Elvis picked me. We met in the Russian Blue cat breeder’s lounge room. The other kittens ran around, ignoring me. Elvis trotted over, paused for a quizzical look, then jumped into my lap. He purred, I petted, he curled up and slept. Smitten, I took him home.

Never robust, Elvis suffered renal problems, bouts of pancreatitis and cat flu – despite regular vaccinations and a special diet.

‘Every day with Elvis is blessed’, my husband and I declared.

Almost nine, he lived longer than we (or the vet) expected. Even so, when the end came, saying goodbye to my furry companion was incredibly painful.

When Grief is Too Much, I Turn to Yoga

Recovering from the death of a beloved pet is tough. The thing that helped me most, beyond loving support of others, is yoga. In the yoga world, we believe that grief is stored in our bodies  including feeling overwhelmed, restless, or anxious.

A self-nurturing yoga practice helps move it on. Yoga can calm and centre the body, releasing emotions and tension, to reduce the stress response naturally.

Yoga helped mend my broken heart. In this article I share four restorative yoga poses for pet grief. I hope they help you too.

These four restorative poses can be done at home, or (depending on your physical limitations and previous experience) you may need to work with a teacher. Yoga is also not a substitute for medical attention for severe anxiety and depression.

Find somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed. Start by staying in each pose for a couple of breaths and see how it feels. Gradually you may like to lengthen the time spent. Be aware that you might feel a physical ache in the heart, headache, or discomfit in the joints as emotions release.

Cat/Cow

Cat/Cow works through the spine to promote well-being, relieve stress and calm the mind.

Start by kneeling on all fours, knees under hips and hands on the floor under the shoulders. If needed, place a folded blanket under the knees to make it more comfortable. Or you can practice this pose seated in a chair.

• Exhale, head slowly lowers, chin curls towards chest, as back arches (shown in first figure below).
• Inhale, head and tailbone rise, letting the abdomen soften towards the floor. Chest lifts slightly, head follows (as in second figure below).
• Alternate gently and slowly between the two parts of the pose using, focusing on your breath.

Child Pose

This pose helps promotes a sense of nurturing and security.

Start by kneeling, with your buttocks on or moving towards the heels. If you have difficulty sitting on your heels, try placing a rolled towel or folded blanket underneath the back thighs.

• Bending from the hips, upper body folds towards the thighs.
• If the forehead doesn’t reach the floor (or you have high blood pressure) place a support under the head. Or you may like to rest the head on two fists (one on top of the other).
• Place your arms on the floor next to your legs, palms up (if comfy).
• With each out breath imagine the body softening and releasing.

Legs Up the Wall (or on a Chair)

This pose is great for easing tiredness in the body and has a calming effect on the nervous system.

In this pose you may be more comfortable with a folded blanket under your hips.

• Start by laying down on the right side, with bent knees.
• On the inhale breath lift both legs up to the wall.
• The hips should be against or close to the wall (depending on where it’s comfy for your body).
• Arms rest in any comfortable position.
• There should be no strain in the lower back. If there is, ‘Legs on the Chair’ variation may be suitable. Here the legs are supported by a chair (or sofa) instead of taking them up the wall.

Relaxation

Relaxation is done at the end of the practice to further relax the mind and soothe the nervous system. The body will cool so you may like to put on some extra layers of clothing or cover yourself with a blanket.

• Lay on your back. Knees can be straight or bent whichever is most comfy. Arms relax alongside your body. Palms face up or down. Legs about hip width apart.
• Take a few moments to wriggle around and make sure the body is fully supported and as comfy as it can be. If there is any discomfit in the lower back, try placing a rolled blanket or towel under your knees.
• Close your eyes (if it feels okay) and notice the weight of your body resting on the floor.
• Sigh the breath out a couple of times.

As best you can, give your body permission to rest and if the mind wanders gently bring it back to your breath or feeling of sensations in the body.

You may want to set a timer for however long you want to stay in relaxation pose, so you can just rest in the pose.

Have you lost a beloved pet? Are you experiencing grief? What are you finding as the best ways of coping? Is restorative yoga something you have tried? Perhaps you have been able to open your heart to another pet? Please join the conversation and share your experiences.

Is it ever too late to start a business? The data shows that the highest rate of entrepreneurship worldwide is in the 55-64 age group and the over-50 age group is twice as likely to be successful.

Sometimes people newly retiring from a fast-paced career find retirement to be too slow. They miss the stimulation, the purpose, and let’s face it, often the money! Many of them take an avocation, something they enjoy and have always wanted to spend time doing, and turn it from a hobby to a business. I’ve been dipping my toe in those waters and I’m certainly not alone.

I always wondered if I could have made it as a journalist or writer, something I loved to do, and on those stressful days running my business, I dreamed: “If only I had become Barbara Walters or Anna Quindlan, how different my life would be!” So of course, after I retired from the 25-year long career that put food on the table, I was eager to give it a try.

Do the Numbers Matter?

There’s a big difference between starting a business at age 50 and at age 70, however. The 50-year-old still probably needs to earn a living, maybe support a family and is probably not financially able to retire yet.

On the other hand, the 70-year-old, already retired person is probably looking to fulfill a dream or earn some side-hustle money. They’re eligible for Medicare and Social Security. There’s less at stake and so the stress is much less.

That 50-year-old needs to think long and hard and do a lot of research. Entrepreneurship is hard work and high risk. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

The Benefits of Entrepreneurship in Later Life

But if you’ve found the right niche and put together a good plan, sought advice from the many available resources and are willing to do the work, there are many rewards in success.

Those include:

• Doing something you love
• Having a flexible schedule
• Being your own boss
• Making more money

Some Great Later-In-Life Stories

Not everyone started like Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg as a teenager in their garage.

Vera Wang

Vera Wang was 40 before she started designing clothes.

Martha Stewart

Martha was earning a decent living with a catering business, but she was 50 when she signed the Martha Stewart Living deal.

Ray Kroc

Ray was 51 and selling milk shake machines when he bought a little hamburger business and grew it to the McDonald’s chain.

Leo Goodwin

Leo founded Geico Insurance when he was 50, after concluding that insurance could be sold directly to consumers instead of through brokers.

Grandma Moses

Grandma Moses painted her first picture at the age of 76. She turned to painting because arthritis ended embroidery. She went on to paint more than 1,000 paintings, 25 of them after her 100^th birthday.

Colonel Sanders

My favorite story! The Colonel owned a gas station and during the depression started cooking and serving truckers in the back room. When he lost his gas station at age 66, homeless, with only his perfected chicken recipe to his name, he tried to sell the recipe. He was rejected 1,009 times! The rest is history.

What Qualities Does the Older Entrepreneur Bring to the Table?

Experience

Older and wiser, right? You’ve been around the block. You know that you need a good business plan, some good advice, and money. Most important of all, you know what you don’t know and need to learn.

Resilience

You’ve failed before and you know how to accept the set-backs and bounce back.

You Know Yourself

By now you’ve figured out what you love doing and what bores you, how you want to spend your days. You’ve heard the saying, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” Not sure I buy that 100% but at least you know what you love.

A Network

You know a lot of people and they know a lot of people. When you identify a need, you know who to ask.

Age Is Valued

No, not as much as it should be. Age discrimination still exists. But it’s better than it used to be and in some areas is actually a plus. For example, according to Entrepreneur, investors look for and value the older entrepreneur.

Financial Security

This might not always be the case but it often is. If you’ve reached retirement age you might have retirement savings and be eligible for Social Security and Medicare.

Self-Confidence

Remember that young you, full of self-doubt, little life experience? What a difference as we age! Now we know we can do anything!

Let’s Talk About Purpose

Why do this? You’ve worked hard and now you want to rest on your laurels – just play, travel, read, do nothing at all. There’s nothing wrong with that and if that makes you happy, go for it! That’s purpose in itself.

But for those of a different personality type, who need to always be stimulated and have an exciting reason to get up in the morning, this might do the trick. The important thing is to have purpose in your life. Purpose of a sort that makes you happy.

In my conversations with seniors, I find purpose is key to a richer later life. That can be so many different things – volunteering, the arts, learning new things, time with children and grandchildren, travel – the list is endless. And several things, not just one, can be on that list.

But if the idea of starting your own business excites you, follow the Nike ad, just do it! It is definitely not too late.

Have you been wondering if you can become an entrepreneur in your 60s and beyond? What skill/hobby would you explore as a business? How prepared are you to launch this new opportunity? What do you still need to learn and figure out? Please share in the comments!

If you’re a so-called “bottle blonde,” and have to resort to salon services to maintain your lightened locks, you know that being blonde is not only expensive AF, but it’s also just downright hard. Before taking a deep dive into our comprehensive blonde hair color guide informed by Los Angeles based colorist (and bona fide blonde guru) Linet K, let’s first address some of the potential reasons for why we oftentimes find ourselves leaving the salon dissatisfied (and sometimes straight-up horrified) with the end result. The most common reason for leaving the salon in a state of distress is that your expectations simply weren’t realistic and/or weren’t matched with your budget, the condition of your hair, your natural color’s aptitude to lift (lighten), or the time limit you’d allotted for the service.

If you’ve ever tried to go from a brunette (or worse, redhead) to blonde with only one salon session, you’ve probably been told that this transformation is virtually impossible to undergo within one day if you plan on actually leaving with some hair left on your head. Of course, aside from consulting with your colorist about possibilities and options, it’s also possible you weren’t specific enough in communicating your hair goals or simply didn’t even know what you wanted (all you knew is that it wasn’t what you left with).

Even if you have the most amazing colorist in your city and bring in the most illustrative inspiration pics the margin of “error,” walking out of the salon with the exact shade, undertone and effect you dreamed of us is unlikely without the right vocabulary.  Not only is there a highly nuanced shade palette when it comes to a vast range of different hues under the broad “blonde” umbrella, but there is also a slew of different tones (ash, neutral, golden, icy…and the list goes on). There’s also a ton of different blonding techniques that will each give you a different look.

On top of this, colorists and hairstylists seem to have adopted their own language choc-full of mystifying terms and descriptives, and if you don’t know the jargon, you may be at a disadvantage when you’re trying to distinguish whether you’re coveting dimension, a smudged root, or blended babylights, or whether you’re looking for a “bronde,” baby blonde or champagne-hued accent highlights. “The best thing to do is to take in photos of what you like because your interpretation or understanding of cool, neutral, and platinum are not the same or someone else’s understanding of those terms,” Linet advises.

Balayage, babylights and partial highlights offer the most natural-looking blonde requiring less maintenance and offering a more forgiving grow-up process, while bleach and tones give an all-over blonde (often platinum-white) but you’ll have to be religious about root touch-ups every 3-4 weeks to avoid stark lines of demarcation. “Balayage lasts for between 3-6 months, whereas highlights need a touch up every 4-6 weeks, so you can save money with a balayage with more infrequent salon visits,” she says.

According to Linet, it’s also important to factor in the condition of your hair, if you have a ton of breakage from previous bleach jobs or excessive heat styling, a bleach and tone or platinum highlights, aren’t ideal. “Balayage [tend to be] the least damaging because the bleach doesn’t go all the way up to the root, and there are fewer pieces of hair bleached compared to highlights or babylights,” she says. Regardless of which technique and tone you decide, ensuring you protect the integrity of your hair (another popular salon term, I’ve heard numerous times), selecting the right products to maintain your hair’s health and keep your locks bright and brass-free is essential.

The two products she recommends to her blonde clients? A good bond-builder and violet-hued shampoo. “Olaplex will keep the hair strong and healthy! Purple shampoo only once a week to keep it bright, otherwise, it will start looking grey,” she suggests. See below for some of our favorite blonde looks and find out exactly how to ask for them.

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Sally Beauty is a STYLECASTER sponsor, however, all products in this article were independently selected by our editors. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale.

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Icy Platinum Bleach & Tone

A bleach and tone service involves the process of applying bleach in section to the entire head to a pale yellow or white level and then applying a toner to get the desired undertone. This icy (white, cool-toned cast) is achieved by using a purple or ash-toned glaze over pre-lightened locks. As mentioned, bleach and tone blondes should expect a high-maintenance and expensive salon routine because root regrowth looks stark compared to sectional highlights, hand-painted balayage, or super blended babylights.

Courtesy of Color Lux.

Color Lux Cleansing Conditioner

Using a color-depositing conditioner formulated for platinum blondes will help keep your hair fresher for an extended amount of time. Color Lux’s Cleansing Conditioner in the platinum will help counteract unwanted warmth and keep brass at bay in between your salon appointments.

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Butter Blonde Highlights With Smudged Root

Butter blonde tones are universally flattering on a wide range of skin tones, and they require much less upkeep with maintaining the tone than ash, ice, platinum, and cooler-toned hues. She also appears to have what’s called a smudged root: a process that involves the colorist adding a glaze or demi-permanent gloss darker than the blonde color applied over your roots to soften any harsh lines from your highlights and to help make the grow-out look a bit more natural for those who prefer to only visit the salon for touch-ups a couple of times a year.

Courtesy of GemLites.

ColorLites Color-Depositing Shampoo

This pigmented color-depositing shampoo comes in a variety of hue-enhancing shades, including options for white platinums, golden highlights, and beige blondes. The shade “sandstone” is perfect for maintaining buttery blonde shades.

Buy: GemLites Color-Depositing Shampoo $35

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Mushroom Blonde Color Melt

Mushroom blonde is probably one of the biggest hair color trends swirling about this summer, and for good reason. The ash-based hue is a combination of grayish-brown and neutral blonde, infused with highlights and low-lights in a myriad of different shades and tones for an ultra-natural look that still delivers ample dimension and character. The color melt technique is a popular way to nail this look because it concentrates on lighter shades at the bottom of the hair with a gradient effect from the root to strands. It’s one of the most fuss-free hair services you can choose from, and it complements the multifaceted ‘shroom shades beautifully.

Courtesy of Fanola.

Fanola No Yellow Shampoo

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this violet-tinged shampoo is the ultimate brass-blocker I’ve found. Colorists swear by it — even to use in place of an actual toner. It’s that good. This formula will help keep the mushroom tones nice and ashy and will counteract brass.

Buy: Fanola No Yellow Shampoo $24.99

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Golden Blonde Babylights

Babylights are one of the go-to highlighting methods used on clients looking for a super-natural looking blonde that mimics the enviable soft dimension you’ll see on naturally blonde tresses of children (most people lose this lustrous effect with age). This method offers a super-subtle look and tends to grow out beautifully depending on how light you go.

Courtesy of FEKKAI.

FEKKAI Baby Blonde Shampoo

This blonde-enhancing shampoo helps keep golden locks looking shiny and vibrant, but isn’t as pigmented as other purple-toned shampoos, so it won’t leave your locks looking ashy or silvery.

Buy: Fekkai Baby Blonde Shampoo $19.99

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Silver Blonde Bleach & Tone

Another bleach and tone example, this striking blonde has been bleached to a pale yellow and toned with an ash or silver toner to create a grayish hue. If you choose to rock this look, prepare for some serious commitment when it comes to your maintenance routine. We advise investing in silver or violet-hued shampoo to maintain the brilliance and counteract brass (especially if your natural hair color is darker) in between salon visits.

Courtesy of Luesta.

Luesta Hair Brightening Mask

This two-in-one hair mask delivers anti-brass powers to keep yellow tones at bay, while also conditioning the hair to reverse breakage and bleach damage.

Buy: Luesta Hair Brightening Mask $26.90

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Ash Blonde With Platinum Accent “Money Piece” Highlights

This ash-blonde look is accented with a touch of face-framing highlights positioned strategically around the face for a sun-kissed effect. I’ve also heard these accent or face frame highlights referred to as “pops,” money pieces, crown highlights, and frosted tip highlights in salons.

Courtesy of Kerastase.

Kérastase Blond Absolu CicaFlash Conditioner

This fortifying hair treatment will keep your brighter pieces healthy, strong, and hydrated while also boosting their brightness when your in-between visits to your colorist. It’s infused with hyaluronic acid fills, which work to help repair damage and prevent further breakage.

Buy: Kerastase Blond Absolu $49.99

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Honey Blonde Balayage

Giselle’s signature beachy highlights look effortless and sexy — and they’re actually just as low-key when it comes to maintenance and grow-out as they seem. Balayage is a process of highlighting that (usually) favor the hand-painting technique for placement rather than foils for a more natural look. Balayage often has a rootier look, without being full-on ombre.

Courtesy of CHI.

CHI Ionic Illuminate Golden Blonde Conditioner

Keep your golden strands bright and healthy with this subtle color-depositing conditioner, which also doubles as a bond builder for repairing and restricting damage.

Buy: CHI Golden Blonde Conditioner $15.04

Courtesy of ImaxTree.

Bronde With Ribbon Highlights

Bronde (you guessed it, a slightly blonder brunette shade) is a great option for those on a budget or those who don’t want to fuss with frequent salon appointments to deal with roots. It adds just a touch of dimension and brightness to your natural (or color-treated) hue without a huge investment or commitment. This bronde shade has a pop of blonde with cascading, ultra-thin “ribbon highlights” position around the entire head (as opposed to accent highlights) where the sun would naturally hit.

Courtesy of DP Hue.

DP Hue Gloss+ in Dark Blonde

This color-refreshing gloss gives the perfect pick-me-up to keep warm bronde hues fresh. This low-maintenance look requires little upkeep, but adding a gloss like DP Hue’s will help you push back frequent visits to the salon.

Buy: DP Hue Color Gloss $35

Ramona Singer’s Tortoise Half Frame Sunglasses in The Hamptons

Real Housewives of New York Season 13 Episode 6 Fashion

If there’s one thing more unpleasant-looking than the beachside fishing the ladies do in The Hamptons on this week’s episode of RHONY, it’s definitely seeing the words “Sold Out” on the product page for Ramona Singer’s tortoise half frame sunglasses. However lucky for us, there’s still of course plenty of cute Style Stealers in the sea. 

Fashionably,

Faryn

Click Here to See Her Sold Out DIFF Sunglasses

Click Here for Details on Eboni K Williams’ Sunglasses + Coat

Photo #2: @RamonaSinger

Originally posted at: Ramona Singer’s Tortoise Half Frame Sunglasses