Exhale Midlife Body Blues: 6 Steps to Loving Your Body at Midlife and Beyond (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780983975038)

Katherine Forsythe, MSW, knows first hand what it's like to share the angst of changing bodies and aging. She says this: "Seven years ago at age 57, I stood in front of a mirror and faced myself full on. Staring back at me was someone I didn't like. She was tired. Her brow was furrowed. There were regret, displeasure and resentment in her eyes. All the euphemisms for getting old bubbled up and left me with a big knot: "mature?" "seasoned?" "aging gracefully" "crone (oh, please, really?)"? I didn't want to be any of those. I was a vibrant, zesty, sexy lady. Or so I thought. But this mirror episode was portraying the opposite. All the insecurities from my recent divorce came cascading down around me. I was over the hill. I had lost the edge. I was alone. I was getting old. Then, something very poignant happened. As I was having this profound pity party, I looked up on my office bookshelf and saw a truism that my daughter had framed for me after the divorce. It simply said, "I came to live out loud." At that moment, I made a resolve. I promised myself to find a way out of this miserable despair and hopelessness that I felt over age gain - and to be a confident, sophisticated, beautiful and sexy woman, again, for the rest of my life. Yes, my divorce had eaten away at my sense of self, but I was still the captain of this ship. I had a lifetime of skills to tackle this formidable foe - this quagmire of insecurity. I used all my professional resources from years of sales training and communication skills coaching, my years of relationship-fixing as a therapist, my knowledge of human behavior and sexuality from my MSW - and combined it all with my personal wisdom gained from a tsunami of experiences in my life so far. I created my own A 6 step guide to feeling wonder-full about who I was right now - smack dab in the middle of life, changing body and all! It worked! My friends asked me if I had some "work" done (plastic surgery). I answered that I had not, but had developed my own recipe for "anti-aging". I told them it wasn't about needles or knives, salves or supplements, food or fitness. It was about what was going on between my ears. They wanted in. Now, I'm passionate about sharing my 6 steps with you, too." Katherine Forsythe, MSW, is a Michigan native currently residing in the Bay Area. She has a passionate belief that we're not getting older, we're just getting started!