Click Here for Additional Stock / Here for More Stock

Photo: @bravowwhl

Style Stealers

!function(d,s,id){
var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? ‘http’ : ‘https’;
if(!d.getElementById(id)) {
e = d.createElement(s);
e.id = id;
e.src = p + ‘://widgets.rewardstyle.com/js/shopthepost.js’;
d.body.appendChild(e);
}
if(typeof window.__stp === ‘object’) if(d.readyState === ‘complete’) {
window.__stp.init();
}
}(document, ‘script’, ‘shopthepost-script’);

Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Top Posts

Ariana Madix’s Turquoise Mesh Dotted Turtleneck and Pants

Amanda Batula’s Season 10 Reunion Look

Ariana Madix’s Pink Sheer Crystal and Feather Embellished Gown

The Valley Season 3 Episode 11 Fashion

Summer House Season 10 Reunion Looks

Lindsay Hubbard’s Navy Blue Denim Collar Sweater

Ariana Madix’s Black Cutout Gown on The Love Island Season 8 Premiere

Amanda Batula’s Brown Confessional Top

Madison LeCroy’s Barrel Leg Jeans

Amanda Batula’s Light Blue Striped T Shirt

Lindsay Hubbard’s Army Green Cargo Pants

Liz McGraw’s Pink Floral Corset and Pants

Amanda Batula’s Brown Suede Jacket with Lindsay

Amanda Batula’s Brown Suede Pocket Front Jacket and Ripped Jeans

Amanda Batula’s Black and Polka Dot Maxi Dress at the In The City Premiere Party

Georgina Ferzli’s Navy Blue Sheer Dress

Liz McGraw’s Red Light Face Wand

Originally posted at: Michelle Saniei’s Blue Printed Slip Dress on WWHL

Read More

Poor Judgment’s been slandered, accused and maligned,
As if using good sense were a terrible crime.

“Don’t judge!” say some people. “Be spiritual instead!”
Yet without a bit of judgment, we’d all bump our heads.

We’d wander through life like a cart with no wheel,
Or smile at a snake while ignoring how we feel.

If somebody’s actions annoy you to bits,
Or tempt you to launch them into garbage pits,

Don’t pretend you’re enlightened and floating above,
While secretly simm’ring and calling it love.

If you’re mad, then you’re mad. It is simply a fact.
The question is not that—but how you’ll react.

You needn’t stuff turnips in anyone’s nose,
Though heaven knows sometimes the temptation grows.

Instead, ask yourself why this thing caught your eye.
What value, what boundary, what truth passed nearby? 

Often our judgments are signals and signs,
Like little red flags on emotional lines.

The danger begins when we bury what’s real,
Denying the thoughts and the things that we feel.

For lying to yourself is a troublesome game;
The body keeps score, though the mind shifts the blame.

We weren’t born to conquer emotions and hide.
We were born to experience life’s changing tide.

So, notice your feelings, then choose what is wise.
Let truth clear the fog from your heart and your eyes.

For people who silence what bothers them most
May resemble a vegetable more than a host.

And if they persist in pretending they’re fine,
They may start to resemble a fungus with time.

Reflection Questions:

Do you think judgment is a good or bad thing? How do you use yours?

Read More

Click Here for Additional Stock / Here for More Stock / Here for More Stock / Here for More Stock / Here for More Stock

Style Stealers

!function(d,s,id){
var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? ‘http’ : ‘https’;
if(!d.getElementById(id)) {
e = d.createElement(s);
e.id = id;
e.src = p + ‘://widgets.rewardstyle.com/js/shopthepost.js’;
d.body.appendChild(e);
}
if(typeof window.__stp === ‘object’) if(d.readyState === ‘complete’) {
window.__stp.init();
}
}(document, ‘script’, ‘shopthepost-script’);

Turn on your JavaScript to view content

Top Posts

Amanda Batula’s Season 10 Reunion Look

Ariana Madix’s Turquoise Mesh Dotted Turtleneck and Pants

Ariana Madix’s Black Cutout Gown on The Love Island Season 8 Premiere

Summer House Season 10 Reunion Looks

Best of Summer House Season 10 Fashion and Beauty Finds

Amanda Batula’s Brown Confessional Top

Lindsay Hubbard’s Grey Crewneck Cardigan

Madison LeCroy’s Barrel Leg Jeans

Amanda Batula’s Light Blue Striped T Shirt

Jo-Ellen Tiberi’s Green Fringe Crochet Mini Dress

Lindsay Hubbard’s Army Green Cargo Pants

Liz McGraw’s Pink Floral Corset and Pants

Amanda Batula’s Chunky Stone Necklace

Amanda Batula’s Brown Suede Jacket with Lindsay

Amanda Batula’s Army Green “Raincoat” with Kyle

Amanda Batula’s Brown Suede Pocket Front Jacket and Ripped Jeans

Amanda Batula’s Black and Polka Dot Maxi Dress at the In The City Premiere Party

Georgina Ferzli’s Navy Blue Sheer Dress

Ciara Miller’s Navy Blue Pajama Set

Kelsey Swanson’s White Varsity Sweater

Amanda Batula’s Navy Blue Lounge Cardigan and Pants

Lindsay Hubbard’s Green Striped Maxi Dress

Liz McGraw’s Red Light Face Wand

Amanda Batula’s Red Long Sleeve Ruffle Dress

Originally posted at: Lindsay Hubbard’s Denim Fur Trim Jacket

Read More

Older adults have been getting a bad rap lately. Everywhere you look, there are videos about old men yelling at neighborhood kids or silver-haired women calling the police over a noisy pool party.

So what is going on? Why do some older people act this way?

Research suggests that people do not suddenly become miserable with age. These attitudes often develop gradually over time. As we grow older, we become more comfortable with our opinions and less willing to have someone question them. Some people begin to feel they have already experienced everything life has to offer. Others start to view the world through the lens of negative news stories and conclude that people are basically selfish or untrustworthy.

Of course, that is a broad generalization. Many older adults remain just as kind, optimistic, and open-minded as they were when they were younger.

But Why Are Some People Like This?

As we age, we can become set in our ways and resistant to being told anything, especially by younger people. We may hesitate to admit when we are wrong or do not know something, preferring instead to just dig in.

Unfortunately, the younger generations no longer respect their elders as some older people feel they should. Much of the knowledge we spent decades acquiring is now readily available online so our wisdom and experience is no longer wanted.

We also need to remember that older adults are a group in name only. Beyond the decades in which they were born, they may have very little in common. You cannot define an entire generation by a single trait. Older adults are just as diverse as any other age group.

For our part, we often assume certain changes are unavoidable when we age. While aging does bring challenges, we cannot blame everything that goes wrong on old age.

Take memory lapses, for example. Research shows that memory does not necessarily decline dramatically with age. Many people remain mentally sharp well into their 90s and beyond. Yet when we walk into a room and forget why we went there, we instantly blame aging. When a younger person does the same thing, nobody thinks twice about it.

The truth is that there is no reason to change the way we think simply because we have reached a certain age. If you have always been active, independent and curious, age alone will not remove those qualities. In fact, many of the ornery older people we encounter today were probably ornery when they were younger too. Sometimes age does not reduce bad behavior, it amplifies it.

So How Do You Stay Young at Heart?

To stay young at heart, I offer five ideas:

1. Be Curious

You have not seen it all and the past does not determine the future. Life moves quickly, and it is important to stay engaged with how the world is changing so it doesn’t leave you behind.

Keep stretching your boundaries by exploring new places, meeting different people, and considering unfamiliar ideas. As we age, our world can become smaller, especially after retirement. Curiosity and acting on it keeps it wide open and exciting.

2. Keep Moving

I am not just talking about exercise, although that matters too. I mean everyday movement.

It is not always possible to get to the gym or go on a long hike, but regular movement throughout the day can improve health and reduce the risk of many chronic conditions.

Walk around the block. Take a few laps around the mall. Park farther away from the grocery store entrance. Wander down every aisle instead of rushing through with a list. Small choices like these can add thousands of extra steps each week.

A simple stretching routine a few times a day can also improve flexibility, circulation, and overall comfort.

3. Socialize

Having friends of different ages, backgrounds and life experiences helps keep you connected to fresh perspectives and makes you more tolerant of other people and cultures.

Have you noticed that conversations among peers often reduces to a series of complaints and medical ailments. Conversations with younger people frequently focus on plans, goals, opportunities, and possibilities. That’s why it’s important to socialize with as many generations as possible as often as possible.

4. Experiment

By our 60s, we pretty much know our preferences. That is exactly why it is important to try something new as often as possible. Experiment with different foods, hairstyles, hobbies, classes or travel destinations. Aging starts to feel limiting when we stop taking chances.

Each morning, challenge yourself to do one thing that feels unfamiliar. It does not have to be dramatic. Visit a new coffee shop. See a movie by yourself. Explore a different neighborhood. Life is still an adventure, but you have to get up off the sofa.

5. Learn

Nothing keeps you young quite like learning.

Whether it is a cooking class, a pottery workshop, a foreign language, or even your first attempt at coding, there is something out there for everyone.

Groupon often offers discounted classes, and many senior centers provide instruction in activities such as Tai Chi, Mahjong, painting, and fitness. Local recreation centers, libraries, and parks frequently offer low-cost opportunities to learn something new.

Volunteering can also expose you to new skills, new people and new experiences without the pressures or rigidity of a job.

It is possible to grow older without growing old. It just takes a willingness to get out of your comfort zone and spread your wings.

Let’s Chat:

What have you done recently that has changed your life? Do you like being old? How do stereotypes about aging people affect you?

Read More

We have no shortage of advice telling us to let go.

Let go of the past. Let go of what we can’t control. Let go of our adult children’s choices, our ex-husbands’ opinions, the roles we’ve outgrown, the expectations we’ve been carrying since before we can remember.

What we have a significant shortage of is anyone explaining what that actually looks like on a Wednesday morning when your adult son calls in crisis and every cell in your body is screaming at you to fix it.

I’ve spent the better part of the last decade figuring this out – first through necessity, then through deliberate practice, and finally through writing about it in ways I hope are actually useful to women in the thick of it. And here is what I’ve learned about the practical reality of letting go.

It Starts with the Body, Not the Mind

Most of us try to think our way into letting go. We reason with ourselves. We remind ourselves of everything we know intellectually about boundaries and over-functioning and the importance of allowing adult children to face their own consequences.

And then the phone rings and all of that intellectual knowledge evaporates instantly.

That’s because the rescue response isn’t primarily a thought – it’s a physical reaction. Your nervous system has been trained over decades to respond to certain triggers in certain ways, and it does so faster than conscious thought can intervene.

Which means that letting go has to start with the body, not the mind. With learning to recognize what the rescue urge feels like physically – the chest tightening, the stomach clenching, the sudden surge of adrenaline – and using that physical recognition as a cue to pause rather than act.

Sixty seconds. That’s all you need at first. Sixty seconds of sitting with the physical sensation of the urge without acting on it, while you ask yourself the question that changes everything: is this mine to fix?

It Requires a New Definition of Love

For women of our generation, love and self-sacrifice became almost synonymous. We were taught – explicitly and implicitly – that the measure of our love was what we were willing to give up for it.

Letting go requires us to revise that definition fundamentally.

Mature love – the kind that actually serves the people we love rather than our own need to feel needed – sometimes looks like stepping back. It looks like allowing consequences. It looks like saying, “I believe in you enough to let you figure this out” rather than “I love you too much to watch you struggle.”

That is not a lesser love. In many ways it is a more demanding one – because it requires us to tolerate our own discomfort rather than relieve it by rescuing.

The Practical Tools That Actually Help

After years of working through this myself and writing about it for women navigating the same terrain, the tools that consistently make the most difference are simple ones.

The pause – that sixty-second space between stimulus and response where choice lives.

The question – is this mine to carry, or am I picking this up to manage my own anxiety?

The physical check – where is the anxiety sitting in my body right now, and what is it actually telling me?

And the longer view – if I step in right now, what am I preventing this person from learning?

None of these tools require a personality transplant. None of them require you to stop loving the people in your life. They simply require practice – the same kind of patient, repetitive practice that built the old patterns in the first place.

You learned to over-function. Which means you can learn something different.

And the women who do – who reach their 60s and 70s having genuinely put down what was never theirs – are some of the most alive, purposeful, deeply present women I have ever encountered.

That is available to you. It starts with one pause, one question, one moment of choosing differently than you have before.

If you need some help in this area, I encourage you to check out my ebook, Marriage and Motherhood Survival Method. Let the healing begin.

Let’s Discuss:

What’s the one relationship in your life where you most need to practice letting go? What’s stopping you?

Read More

The older I get, the more convinced I am that happiness is not limited to the big moments that read like a highlight reel. That may sound surprising coming from someone who writes about living vibrantly in a culture that celebrates achievements, milestones, and bucket-list adventures. But I’ve come to understand that there is real, measurable value in anticipation – in the simple act of having something to look forward to, even if that something is hunting for a perfectly ripe cantaloupe at the farmers market.

Summer has always struck me as a season full of things to look forward to. Maybe it’s the longer days, the way light lingers into evening, or the muscle memory of childhood summers spent lounging in my friend’s treehouse. Whatever the reason, this season has a way of reminding us that life isn’t just about checking things off of our to-do list. It’s also the pleasure of looking forward to what comes next.

As women in our 60s and beyond, we often find ourselves in a curious position. The routines and obligations that once filled and structured our days have shifted. Our children are grown and likely feathering their own nests. Our careers may be winding down or evolving into something more aligned with who we are now. Chances are we have more freedom than we’ve had in decades, and yet – here’s the tricky part – freedom without intention can feel flat, dull, and utterly demotivating.

Having something to look forward to isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity, as essential to wellbeing as sleep, good shoes, and knowing where you put your reading glasses.

Anticipation Is Its Own Kind of Joy

Researchers tell us that looking forward to a positive experience can produce as much happiness as the experience itself. This means that the concert on the calendar, the lunch date next week, or the Saturday morning trip to a favorite book store can start improving your mood long before they actually happen.

Anticipation inspires us to look beyond the routine and toward the future. It’s a reminder that life is still unfolding and that there are plenty of exciting reasons to toss off the sheets and climb out of bed in the morning.

The Small Things Matter More Than We Think

When we imagine having something to look forward to, we tend to jump straight to the big bucket list thrills like travel plans and major life events. Those are wonderful, but they’re also occasional. The compound benefit of positive anticipation lives in the smaller experiences and activities woven into an ordinary week.

A standing Thursday happy hour with a friend who makes you laugh until your mascara smears, a cover band concert where you know all the words to the ‘80s tunes, and a novel so good you’re rationing it so that it doesn’t end, all provide moments of pre-emptive excitement. So does finally trying that new restaurant that you keep postponing because, honestly, the sofa is SO comfortable at the end of the day.

None of these will change your life, but when planned, they create a rhythm of expectation and enjoyment that can transform an ordinary summer into one you’ll actually remember fondly, instead of one that just sort of happened to you while you were busy scrolling.

Creating Your Own Summer Traditions

One of the genuine gifts of this stage of life is that we no longer need permission to create traditions that suit us. As children, summer traditions were handed to us. As adults, we get to invent them from scratch, and we get to make them exactly as elaborate or as low-key as we want. Friday lunches on a patio, a monthly visit to a local museum (also a great way to beat the heat,) and hosting an “apps and yaps” potluck so that you’re not doing all the work are examples of minimum-effort traditions that are a joy to look forward to.

The event itself matters less than the act of creating something that gives you a reason to smile when you think about next week.

Looking Forward Is a Form of Hope

There is something powerful about putting plans on the calendar. It signals that we believe good things are coming. They may not be dramatic or life-changing, but they are meaningful. One example from my own life is scheduling an appointment with my hair stylist. While coming out with a fresh ‘do feels fantastic, the part I look forward to most is the wild conversation we have. It’s where I get updates on the lives of the “Real Housewives of Wherever,” and all the red-carpet fashion critiques from someone who is half-my age and an absolute encyclopedia of pop culture. I truly look forward to that hilarious hour in her chair.

Having something to look forward to keeps us engaged with the present while staying genuinely optimistic about what comes next. That, it turns out, might be one of the most valuable habits we can build at any age.

Be the Woman Who Says, “Let’s Go”

As women who choose to thrive in later life, there’s one important thing to keep in mind. The person who benefits most from having something to look forward to is often the person willing to create it.

Unfortunately, many women drift into unintentional isolation, waiting for invitations that never come because everyone else is waiting, too. Sometimes the solution is remarkably simple: be the planner. Be the friend who suggests coffee. Be the neighbor who organizes a beginner mahjong group. Just be the woman who says, “Let’s go.” Not only will you fill your own calendar with meaningful moments, but you’ll soon discover that others are grateful you took the first step.

Join Me in Creating More Moments of Anticipation

One of the reasons I created the Spark 60 weekly inspiration email was to help women build more of these moments into their lives. Every Wednesday, I share one simple idea designed to spark curiosity, connection, fun, or possibility. It’s all about knowing that something good is waiting just ahead – even if it’s just a really excellent cantaloupe.

Let’s Get Chatting:

What do you look forward to today? What about tomorrow? And the weekend? What is there to spark up your life in the ordinary days?

Read More