Some rituals survive because we are told to preserve them. Others survive because, thousands of years later, they still make sense. A little oil in the palm. A familiar scent. A moment set apart from the rest of the day. Long before “self-care” became a phrase, people were using fragrant oils to mark moments of prayer, hospitality, mourning, celebration and ordinary daily care…

Family gatherings can be oddly tricky to dress for. You may be sharing a table with teenagers in sneakers, cousins in cocktail dresses, and with some older relatives who still consider jeans “too casual”. At a multi-generational family gathering, the goal is neither to compete with anyone nor to fade quietly into the background. You want to look polished, comfortable…

Layering sounds simple enough, right? Add a sweater, put on a jacket, wrap yourself in a scarf, and head out the door. In reality, one extra layer can sometimes turn a perfectly good outfit into something bulky and shapeless. The secret is not wearing more clothing. It is choosing layers that work together in length, shape, fabric, and proportion…

I’m sure you’ve read about the importance of antioxidants in food and how they help the body in ways such as anti-aging and reducing inflammation. Antioxidants in skincare products used topically are also beneficial. But what exactly are antioxidants, and why does your skin need them? The answer begins with something called oxidative stress…

Are you someone who enjoys a glass or two of wine every evening? Perhaps you rarely drink during the week but look forward to a few glasses of wine at the weekend. Or maybe alcohol appears only at dinners, celebrations and social occasions. Most of us have no problem justifying our drinking habit. The daily […]

Arthritis literally means joint inflammation, and it refers to a group of more than a hundred rheumatic diseases that cause pain, stiffness, and swelling in the joints. There are two major types of arthritis: osteoarthritis…

We have all had decades at our hands to understand exactly what foods we like to eat. So, keeping Pooh’s point in mind, it should be easy to choose to eat less of what we don’t like. For instance, Leslie enjoys a pasta dinner, but the sauce is the best part…

I catch myself doing it several times a week: mouth open, breathing loud and shallow, as if my body has forgotten everything I’ve spent years teaching other people. The irony isn’t lost on me – I’m a certified Buteyko breathing trainer, and yet I have to catch myself mid-breath and correct course…

Hot flushes, mood swings, creeping spare tires around the midriff – we are all familiar with the big M and its effects on us as we hit ‘that’ age. Few women sail through menopause with ease, and some of us have an exceedingly difficult time of it…

I talk to smart, accomplished women every week who are stuck in the same loop: swiping through profile after profile, comparing and cross-referencing, and somehow still unable to settle on anyone. Here’s what 20 years of helping daters in my coaching practice has taught me: the problem usually isn’t a shortage of good people; it’s how you’re searching…

Dating after 60 has a particular flavor of nervousness that 25-year-olds simply don’t have to deal with. You’re not just wondering if someone likes you back – you’re wondering if you still remember how to do this at all, and whether your judgment, tested by a marriage or relationship that didn’t work out, can be trusted again…

Sometimes it seems the world is moving at a breakneck speed. For older online daters, keeping up with the changing technology is a challenge unto itself, let alone figuring out all the options for online dating. The choices of dating platforms and apps seem endless! Online dating has come a very long way in a relatively short time…

From Holy Week rituals to colonial plazas and artisan traditions, these three towns reveal Colombia at its most atmospheric, and best experienced slowly. Colombia’s heritage towns or Pueblos Patrimonio, are not places I wanted to rush through. I wanted to walk them, sit with them, and let their details unfold at a gentler pace. Mompox, Monguí, and Villa de Leyva, history is not something preserved in a museum…

Do you know which states in the US are excellent choices for women traveling solo over 60? Traveling solo after 60 can be a great way to see the United States. You get to choose your own pace, follow your own interests, linger when something moves you, and leave when you want…

Retirement can open a door for you that you have been waiting years to walk through. The children are grown, your busy calendar is finally quieter, and your travel bucket list is sitting there…waiting. Italy. Portugal. Japan. A river cruise through Europe. A month in Mexico. A walking tour in Scotland. The desire is there. The time may finally be there, too…

A magnet for sun worshippers in spring and summer, the islands that dot the Mediterranean actually offer far more than gorgeous beaches lapped by translucent water. Dramatic mountainous landscapes, rugged coastal stretches…

I have friends – let’s call them Mike and Laura – who retired in 2023 with $1.2 million saved up. That’s a hefty number. They worked hard for it. And they figured they were set. Then they actually ran the math on their life in suburban LA. California income tax (up to 13.3%), property taxes on a pretty average three-bedroom, healthcare supplements, and just the general cost of existing…

I don’t know about you, but once I turned 60, I have had two ongoing thoughts: Sometimes, I feel like I am just getting started and other times, I feel like running out of time is the bigger worry than running out of money. Can anyone else relate to that? Life happens to all of us. And at the same time, life feels like it goes faster and faster as we get older…

A woman once told me exactly how much money she thought she needed before she could retire. She had done her homework. She knew what she spent each month, had looked at her Social Security benefits, reviewed her retirement accounts and thought carefully about the kind of life she wanted after work…

Imagine logging in to your pension portal and seeing two options. One option is a lump sum, where you might have done a double take because of the large amount. The other option includes a smaller monthly payment that could continue for life. Which option is worth more? But that might not be the best question…

Susan expected the call to last 10 minutes. “I need another pair of eyes,” Michael said. They had worked together years earlier, when Susan still spent her days in conference rooms reviewing marketing campaigns and trying to understand why customers didn’t always behave the way research reports said they would…

We spend decades preparing for retirement, and then somehow we’re expected to know exactly what we’re going to do with it before we’ve experienced a single ordinary day as a retired person. That’s an awfully high standard. Maybe we don’t need to have retirement all figured out. Maybe we just need to begin…

Who’s coming with me and jumping on the pumpkin bandwagon? Talk about moving from summer to fall quickly. September barely rolls in and suddenly everywhere you look it’s pumpkin. Pumpkin lattes. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin cereal. Pumpkin bagels. Pumpkin candles. Pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin…

The independent living lifestyle can feel unsettling if one is new to it. On the other hand, it can be an exciting new life phase. Whether you are new or are already swimming the deep waters, you do have freedom that is not achievable if you have dependent children…