A woman who challenged herself to try 50 new things before turning 50 is building a community to change women’s mindsets around being middle-aged.<\/p>\n
Lisa de-Laune tried meditation, solo travelling, learning to salsa and eating oysters as part of her efforts to \u00ab\u00a0take back control\u00a0\u00bb when her life became tough.<\/p>\n
She said the difficulties included a hysterectomy, which brought on the menopause, as well as a divorce and endometriosis.<\/p>\n
Now 52, De-Laune, from Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, has created a support network called Women In Wellness. The group meets monthly and is open to those working in the wellness industry as well as women simply interested in their own wellbeing.<\/p>\n
She said the first three sessions would focus on issues such as menopause and endometriosis.<\/p>\n
Member Amy Haynes, 39, from North Somerset, said it had been \u00ab\u00a0positive\u00a0\u00bb having a group to connect with where she can say \u00ab\u00a0actually, I’m not OK\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
De-Laune said that, before she turned 50, she was \u00ab\u00a0going through all of these physical issues around health, all of the worries with separation and changing jobs\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It was hard, there was a lot of uncertainty. [But] I was determined to not look at it in that negative way,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I wanted to go into that period of my life in a positive way and take back control.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
After completing her challenge to try 50 things, her perspective on being middle-aged changed, she said.<\/p>\n
Until then she had worked in corporate jobs such as risk compliance and health and safety.<\/p>\n
She realised she wanted to inspire other women to change their mindset and look after their wellbeing.<\/p>\n
So, as well as the Women In Wellbeing network, she launched a business called Fifty Firsts Wellness \u2013 offering services such as coaching, training sessions and workshops.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0The whole turmoil at that time, now that I’ve reflected, feels like an opportunity that was handed to me,\u00a0\u00bb she added.<\/p>\n
Women In Wellness member Haynes said the network had already had \u00ab\u00a0a positive impact on my life\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
She said: \u00ab\u00a0Women sometimes can get a bit forgotten, like wellness is not something I’d massively thought about.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It’s given me more confidence to think about myself.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0I now think about my wellness more and don’t plough everything I have into my family.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
De-Laune is leading a free virtual Women In Wellbeing network event for those in the South West and Wales on 21 April.<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A woman who challenged herself to try 50 new things before turning 50 is building a community to change women’s mindsets around being middle-aged. Lisa de-Laune tried meditation, solo travelling, learning to salsa and eating oysters as part of her efforts to \u00ab\u00a0take back control\u00a0\u00bb when her life became tough. She said the difficulties included […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9996","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}