care is all to often sidelined in the race to complete more ‘urgent’ tasks. Forgetting that we can not endlessly give without taking the time to refill ourselves.

Although our bodies are able to recover and even self-heal we must give them the environment to do so. Rest, nurture, self-care.

Eat well and supplement with well-researched products (the science of nutragenomics is ever-evolving)

Lifestyle – including high impact exercise as well as nurturing yoga is a good option. Do you have a regular sleep pattern?

Self-management – what is your strategy for coping with stress? Meditation – or perhaps a sport you can loose yourself in – go with the flow: get out of your mind and into a better space!

You only have one body – it is for life. Keep it in the best condition and stay happy.

Ageing Gracefully: what does it mean to you?

Is ‘ageing gracefully’ the opposite of ‘ageing disgracefully’ ? can you do both – or neither?

Often the term ‘ageing gracefully’ is used by those talking about ‘avoiding the needle’ – the thorny subject of facial aesthetics: avoiding having any ‘work done’.

But maybe they colour their hair, wear make-up or keep fit to try to maintain their youthful physique? What is it to live with an ageing body and face means something differnt to each of us. No-one is right tor wrong.

Why does it matter to think about this?

Ageing happens to all of us privileged enough to get there. Our bodies slow down, our hair turns grey and gravity takes its toll. We get hormone changes to deal with – as women we are in a constantly changing state. Do you take an ‘all natural’ approoach – or turn to artificail means to control any of this?

exercise?

hair dyes?

facial aesthetics?

HRT?

We all have a standard – we all draw our line somewhre. Where is yours?

Life may have dealt us some unfortunate blows along the way, but there are many points at which we have a choice how we look after ourselves.

We have been given this body for the duration of our time on this life journey. We spend a lot of time and effort building up our wealth – but in later years it is likely we will value our health so much more.

I do like to indulge in a bit of people watching – do you?

Different locations give different opportunities of course – for example the hours I spend in pubs supporting my partner’s band gives an insight into how we conduct our social life: groups of young men and women who may start the evening chatting invariable end up each browsing on their own phone, having a conversation with those not in the room – or maybe just browsing social media.

Strolling along the promenade by the sea or watching people walking around the town centre draws my attention to the way people walk. Head down posture and gait with feet often pointed away from the direction of movement – my pet hate!

Social dancing such as tango or modern jive events gives another opportunity to people watch – confidence off and on the dance floor can reveal a lot about a person.

Do you people watch? What’s your favourite places and what do you notice?

I’m sitting in a busy pub watching my partner playing and singing with his band.

The place is full of (mostly) young people dressed in trendy gear. Young ladies complete with their lashes and hair extensions.. not to mention the nails. How do they cope with the nails?

This afternoon we were in the hills of Northumberland with several layers of clothing and total tranquility.

Do you feel most alive when you’re out in a crowd with music and noise .. or when you’re out in the quiet of the countryside?

I’ve been a Botox user for the last 15 years – religiously getting a refresher once the movement started to reappear and the frown lines start to show.

I started because in my previous life as a mother, dental practice owner and twice divorced single mum i was starting to look somewhat tired. The toxin gave me a lift and made me look brighter and rather less angry than I had been.

As a dentist I was able to learn and administer the product to clients – and, well, it would be rude not to indulge, surely?

Back in 2015 I started my yoga teacher training and one thing I noticed as the 2 years of the course rolled by was that everyone on the course started to glow – they looked better, more relaxed and confident than they had at the start. And they weren’t undergoing any sort of cosmetic treatments!

So now, nearly 4 years since I sold the practice, over 2 years since I moved to live by the seaside – is it time to stop the Botox treatments?