Beneath the Covers

By Jacquie Tyler

Books and Chat

Hi Everyone. Hope you’re having a good week!

The Time of your Life

So, who said 50 was the new 40?

Let me tell you, 50 is nothing like 40.  It’s way, way better! 50 deserves a bit of credit; It’s a great age.  From my point of view, getting to 50 was something I was very grateful for and I’m going to celebrate this whole decade.

We’re all living longer now, we know that, but we’re staying youthful longer now too.  And this is because we’ve chosen to.  When get to 50 we realise it isn’t that scary.  We’re not ‘over the hill.’  It’s the second half of our lives and we should embrace that and celebrate it.

There are a few drawbacks, I agree, like Menopause. But unlike my mum’s generation when no one mentioned the ‘M’ word (probably because a lot of women had no concept about what menopause really was) now there is much more awareness and we can educate ourselves better.  We all talk about it more and understand the difference between menopause and perimenopause.

Meg Matthews, the 90s icon of the Brit-pop scene is a huge advocator and has her own website dedicated to the menopause; megsmenopause.com.  She also has a range of products to help with symptoms of menopause that are organic and plant-based.

Liz Earle has been writing about health and wellness for over 30 years and wrote a book called The Good Menopause Guide; an insightful book giving lots of advice and explanations.  She says, “I’d like everyone to feel supported, so no matter what the menopause may bring, at least they feel armed with wise and accurate information.”

Dun Bleedin is a comedy-drama written by Julie Graham, star of Benidorm and The Bletchley Circle, following a group of women going through the menopause.  It stars Tamzin Outhwaite, Angela Griffin, and Denise Welch.  There are 12 episodes; each 10 minutes long and is available on YouTube. This was made during lockdown and raises yet more menopause awareness.

There are so many celebrities that are over 50 and look incredible and it’s not all down to botox and surgery.

The international supermodel, Elle Macpherson, promotes wellness and body positivity.  She works to adapt to the changes in her body and not fight against it.  She is very conscious about what she feeds her body rather than just focusing on physical beauty.

Other positive role models are Davina McCall; Sandra Bullock; Halle Berry; Cindy Crawford and Michelle Pfieffer.

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One of my favourite actresses, Demi Moore who is 57 has written an incredible memoir called Inside Out, which I highly recommend. She talks about her troubled childhood, how she became a star, was betrayed by the men she loved, and her struggles with body image and addiction.

I think what shone through the book was her strength, her way of surviving, how she orchestrated her own success, and her remarkable resilience.  Now, reflecting back over those years Demi says, “I’d done a lot in fifty years, but I don’t know that I’d really experienced a lot, because I spent most of that time not quite there, afraid to be in myself, convinced I didn’t deserve the good and frantically trying to fix the bad.”

But then she also says, “I believe Paulo Coelho was right: the universe conspires to give you everything you want, but not always in the way you expect it.”

I’ve realized that you only learn that as you get older.

Another fabulous woman who just seems to be ageless is Goldie Hawn. During lockdown she started the ‘laughing challenge’ where people shared videos of themselves or families and friends just laughing to share a bit of happiness.  She explained, “Even in the most difficult of times, a laugh can go a long way towards making you feel better.”

In Goldie’s book, ‘A Lotus in the Mud,’ her feelings about getting older were that of joy and excitement for the next segment of her life’s journey.

My good friend, Donna, and I spend hours talking about getting older and we’ve come to the conclusion that the older we get, the wiser we get.  We have more freedom to do what we want, we’re comfortable in our skins and embrace wrinkles, scars and laughter lines (but not grey hair; we draw the line at that!)  If we want to grow our hair long we will, we’ll wear what we want.

We believe it is very important to create boundaries in our lives and surround ourselves with positive people that love and support us; people who ‘lift’ rather than ‘drain’ us.  We have stopped saying ‘yes’ to everything when sometimes we mean ‘no’. After all, you have to be careful how much you tolerate because that teaches people how to treat you.

Self-care and being healthy is something we can’t ignore anymore.  When you’re young or busy with children it’s easy to put yourself last but now we have to think about things like osteoporosis, whether we want to or not so we need to eat well and do the right kinds of exercise.

Having things to look forward to is important too.  We’d love to do a road trip across America, wearing shorts and cowboy boots and stopping off at bars for burgers and tequila.  It may never happen but, never say never!

I’ve had more opportunities come my way after turning 50, two years ago, than I ever have had before. My children are grown up so I have a bit more time for myself and time to go out with friends and do the things I love.  There’s so much to look forward to as you get older; you just have to have a positive attitude, embrace change, and say ‘yes’ to new experiences. All the things I’ve learned have come with age and experience.

So, life really can begin at 50 and you can still leave a little sparkle wherever you go!

Pet Tales

I want to welcome my friend and neighbour, Sandra Chester, to Pet Tales this week.  As well as doing Angelic Reiki and human healing, Sandra is also an Animal Healer.

Hello Sandra, welcome to Lengro Magazine.  You have an amazing gift; being able to give healing to animals.  How did you become an Animal Healer?

I lost my mum in 1992 and that’s when my spiritual path started.  I needed to know she was ok and that there was something else over there.  I was not particularly religious.  My sister took me to a spiritualist church in Hitchin and then after a while, I went to Welwyn Garden City Spiritualist Church and felt like I wanted to give something back to people.

In 2000 I started a spiritualist course and I’m still doing it 20 years later.

I know how much you love animals so how did the animal healing come about?

I wanted to treat animals, so introduced animal healing into the church.  I wanted to get a qualification and found a farm in Somerset that did weekend courses – I.S.R.H.A international self realization healing association.  They had horses, goats, alpacas, chickens, and rabbits.

To give any healing to any animal you must obtain the owner’s permission first.  Healing is a complimentary therapy and not a substitute for veterinary treatment but can work alongside it.

You can’t guarantee a cure but can help all conditions on a mental, physical, and spiritual level.

You mentioned that as well as your love for dogs, horses are your passion.  What sorts of problems do horses suffer from?

I grew up with horses.  I’m currently doing horse healing and I go to livery yards and stables.  Some of their conditions are ongoing like joint problems so they have just a few treatments or ongoing treatments but sometimes they will only need one.

Healing is a way of clearing blocked energy.  I’ve seen a stallion that holds all of its owner’s tension on its shoulders and finds it hard to let go.

Some feisty horses can become calm after just one treatment.

So animals can sense stress in their owners and can be affected by it?

Yes.  Horses yawn, scratch and shake if they’re stressed.

Can you communicate with animals as well?

I’m very interested in animal communication.  We can learn a lot from animals; they are here to teach us.  I’ve done a couple of courses and can look at photographs and get information that way as well.

Sometimes with horses, they just don’t like their stable. Horses also grieve for their animal friends.  If a horse leaves a stable to go to another stable they can grieve about that.  They could take a dislike to their owner.  Some horses have been sold several times and aren’t always happy with the changes.

Do you only work on your own?

I also work with a group from the church and one member of the group was able to sense sadness in one of the horses she worked with.  The horse actually cried; tears ran down his face.

At the church, a lady bought in a kitten that had been rescued.  It had a heart murmur.  It only had one healing treatment and the murmur disappeared.

You also wrote a book about Battery Hens

I decided to get some battery hens from the British Battery Hen Welfare Trust, which rescues battery hens that have had a terrible life.  I then wrote a book to educate kids on the food industry and animal welfare.  I also went on a hen course to learn how to look after them.

As well as a dog and 2 tortoises, you have a rescue hen too

Yes her name is Rita and I give her healing every day because she suffers from Impacted Crop caused by eating too much long grass and Sour Crop, a yeast infection.

Tell us about Lenny

Lenny is a pooshi, shitzu, poodle cross.  Lenny had a rare condition about 3 years ago.  The vet thought it was lockjaw or tetanus at first but after further examination, he detected the problem and said it would take 8 weeks for the problem to correct itself.  After 2 weeks of daily healing, Lenny was back to normal.

Lenny is also a therapy dog.  I take him to a care home in Welwyn Garden City once a week to visit the elderly and patients with dementia.  He’s also very in tune with end of life patients.  He sits on the end of their beds and seems to know what is happening by his sense of smell.  He interacts by sniffing them.  I put their hands on him so they can touch him.

Thank you for telling us about your work Sandra and good luck with the Animal Communication

If you would like to contact Sandra, you can email her at Sandrachester@hotmail.co.uk or contact her on 07951 415897

Uplifting Song of the Week

Save the Arts

“I think I’m the luckiest man alive really because I’ve been able to do the one thing in my life that I really love and I don’t intend to stop.” – Andrew Lloyd Webber

Have a great week.

Love

Jacquie X

Email: jacquietyler@hotmail.com

Facebook: Jacquie Tyler – Beneath the Covers

Instagram: @beneath_the_covers_

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