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As many of you may know, I’m on vacation. However, I haven’t shared where I am–I didn’t want to make  anyone out there jealous, but here goes…

My husband and I spent this past week on the beautiful island of Kauai. Right now, as I type this, I can hear the waves lapping the shore in that wonderful, rhythmic song of the beach. And last night, as we strolled along the water, the nearly full moon shone down, glancing off the gentle waves in snippets of silver. In a word, Kauai truly is “paradise.”

But we are flying home tomorrow and I started thinking of all that we face when we return: news of the horrible economy, negative political ads, traffic, stress, work, piled up mail, a suitcase full of soiled clothes, and on and on. After a few minutes of pondering these far from positive thoughts, I began to feel my body tense. Then it hit me! What the heck was I doing? Here I am in one of the most beautiful places on earth getting myself upset by things that may or may not happen in the future. If ever there was a time to “live in the moment,” it is now.

This experience also reminded me of a post I wrote some time ago. It was about the habit of taking time each day to jot down three things for which you are grateful. It’s an easy little practice, costs no more than a piece of paper (or, perhaps, a small gratitude journal), and only takes a minute or two.

The things for which you are grateful don’t have to be big ticket items; they can be as simple as finding your favorite fresh vegetable at the farmers’ market, enjoying a hearty laugh with a dear friend, or  just having a good hair day. The important part of the exercise is training yourself to focus on and  look for everyday blessings.

The secret to a happy life is all about where we choose to place our focus. We can center our thoughts around the negative (as I was doing earlier) or we can choose to focus on the positive. When you think about it, which would you rather do?

I’ve been especially busy as of late and had somehow forgotten about this simple little exercise with the big rewards. But, as soon as I get back, I’m pulling out my journal and starting in again. Actually, now that I’m putting my ideas in the proper perspective, there are lots of great things about coming home after a wonderful and rejuvenating vacation. In fact, I’m beginning to look forward to it and I’m feeling grateful already!

Did you know that a postmenopausal woman has up to twenty times the amount of testosterone per unit of estrogen than an ovulating woman? After a woman’s ovaries have essentially ceased production of estrogen, the adrenals continue to manufacture testosterone. This amazing fact means that midlife women typically become more male-like in our attitudes and behaviors. We are more likely to turn our focus from an outward one, trying to please others, to an inward focus: trying to please ourselves. In fact, we strong-willed old broads exhibit a far greater urge to express our independence, self-assertion, and mastery.

In Gail Sheehy’s seminal work, The Silent Passage, that brought menopause blasting out of the closet, she wrote: “Once the ovarian transition is complete, a woman enters a new state of equilibrium… Think of it as discarding the shell of the reproductive self—who came into being in adolescence—and coming out the other side to coalescence… It is a time when all the wisdom a woman has gathered from fifty years of experience in living comes together. Once she is no longer confined to the culture’s definition of a woman as a primarily sexual object and breeder, a full unity of her feminine and masculine sides is possible. As she moves beyond gender definition, she gains new license to speak her mind and initiate action.”

So, my postmenopausal friends, ask yourself the following:

How are you speaking your mind?

How are you coming up with new ways to express yourself?

How are you honoring your own needs and values?

How are you initiating action?

Just a few questions to ponder as you take your own, unique, and self-defined journey into the second season of life.

As a leading edge baby boomer woman, I’ve been facing some of the less than fabulous telltale signs of aging. In fact, my body parts seem to slipping and sliding with a vengeance and landing right around my middle. As my friend Caryn Leschen says, “Just when you’re getting it all together, your body falls apart!”

Well, I’m happy to say, there are things we can do about this unfortunate turn of events. I interviewed Pam Archer, a fitness coach, on Feisty Side of Fifty Radio this morning and she had some simple and effective tips to help us shed those unwanted pounds. I’m going to follow one of her great suggestions and turn on my favorite Motown tunes while I’m cleaning up the kitchen. It will make the chore a whole lot more fun and have me “sweating to the oldies” and burning calories at the same time. Movement with music is also a terrific mood lifter. You get endorphins with a beat and that can’t help but make you happy.

Exercise in any form is truly the fountain of youth. It aides your health and well being in a number of ways: it oxygenates your brain and makes it function better, it wards off serious illnesses like cancer and heart disease, it strengthens your bones, and it tones your muscles. Another fabulous side effect of exercise—it boosts your metabolism so you can eat more without gaining weight! Each pound of muscle on the body burns an additional 40 – 120 calories daily while each pound of fat burns a puny 1- 3.

So, next time you’re feeling blue and lethargic and feel like being a sedentary senior couch spud, put a little music on. Make sure it conforms to what the legendary spinner of songs, Dick Clark, told us: “It’s got a great beat and you can dance to it.” Then turn up the volume; dust off your blue suede shoes, and dance, dance, dance!