Self-Care Over 50: Daily Practices and Mindful Indulgences

Every now and then, it just feels like we need a palate cleanser. Some sorbet. A break from discussions about undertones in white paint or how consistently cool Leanne Ford’s interiors are. Self-Care Over 50: Daily Practices and Mindful Indulgences is a handful of self-kindnesses I’m showing myself these days.

I independently selected products in this post—if you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.

Self-Care Over 50: Daily Practices and Mindful Indulgences

1. SEEING BETTER: Literally & Metaphorically

Help From Warby Parker

Big fan of Warby Parker here so I am taking advantage of their Try-on 5 for FREE at Home offer again since I want to try their Aubrey frames (below) and check out blue-light filtering lenses. If your eyes are also getting a lot of screen time (phones, tablets, laptops), maybe you’ll want protection as well.

WP offers convenience, style, and high quality with an affordable price point under $100.

Spiritual Seeing & Self-Care

It wasn’t until I turned 40 that I began thinking about my spiritual lens. To be honest, the predominant picture of a fruitful spiritual journey I grew up with was heavy on the self-denial, church attendance, and shame. Yet as I awakened to the always flowing unconditional love, I was led to greater self-acceptance and wider capacity to love others.

Daily Spiritual Practices

Centering prayer, meditation, scripture, singing psalms, silence, solitude, quiet walks, and being out in nature open my soul and train the eye. Sometimes it takes tragedy and loss for such depth to come. But it can also grow out of fierce desire. Five years ago, my desire to SEE burned so bright in my heart that other parts of me (will, ego, pride) didn’t have a chance!

When Practices Become Daily Rhythms

Daily spiritual practices can become built into your day. I do them without ever expecting to be blessed or consoled, but the time is never wasted. They become practice for letting go, staying undefended, and becoming teachable.

Seeing as God sees has not been a strategy for aerie faerie happiness as much as a humbling, embodied, evolving education anchored in truth and wonder.

2. FEELING BETTER in My Skin

Healing KUL CBD Skin Care

While many of you were transforming your gardens and interiors during the spring of sheltering, I was a mad scientist on a quest to heal angry excessively dry inflamed skin, including severe rosacea unresponsive to prescriptions.

If, like me, you’re not quick to jump on any hemp-based or CBD bandwagon, I hear you. This isn’t a sponsored post. But the proof is in the tasting, and I found just what my skin loves and needed: a blend of CBD, probiotics, micro-algae, and calming anti-inflammatory ingredients such as rose oil and milk thistle.

Hallelujah, I Love Science!

I think I see what you essential oil geeks are nutty about now (I thought that was all hocus pocus placebo effect). WHAT A BLESSING KUL’s concoctions immediately addressed the ills my skin presented. If these products can work magic on my sorry, over 50, chronically ill with pancreatitis skin, I cannot imagine what they do for healthy types!

KUL’s glow kit elevates my everyday and is an easy, mindfully indulgent way I can care for myself like I would a friend in need. A few minutes in the morning and evening provide a pocket of silence, soothing comfort, and a gentle moment to nurture the organ that serves me so well.

For Insomniacs of Any Age

Beauty sleep is critical to repairing skin, and I am sleeping better thanks to KUL CBD’s tinctures (the Green Tea is not half bad, but I prefer Mint since the aroma has always soothed my nausea). I take the lowest dose (.25 of a dropper) just before bed and highly recommend it as a sleep aid or to promote relaxation.

Is it worth the price? Since La Mer (yep, I’ve used it) is similar and charges 3x what KUL does, for me it’s a solid yes. This isn’t something to google where you’ll find a dupe in the drugstore or a DIY facial serum recipe to make at home.

KUL30OFF will save you a bundle!

Under the Skin: Mental Health Self-Care

I love how Brene Brown suggests I mindfully prevent a freak out:

Since we’re in a global crisis, if you simply examine #1, you might find there’s reason enough to freak. But #2 requires us to go deeper. Will a freakout help the situation?

I don’t know about you, but I have felt stretched in fresh ways to become more mindfully responsive and less reactive during so much uncertainty. Family can get on the nerves. There is so much emoting happening in social media and on the streets. How do you cope with daily headaches from a new normal, the mounting grief of illness and death, civil unrest, and political divisiveness?

Coping Ideas

Here’s my plan: Look in the mirror, and come back to you. Feel the things but don’t obsess. Take a break from social media. Make your bed. Take a shower. Massage glow serum into your skin and wear clothes you feel like you in. Wear bronzer. Phone a friend. Go for a walk or get on your bike. Listen to inspiring podcasts, learn about history, create art for no good reason, and immerse yourself in books, poetry, music and art to free you from thought patterns that keep you stuck.

Daily self-care practices like meditation help me get centered and less reactive. Personally, they help me become the prayer on my lips and the peace for which I long. They help me put on a new mind. Because if the weight of life lately seems like it’s all too much for your mental health, then it is. You’re not alone.

Just in Case You’re Thinking…

Should the thought occur: ‘Girl, I have responsibilities and no time like yer fairy self obviously has for such hippie dippie Kumbaya,’ then I’d say. ‘Oh, sister, let’s chat softly in the garden…you’re responsible for your soul too. To hear it whisper requires a bold journey into spaciousness.’

We’re only here a little while. My illness is a constant reminder I just just don’t have the time to NOT grow into a more loving, peaceful, imperfectly magnificent and wild student of the Divine Mystery.

3. Double Tasking Makeup

Westman Atelier Clean Beauty

I never gave the ingredients in my cosmetics a second thought until 2013 when my world turned upside down with BRCA2+ genetic mutation. Hysterectomy, mastectomy, reconstruction, and the dawn of my anti-cancer journey found me reading the fine print and thinking about toxins.

I loved the small batch, made in Paris, Votre Vu line back then, but since they closed, I have a crush on Westman Atelier. The brainchild of famed makeup artist Gucci Westman, she passionately worked with chemists in Paris to formulate luxurious, clean beauty products with good-for-the-skin ingredients.

‘The Cake Look’ is Still Not a Thing

All that effort for clean beauty wouldn’t matter much if the makeup didn’t perform…but it DOES! If you’re over 40 or 60 or 50 like me, you simply cannot tolerate heavy makeup (clean or otherwise) that settles into wrinkles or clings to dry patches. I like my cake to look like cake, and my skin to look like skin. Most of us are after a radiant glowy look that looks like us but better and takes only a few minutes.

The price is luxurious too. This sort of revolution didn’t come cheaply, yet from my calculations, although the initial investment costs twice as much as I typically spend, I’m actually spending just 50% more since a little goes a long way. Westman Atelier products multitask and feel like an extension of my skin care. Similarly, I’m willing to pay $2.50 for a package of gluten-free pasta, which costs 150% more than the generic wheat pasta for a buck…because it’s a healthier choice for me.

4. The Art of Homemaking

Not gonna lie. In my 20’s and 30’s, my super powers for maintaining a tip top ship shape nest, bringing home the bacon, AND effortlessly frying it up in a pan were tooooiggghhhhhht (translation: damn impressive). But here I am, and I can only do smaller things with great love now. Forget about making it look easy…sounds exhausting.

Turns out, working in little spurts on housecleaning, art projects, meal prep and home improvement still leads to progress. Once you stop equating “less than perfection” with fail, a whole new world of success stories emerge.

So, yep, I was more productive at 40, but I’m more of a mindful artist over 50. There’s nothing to prove to anyone, and there never was! (If I could, I would go back in time and whisper that to my 33 year old, productive toned-arm, prone-to-depression self.)

5. Healthy Breakfasts & Bread Making

I make time for a lovely healthy breakfast every morning, and my favorite one is HERE. For lunch, I typically eat vegetables and a slice or two of my no-flour, no-knead healthy bread.

Eating a healthy diet and preparing meals for my family remain important daily practices for me, and even my restricted diet and disease have not been able to rob me of such joy. But I also know I am very fortunate to have this appetite for food, for life, for love, for learning. I count this as a priceless gift.

You too are a gift. Thank you for journeying with me and adding your own thoughts about how daily practices enrich your body, mind, and spirit.

If you’re in the mood for more inspirational quotes encouraging vulnerability and courage, SEE THIS.

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

Shop for items you already intended to buy on Amazon RIGHT HERE (not just items in posts) or for home decor here keeps decor inspiration flowing on Hello Lovely!

Hello Lovely is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.