A Beautiful Gathering
Our Middle Years are unfamiliar territory. We may feel lost, disorientated, alone.
But what if there are other women here too? Some just like you - and others with compasses and maps to guide you.
We’ve found a clearing and created a beautiful, welcoming space.
We have laid a table, strung fairy lights in the trees and are preparing a feast.
We’ve brought blankets and hot chocolate - and have built a fire for us to gather around.
And we’ll keep the fire alight. You can come and join us here, in this clearing, whenever you need us.
Here, together, we are transforming the experience of being in this place into something altogether more beautiful.
NEWS! Our Membership doors are open for just a few days
We usually have two or three Membership joining periods each year, when our Membership doors open for a brief period to enable a limited number of new Members to join us. This ensures the sense of gentle and intimate community - without noise or overwhelm - which is an intrinsic part of MYM Membership.
We have the pleasure and privilege of having around 70 beautiful middle years women from all around the world in our private community. And we so look forward to getting to know the new Members who choose to start their Middle Years Monday journey with us in June.
Kind words
“I never imagined that such a place would exist. One so welcoming and without judgement, a place where everyone has a voice - and the support is palpable. Magic.”
Why Middle Years Monday?
Online Membership Community and In-Person Retreats
It can be difficult finding the language to describe the myriad ways in which these middle years may feel disorienting. We don’t often see ourselves and our realities reflected in the online world or in mainstream media. And when it comes to the particular issues we face, it’s hard work finding the rich mine of information we need.
And there’s much to navigate.
Some of it is deeply uncomfortable. Our bodies are changing; sleep seems to be an ever-more reluctant visitor; brain fog, anxiety and bone-deep fatigue may have become our companions. Frequent visitations by a hormonal storm. Watching our parents move deeper into old age and ill health. Encountering loss and grief with more regularity. Uncertainty about our changed role when our children start to need us less or in different ways. Coming to terms with the final loss of our fertility - or the reality of unintended childlessness. And feeling we no longer understand who we are or why we’re here. We may fear that opportunity has passed us by, that life from here gets only smaller – and that perhaps it’s all just too late. If you are a woman in or around your 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond it is likely that some of these words will speak to you.
BUT… there is so much more to your story than this.
Because this life stage brings us gains as well as losses. With support we can find an opening up of time, opportunity, confidence and creativity. We can befriend and harness that pull to do something meaningful with the rest of our lives. We can attend to the whisper that’s nudging us to revisit the dreams we’ve pushed aside. We can act on the urge to shake things up and stake a claim in this life.
Because this is the reality of being a middle years woman. All of this beautiful, messy nuance.
And that’s what Middle Years Monday is about. It’s not about pretending that the fears and challenges don’t exist. Middle Years Monday is a BS-free zone where all feelings, concerns and questions are welcome. And it’s also a place where you can find practical tools and resources that can actually make a difference to how you feel inside, how you move through your week, how you face the stuff that comes your way.
Attending our in-person Retreats or becoming a Middle Years Monday Member are the most nourishing and rewarding ways of being part of MYM. You can read about our upcoming Retreats here and full information about Membership is below.
But if this isn’t something within your reach right now - either because you’re waiting for our Membership doors to re-open (they usually open briefly two or three times a year), or if our upcoming Retreats are sold out, or you currently don’t have the funds for either - there are other ways to be involved. We are passionate about supporting all middle years women - do sign up to receive our Letters of Love (our newsletter), watch out for upcoming free Community Events such as our monthly Deep Relaxation sessions and our annual initiatives such as our live Vision Board evening and the MYM Advent Illuminations and follow us on instagram. However you choose to connect with us, you’ll find hope, wisdom and inspiration.
Now is our time to create new beginnings, nurture a new kind of freedom and grow into the more authentic and joyful way of living that awaits us - so that we may better understand Anne Lamott’s words:
“Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life
– it has given me me.”
Kind words
“I am learning to love my birthday (for the first time in my life), and I have no doubt that the *collective effervescence* of this community - the laughter, wisdom, brutal and joyful honesty of being a woman - is a big part of this change for me.”
Membership
© Pip Wilcox
The Middle Years Monday online Membership community is a nourishing place. Somewhere to catch your breath. To realise that you are not alone. To be in the company of other middle years women. To share your story and hear the stories of others. This is somewhere you can come to receive, to be heard, to find wise counsel. It is an honest place. A place of comfort and warmth - where we gather privately.
Bringing ease, insight and a sense of belonging into your middle years is our over-arching aim.
Membership provides you with access to a breadth and depth of support and expertise via a variety of different voices.
Together with a glorious, small collective of regular and guest contributors we’ve made something really special for you and for us.
Take What You Need + Leave the Rest
There are two main pillars of MYM Membership…
The warm, wise embrace of a community of middle years women from around the world
The expertise that is shared with you by our regular and guest contributors
There is no one ‘right’ way of being a MYM Member. You might be someone who enjoys coming to lots of our live sessions, participating in the collective projects, the weekly virtual cuppas and so on.
Or, you may be an introvert or someone who is easily overwhelmed and prefers a much quieter, more low-key approach, just watching the recordings of those live sessions that really jump out at you and choosing not to get involved with other aspects of Membership.
Our community is made up of a mix of women with different preferences and approaches, all are welcome and appreciated - and I have very intentionally set the Membership fee at a level that removes a big sense of pressure to ‘make the most of it’.
There is no such thing as falling behind. There’s no obligation to watch or participate in anything that doesn’t interest you or you don’t have time for - this is about you picking and choosing what is helpful and nourishing for you. Everything we offer as part of your Membership is there for you to dip in and out of whenever and however you wish.
Kind words
“Does anyone remember The Secret Garden - the 1949 film version? ...Well part way through the film, when Mary Lennox discovers the hidden door to the secret garden, the scenery changes from black & white to technicolour. That’s how I feel about MYM!! I found a magical world of hope and friendship...”
Membership Benefits
Community
A private community of perimenopausal, menopausal and post-menopausal women for you to connect and share your stories, challenges and wisdom with; to talk and listen to; and be heard by - as often as you like. There are many opportunities each month to spend time in the company of your fellow Middle Years Monday Members - through our weekly Cuppas and Co-working sessions, our fortnightly Book Group and our monthly Workshops, Interviews and Talks. I really cannot wait to welcome you in.
“I think there are very few times when I come into our community and don’t shed a tear; maybe the relief of hearing my experiences articulated and echoed in a way that I have not experienced for a very long time, if ever, and of feeling safe to acknowledge and experience that.”
“Thank you everyone for your kindness and wisdom. I’m so grateful to you all for holding me.”
“Thank you for all the things you do, Pip. I know that it’s a lot of hard work but it’s quite incredible. I’m thinking about this year drawing to a close and about all the amazing women that I’ve met (virtually) because of joining Middle Years Monday. It’s been everything that I thought it would be.”
“I am so grateful for the connections I have made with the women I have met here. This magical little space has attracted a special sort of woman. I look forward to the opportunity to continue practising vulnerability, courage, connection, introspection and some honest belly laughing together. Thank you!”
Support + Expertise
An intimate space for all of your middle years wonderings. Through Middle Years Monday you have access to an incredible collective of women. There is so much wisdom, support and expertise here - both from your fellow Members and from the brilliant regular and guest experts who help me hold this space. Together we provide a welcoming place to join in with existing conversations and to start new ones; to bring your thoughts and reflections, your questions and your comments. See ‘Who We Are & What We Do’ below for bios and further information.
“During this few months of taking input from MYM I have realised more things about myself and my wellbeing than all the last years together! Thank you so much Pip!”
“You have envisioned a lovely table for women of the world to gather around and I’m so grateful to have a seat here. It is just the safe space I need to practice new thinking and stretch out of my cages so I can live into my wildness! (If you haven’t already put together that I’m enjoying reading Untamed, I am tremendously!)”
“In Feb this year (a lifetime ago!!) I was beginning to think I was losing my marbles. The last few months have taught me so much. This community has really opened my eyes that the ‘second half of life’ is just the beginning of new adventures. It’s like the lights have come back on.”
Monthly Live Events
In addition to our regular weekly, fortnightly and monthly events, each month there are one or two live workshops, talks, interviews or wellbeing events led by guest experts. These take place on Zoom and you can join us live or catch up with the recordings later.
The start time of these events is usually 5pm, 7pm or 8pm UK time (BST or GMT). Attendance numbers vary from around 8-20 Members. These sessions address the full experience of what it is to be a woman in our middle years - with the overarching aim of bringing an increased sense of ease, insight and fulfilment to this life stage.
There is more information about these below (see ‘MYM Members-only Library’) and in the Guest Contributors part of the ‘Who We Are & What We Do’ section further below.
“I loved the opportunity to centre myself during yet another unexpected transition in my life. This workshop could not have come at a more important time for me to stay grounded and in one piece. Thank you.”
“Joining MYM has been a really valuable experience. You provide us with such exceptional content. In only a few weeks I’ve learned so much and I can’t wait for the next session.”
“Thank you so much. What an enlightening evening! Great fun, really inspiring and lovely company.”
Weekly ‘Cuppas’
A weekly chance to connect with me and your fellow Members around the world via a Zoom video call (the pic below is a screenshot from one of our early get-togethers). In April 2020, at the start of lockdown here in the UK, I started hosting weekly virtual coffee mornings (in the evening!) for our Members. They fast became the highlight of my week and my heart feels like it swells in size during these gatherings. They are gentle + warm + serious + silly + all sorts of lovely. Each time we come together I am struck by how special it is to be listened to - and that our Members listen to each other really, really beautifully.
At these gatherings we have Members joining us from around the world. We start off with a sharing round when everyone has the chance to respond to a gentle prompt offered by me and then we spend the second part of the Cuppa enjoying freeform conversation - during which we may pick up on some of the threads from the sharing round, or we may venture into entirely unrelated topics. Every Cuppa is different in tone, intensity, mood, pace - driven by whoever is there that week and how they are doing. We talk about anything and everything and Members have shared their experiences of bee-keeping, friendship, loneliness, ageing and dying parents, creativity, relationship endings, parenthood, grief, new starts - and much more.
Straight, gay and bi; single and married; mothers and childfree; employed and freelance; working or not; at the beginning of our middle years journeys or a number of years past menopause - we are a rich and vibrant group. Everyone who comes to these sessions has their camera on, but there's no pressure to talk if you're in the mood just to be quietly in company. It feels through these get-togethers that we are plugging into something ancient, elemental, primordial. A group of middle years women gathering around the fire to share tears, laughter and stories of their week. A chance to be seen and heard. Whether feeling anxious, celebratory, frustrated, sad or joyful. It's all welcomed.
@ Middle Years Monday
“Thank you for such a lovely cuppa last night - those sort of conversations are what I joined MYM for. The sort of chats that meander through topics you had no idea you were going to talk about. Conversation that leads from one interesting thing to another with different people pitching in their experiences and supportive opinions without judgment or agenda. How refreshing. I have always believed in the power of women collectively and I’m so delighted I am part of this collective of women.”
“My heart is still full from that session. Thanks ladies for bringing thoughtfulness and joy into my world. Thank you Pip for creating this space. I treasure it.”
“A gentle place of community and connection. A place to be myself without filtering out the bits I fear will make others uncomfortable. Here among these women from all over the globe drawn together by our season in life I’ve found a seat at the table. Maybe there’s always been a chair for me, but I haven’t felt comfortable taking up space in it before now. This gentle virtual community has been welcoming and nurturing, inspiring and inviting, and filled with opportunities to stretch and grow and practice being myself. One of the things I’ve grown to love more each week is our virtual cuppa, where members can drop in; some just waking up, others in their pyjamas and some in the middle of the day. We laugh, we listen, we take our turn talking if we choose, we are seen and celebrated and welcomed as we are; however that finds us in the moment, real and raw, silly or serious, practical and pertinent. We cycle through it all. Joining this community has become #mydailydoseofcalm helping me navigate the way in these uncertain times.”
Weekly Co-Working
@ Middle Years Monday
I adore these Monday morning co-working sessions. To the extent that I now actually feel excitement about my admin Mondays - that really is quite an outcome!
Monday mornings are a time when I focus on some of the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the MYM show on the road. And I LOVE doing this in the company of MYM Members whilst they too focus on whatever is at the top of their priority list - whether that be work or play. We are usually a group of between 6-12 or so Members joining us from the UK and Europe - and sometimes Australasia too. Coming together in this way for some gentle accountability and companionship is really special.
Most, but not all, of the women who choose to join us for these sessions are self-employed and they come from a broad array of sectors. Amongst the Members who often come along to these sessions (at the time of writing) are a ceramicist, an artist, a jewellery maker, a psychiatrist, and women employed in a range of roles in the public, private and charity sectors (I told you we are a broad mix!).
You might use the time to tackle some of the work or life tasks which you generally find most tricky to focus on - and are inclined to procrastinate about. You'll be amazed at how much it helps having a community of gorgeous MYM women for company. Or you might pick a project or piece of work that really benefits from having plenty of time and space for a deep dive. You might even use the session to do something altogether more playful - we have had Members use the space for activities such as meditation, journaling and weekly tarot draws!
I can't think of a more rewarding way to start the week than in the company of a circle of middle years women from around the world, whilst we all get things done - together.
The structure of these coworking sessions is:
Check-in: we share a few words with each other about what we're going to be focusing on
Cameras on and microphones off: we spend the morning focusing, whilst enjoying each other's warm and quiet company
Check-out: we share a few words about how the morning went for us
Farewell until next time
Please note:
There is no obligation to stay for the whole morning - but I love it when you do!
This is not a weekly obligation. You can come along to these Focus and Connect Co-working sessions whenever you like and they will remain a fixture in the MYM calendar for as long as there is a demand for them.
“I also just wanted to say how much I LOVED the co-working session yesterday and am so pleased it’s been extended to start at 8am. I completed something I have been stalling on for 6 months! I’ve already switched a work appointment next Monday morning and am ringfencing Monday mornings from now on! Thanks Pip for your amazing work building the community and organising the rich and varied events.”
Fortnightly Book Group
@ Middle Years Monday
Our lovely book group brings some of the most warm, tender, thought-provoking and soulful conversations I have the honour of being a part of. It is truly special to have the opportunity of connecting with each other through these rich and deep conversations about our lives and perspectives that these book discussions organically prompt.
We read non-fiction written by women and we take things slowly and manageably, generally discussing just one new chapter each time we meet. Our first book was Women Who Run with the Wolves, our second was Atlas of the Heart, our third was If Women Rose Rooted, our fourth was The Body Is Not An Apology, our fifth was Platonic, our sixth was Rage Becomes Her, our seventh was Braiding Sweetgrass and we’re going to be starting Rest Is Resistance by Tricia Hersey in June 2024.
I don't have much to compare our book group with as my previous experience of book groups is limited. But the feedback I receive from Members is that it's the best they've ever been to!
One of the things that makes it special is the way we take it at such a wonderfully slow pace. This means that reading the book never feels pressured or stressful, we have the chance to enjoy a deep dive into our experience of each chapter - and this relaxed exploration brings with it a really lovely opportunity to get to know and trust each other.
This is not a 'literary' book group - and by that I mean that we spend very little time analysing the writing style of the author. Our discussions revolve instead around what each chapter illuminates for each of us; about ourselves and our lives.
Our Book Group meets every other Tuesday at 8pm GMT/BST, we are a small group of around 6-12 (or sometimes less), and these sessions usually last for around 90 minutes.
Whenever you become a MYM Member you will be very welcome to join the Book Group, regardless of how far through a book we are at that time - and I am so excited about opening up this lovely experience to you.
“Reading ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’ in this community and hearing how many of my stories are shared has been one of the greatest gifts of MYM.”
Monthly Themed Cuppas
@ Middle Years Monday
These monthly opportunities to come together in this way are magic. It is so interesting, stimulating and connecting to hear from different women about their wisdom, experiences and challenges.
A MYM Member once spoke of this community as "A room full of courageous women willing to learn and be curious." And I love creating opportunities for these courageous women to come together so that we can all learn and be curious with each other.
So, once a month, we have a Cuppa with a pre-arranged theme. Examples of some of the topics we’ve discussed so far are Friendship, Co-dependency and Living Authentically.
So, if you like the idea of listening to others - or sharing your own thoughts, experiences and challenges - then you will love these monthly gatherings.
“I’ve just stepped off of this evening’s Cuppa and feel even more delighted to have joined your incredible community. Such lovely women and such a wonderful, worthwhile conversation. Thank you!”
“It’s beautiful how you’ve created such a safe space for women to be open about their struggles, thoughts, hopes and desires. What a powerful purpose, Pip and what a privilege for all of us to bear witness to - and be part of - it. Thank you.”
Collective Exploration
@ Middle Years Monday
A lovely aspect of Membership which has evolved organically is that when it becomes clear there is a common area of interest amongst us, I respond to that by organising some collective exploration. This is a spontaneous and fluid aspect of MYM, rather than something that happens with a fixed frequency - and the number of Members who choose to take part varies each time.
Examples of past collective projects are Julia Cameron’s 12-week programme as laid out in her book The Artist’s Way and the reflective programme contained within Layla F Saad’s book Me and White Supremacy.
In 2022, for the first time, me and a group of Members took part in the MYM 100-Day Project, where we each did our own personal activity for 100 days (or as close to 100 days as we could manage!). Art Therapist and Trauma-informed Coach Conny Weyrich is a MYM Member and, thanks to her, Members benefitted from brilliant input and support in helping them choose the focus of their project.
We ran the MYM 100-Day Project again in 2023 and 2024 - with support from Conny - and unless it becomes apparent that an alternative annual project would be of greater interest to MYM Members, my intention is for us to run this again in future years.
There is absolutely no pressure to participate in these things - or indeed to see them through to the end. But it’s perfect for those of us who welcome some gentle accountability and the opportunity for self-exploration alongside a supportive group of women.
Members-only Video & Audio Library
When you become a Member you get access to the rich library of over 100 recordings of the live sessions that have taken place since we launched in January 2020. This archive has the potential to change your life. A new Member expressed this perfectly when she told me that she’d gained more from watching just one replay in our library than she had from many, many hours of personal therapy.
Here is a snapshot of just a small selection of some of the sessions that have taken place so far. This will give you a good sense of what you can expect from this incredible resource - and if you’d like to dig a little deeper into some of our sessions and the middle years experts who made them possible take a look at the ‘Guest Contributors’ section below:
How to Break your People-Pleaser Habit - a talk by Natalie Lue, Author, Podcaster + Speaker
Journaling for Happiness: a Positive Psychology Approach - a workshop led by Mary Fenwick, Psychologies Magazine agony aunt, Leadership Coach + Journalist
Choosing Healthy Boundaries - a workshop led by Jessica Uys, Personal Growth Coach, Enneagram Facilitator + Organisational Culture Researcher
Creating a New Normal: a life in three acts - a session led by Dr Grace Alexander, Clinical Psychologist (+ Seed Merchant!)
Healthy Relationships: a 3-session series of workshops covering The Story of Relationships; Healthy Communication & Power Dynamics; and Boundaries & Connection - led by Donna Lancaster, author, Imago relationship coach, grief expert + co-founder of the acclaimed The Bridge Retreat
Perimenopause & Menopause - Pip Wilcox in conversation with past Chair of the British Menopause Society Kathy Abernethy
Essence and Alchemy: How essential oils can heal us - with Penny McKinley-Rodgers, clinical aromatherapist + integrative health coach
Happiness: what, why & how - Pip Wilcox in conversation with acclaimed psychologist, leader in the field of Positive Psychology and Happiness expert Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky
The Many Different Types of Lonely: knowing & surviving them - a session led by therapist and coach Ruth Allen
Integration
Every year, we have several weeks during which there are no live events. This is a lovely opportunity for Members to slow down; to dive deeper into one or two of the topics we’ve focused on in MYM and which have particularly captured their imagination; to integrate some of the learning they have experienced in the previous months; or simply to dip into the treasure chest that is the Members’ Library and to catch up with recordings of some of the delicious sessions they’ve missed.
We try and spread these breaks throughout the year which usually results in us having a couple of weeks off every season ie. in the Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
NEWS! Our Membership doors are open for just a few days
We usually have two or three Membership joining periods each year, when our Membership doors open for a brief period to enable a limited number of new Members to join us. This ensures the sense of gentle and intimate community - without noise or overwhelm - which is an intrinsic part of MYM Membership.
We have the pleasure and privilege of having around 70 beautiful middle years women from all around the world in our private community. And we so look forward to getting to know the new Members who choose to start their Middle Years Monday journey with us in June.
Who We Are
& What We Do
© Pip Wilcox
Pip Wilcox - founder & host
I’m a pottery-making, seaside-dwelling, perimenopausal woman in my middle years! I live with my husband in Hastings, UK. David and I didn’t meet until I was 36 and it wasn't until my forties that I moved to the coast and found my way to clay - I’m proof that this life stage can be a time for new beginnings. Prior to that I followed my nose and heart into all sorts of professional careers including spending more than a decade in the world of finance; returning to university to re-train as a therapist; and working for a number of years as a freelance secular funeral celebrant, during which time I led over 300 funerals. That work taught me many things including an awareness that life is precious, it can be so short - and we deserve to grab it with both hands.
I consider it a great privilege that I’ve had the opportunity of bringing together skills I picked up on my erstwhile quirky career path - with the audience that built around my ceramics – in order to create new projects and conversations and communities. When you next have a spare 27 minutes - and if you fancy inviting me into your ears - in this podcast I tell the story of ‘that’ post which became the seed that, one year later, grew into Middle Years Monday. This podcast was recorded as part of a community project about ‘making a difference’. As well as talking about the gravitational pull I have felt towards doing my bit I also reflect on some of the slightly shadowy and icky aspects of making a difference too! On Instagram, as well as @middleyearsmonday (where I’m pretty active) I am also @pipwilcoxceramics (although it’s been a long while since I’ve posted there) and if you’d like to know a bit more about me, there are links to magazine, blog and podcast interviews from my ceramics website.
When Jo Fairley (co-founder of Green & Black’s chocolate) moved to Hastings, she was committed to a daily yoga practice but couldn’t find a teacher and studio that met her need. So she set up a wellbeing centre, with its own yoga studio, that is open to all. Similarly, although not quite so grand I know, I have created Middle Years Monday as much for me as for you. This life stage has left me feeling so different on a molecular level - some days I experience this as empowering and liberating and on other days I am lost at sea. I am so excited at what this community is bringing us all.
For me, being the Founder and host of Middle Years Monday is the virtual equivalent of inviting you to my home to sit around my table with other women who understand and can help to illuminate and make sense of your current experience. My role is to welcome you with open arms, to talk with and listen to you and - together with our guest contributors - to do what I can to bring nourishment your way whilst you are here. And what a joy this is!
I knew from my very earliest imaginings of Middle Years Monday that I wanted to bring together a range of experiences and voices for the benefit of our Members. Lots of Membership groups are based around the teachings of primarily one person, someone who others are drawn to as a kind of guru, often a coach - someone who has a pull to share their wisdom. I have enjoyed being a member of several of these communities over the years and they can be absolutely brilliant. But Middle Years Monday is a little different to those offerings.
Although I have lots of experience and expertise to draw on (and am a qualified therapist), in relation to MYM I am the holder of this space, but am not the star of the show. Instead, I am a gatherer of women and wisdom and am walking alongside - rather than ahead - of you.
It is my job to create a nourishing environment to invite you into; to cultivate a sense of community amongst the women gathered there; to listen to your words and what's communicated in the spaces between those words; to do what I can to understand what will help you find healing and ease; and to bring the perfect experts into our group to share their experience and their teachings with us.
TEACHERS
In addition to the various training and qualifications I gathered in the decades before creating Middle Years Monday, these are some of the women whose wisdom and teachings have more recently supported me personally and/or professionally as a space-holder, human being and business owner:
Gemma Brady: Sister Stories Facilitation training
Sophie Stephenson: Time to Think Thinking Partnership training
Donna Lancaster: Healthy Relationships course & past Middle Years Monday guest contributor
Sara Duigou: Tend course
Karen Johnston: Coaching and Supervision (intermittent)
Guest Contributors
Through Middle Years Monday you will spend time in the company of some truly special guests who cover the full spectrum of what it is to be a woman in our middle years. And I’m incredibly proud of the breadth and depth of knowledge and expertise that is shared with our Members by the brilliant humans that come and speak to our community every month.
As with almost all of our live content - most of these sessions are recorded and are available to watch afterwards too. So when your Membership begins you will have immediate access to a treasure trove of inspirational, rich and nourishing videos and audio to dip into at your leisure - together with the opportunity of course to learn from and put your own questions to our upcoming guests.
As well as the variety of monthly guest contributors in whose company we get to spend an hour or two, we also have the pleasure of getting to know some of these wonderful women a little better. This is a small and fluid collective of women who are able to make space in their busy working lives to stop by more than once and share their wisdom with us - each of them leaves us all the richer for spending some time in their company.
It’s a pleasure to introduce you below to just a few of the women whose hope, wisdom and inspiration has been shared with our Members.
DONNA LANCASTER
I was thrilled, when in the Summer of 2020, I was able to share with Members a bit of a coup - which was that life and relationship coach, writer, author, teacher, grief expert and co-founder of the acclaimed Bridge Retreat, Donna Lancaster, had agreed to run a series of three ‘Healthy Relationships’ workshops for us.
Since then Donna has shared her wisdom and expertise with us through a series of ‘In Conversation with Donna Lancaster’ events. During these interviews I have had the great pleasure of asking Donna to talk to us about topics such as Cultivating Joy, Relationship with Self, Grief and Authentic Living.
Donna is brilliant - real, razor sharp and with the perfect balance of gravity and irreverence in the way she shares her wisdom. And, of course, she is in her middle years.
Donna is incredibly highly regarded and having experienced her teachings a number of times myself - both outside of, and within, MYM - I understand why:
“Donna Lancaster is one of the most inspiring people I know…" - Thandie Newton, actor
“I admire Donna Lancaster as a person of great integrity and compassion. Her work has depth and healing power. I trust her as a healing guide on our human journey of challenge and joy.” - David Richo, Therapist & Author
"There are very few master practitioners out there – but Donna Lancaster is unquestionably one of them." - Dr Shomit Mitter
“Oh my goodness, my head is still spinning after last night’s session with Donna Lancaster. I can’t wait for the recording to be up as I’m going to listen to it all through again. I had several jaw-drop moments of realisation and was left feeling hopeful and so blessed to have had this opportunity to learn from someone so generous and wise. Thank you Pip for making this happen - I can’t wait for part 2.”
CAMILLE ELIZABETH
For quite a while I’d been an admirer from afar of Camille Elizabeth, so when I saw her name pop up in my new Member notifications I was so excited! To me, Camille is a rare example of someone truly carving out her own, individual middle years path and walking her talk - and I was delighted when she accepted my invitation to be a regular guest contributor to Middle Years Monday.
Camille runs truly delicious monthly Deep Relaxation sessions for MYM - these are open to Members and non-Members and I can’t recommend them highly enough. Each month I invite everyone on my MYM email list - which you can subscribe to receive here - to join us for these beautifully nourishing 45-minute events.
Our Members have also had the pleasure of being led by Camille through a workshop on Practical Mindfulness and some extended Deep Relaxation sessions, including a couple of half-day retreats.
In Camille’s words:
“I’m a meditation teacher and mindful living guide. I discovered meditation twenty years ago, when I joined a local Zen Buddhist community. Since then, I’ve been meditating daily, and attend a silent retreat at least once a year.
Several years ago, after waving my kids off to college, I travelled to Bali to teach yoga and meditation at the Gedong Gandhi Ashram. It was there that I fully connected with the art of living gently. I returned to the UK determined to bring that slow, gentle pace into my life back at home.
For the past five years I’ve hosted classes and retreats for individuals wanting to explore and cultivate the practice of meditation and mindful living. In particular, I help people find ways to slow down and connect to sources of tranquility in their lives, so they can discover a happier, healthier way of living.
These days you’ll find me parked up in my campervan home, which I share with my rescue dog Eric, somewhere along the south coast of England.”
Camille is currently taking a break from Instagram (I told you that she walks the talk!) but you can find her here: @camilleslowingdown
PENNY MCKINLEY-RODGERS
Penny McKinley-Rodgers is a soul-centred wellbeing guide and qigong teacher supporting women in their middle years with self-cultivation practices that help unite and balance body, heart, mind and spirit. She lives in New South Wales Australia with her husband and their dog, Steve (surely the best dog name ever?!).
Together with her Qigong teachings, as a qualified clinical aromatherapist and integrative women's health coach, Pen is passionate about empowering women to embody their innate wisdom through a deeper connection with their body and psyche. Pen tells us: “I believe we are all beautiful and unique individuals where there isn't a one-size fits all approach to our health and wellbeing, and we have a responsibility to advocate for ourselves by accessing our inner knowing. I share practices that help you connect with your intuition so that they can be intimately weaved into your own personal story. Because we are our own best teachers.”
Pen radiates a gentle, warm energy, she contributed so generously to our inaugural MYM Advent Illuminations in 2019 and she has been a lovely source of nourishment for this community. Pen played a key role in establishing our fortnightly book group and she has led oodles of wonderful live sessions for us on topics as diverse as Tarot, Essential Oils, Qigong, Breast Health - and all of that goodness remains in the Members Library. Her workshop, Tarot for Wellbeing, resulted in an excitable flurry of tarot deck purchases amongst us and was one of the most popular live sessions MYM has ever run!!
Pen returned to full-time employment in 2022, which meant that her time became much less spacious than it was. So, after the huge pleasure of having Pen’s involvement in Middle Years Monday for a couple of years, in early 2023 she stepped down from her position as one of my righthand women. I have deeply appreciated Pen’s supportive presence, she leaves a warm glow behind and her magic is forever woven into the tapestry of Middle Years Monday. One of the things I will always be grateful to Pen for is her immense belief in me and in Middle Years Monday - her generous feedback and encouragement helped to carry me through some of the inevitable wobbles that accompanied the early days of my journey as the Founder of MYM.
If you'd like to know more about Pen, on Instagram she is @qibythesea.
“Hello Pip, I joined Deep Relaxation this evening and it was blissful. For some reason I’ve always found something else to do previously but not anymore! Thank you, and Camille, for such a restful occasion.”
Lisa Congdon
In this fabulous session Lisa Congdon - Artist, Illustrator, Author, Activist and Middle Years Icon - was in conversation with brilliant interviewer Katie Treggiden. We were all left feeling so hopeful and inspired. Lisa is a self-described late bloomer. Her stellar illustration career did not begin until she was 40, her first book was published at the age of 44 and she married her wife when she was 45. Lisa and Katie talked candidly about the gains and the losses of this life stage; about changing paths later in life; the challenges and rewards of being self-taught and following a less direct route to success; about how Lisa deals with creative fatigue; what inspires her; and how she's learnt the most powerful word is sometimes a simple 'no'.
NICOLA HAGGETT
Body Liberation Mentor and professionally trained Life Coach (CTI), Nicola Haggett, brought expertise, warmth and insight into this session called Coming Home to Our Bodies. This was a wonderfully compassionate and hope-filled 90 minutes in which Nicola helped us to explore our experiences of embodiment across these 5 dimensions: Body comfort + connection; Attuned self-care; Desires; Resisting; Objectification; and Agency. No matter where we are on your own personal body journey this session resonated with us all.
“That was fantastic!!! Total fan girl moment, humbled by Lisa’s honesty and openness, and grateful for Katie’s superb questions! Huge thanks to you Pip and what you’ve created here. What an absolute treat that was.”
KATHY ABERNETHY
Past Chair of the British Menopause Society, Kathy has extensive clinical expertise as a Menopause Specialist and she is the author of Menopause: The One Stop Guide, a book which aims to help women make informed decisions about all aspects of menopausal health. In this warm and illuminating session Kathy talked to us about all things Perimenopause and Menopause including: what is and isn’t normal; what we can do to help ourselves; and HRT - the benefits, the risks and the alternatives.
Sam Baker
Sam Baker is an acclaimed fiction writer and menopause memoirist, journalist, past editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Red Magazines and co-founder of The Pool - and she talked to us generously and openly about the themes covered in her menopause memoir The Shift. Ultimately The Shift is a story of hope and this session reflected that. Just like the book, it didn’t pull punches, it didn’t gloss over the shit bits of life and the shit bits of perimenopause. But it also made our post menopause years sound like something to look forward to and reminded us of the control we may not realise we have, of the possibility of reauthoring some of the stories dished out to us – and it made it clear that it is never too late to shine a light into some of the darkest recesses of our beings to attend to the parts of ourselves which we may have written off as irreversibly broken.
“That was so good, hugely informative and always reassuring to know we’re not the only one feeling those things, and behaving certain ways as a result of middle years changes. It was a great comfort especially after having one of those ‘incredibly sad’ days. Brilliant interview Pip. Also blown away by Sam’s honesty and candid answers, and totally related to the quiet, shy, ginger girl trying to find her place in 80s Britain.”
MARY FENWICK
Agony Aunt for Psychologies magazine; business coach; divorced and widowed by the age of 45; mother to four young adults - these are just some of the elements of Mary’s story.
Mary has shared her wisdom and expertise with us on several occasions.
She has an unusually rich well of experience and as well as teaching us all about the positive psychology approach to journaling for happiness and how to give and receive advice, she has also talked to us about the events she has survived and the ways in which she has managed to thrive.
She has shared with us some of the resources that have helped her - and those that she wishes she’d known about during the periods of intense adversity that she has lived through.
Mary is a powerful example of what can happen when you keep on keeping on.
Professor SONJA LYUBOMIRSKY
Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky is a distinguished professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, has been an associate editor of the Journal of Positive Psychology, is highly decorated in the scientific world and is the author of two acclaimed books The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want and The Myths of Happiness. In truth, I can’t quite believe that Sonja said yes to my invitation to speak to us - a few weeks before our interview she was on the Larry King Show and the morning of the day we spoke she’d been interviewed by the Washington Post! She was a gracious and generous guest and interviewing her about the what, why and how of Happiness was an inspiration and a joy - as well as containing lots of practical and actionable advice.
“This was such a fabulous interview. Pip you are a great interviewer and your compassionate approach and gentle perception added enormously. There was so much from this session to bring into my day... where we put our attention, mindfulness and the whole part on autonomy. Thank you so much.”
Natalie Lue
This energising talk ‘How to Break your People-Pleaser Habit’ with Natalie Lue, Author, Podcaster + Speaker spoke to us all. Do you often feel overwhelmed, anxious, burdened, overcommitted, guilty, frustrated, resentful, low and more? Natalie spoke to us about how these are some of the side-effects of people-pleasing. Often misunderstood to the point where we might see it as a badge of honour or mistake ourselves for a doormat, Natalie spoke of how cutting back on people-pleasing doesn’t just improve our sense of self and wellbeing but brings us more fulfilling relationship and career experiences too. If you become a Member do watch the recording of this energetic and inspirational talk. It will leave you feeling confident that you can break your people-pleasing habit - and armed with the tools you’ll need to start making changes.
Dr Grace Alexander
In this session Dr Grace Alexander, consultant psychologist (and seed merchant!) talked to us about her belief that our lives are split into three acts and she shared with us her wisdom and expertise about how we can move through these life stages. During Act 1 we tend to live according to the expectations of others; in Act 2 we often experience a shattering of assumptions or a sense that things are just not quite OK with us as a result of internal or external, small or seismic ‘Disruptors’; and during Act 3 we can become ‘The Changed Self’ through living with more intention and choice and acting in line with the callings of our heart and soul. This was one of our most well-received and well-attended sessions ever - and for good reason!
“I’m so grateful to you and all the Middle Years Monday community for opening my eyes to so much over these last few months. The Grace Alexander talk was really life changing and I have loved more than I can say being in a women only group.”
Inclusion & Diversity
My sincere intention is that Middle Years Monday both reflects and welcomes all experiences of middle years womanhood - whatever our ethnicity, creed, domestic set-up, economic situation, relationship status, family set-up, size, sexual orientation, disability, communication style, neurodiversity, health or gender assigned at birth. This is something I am continually working on. I’m proud of the fact that MYM is brought to you by a collective of not-so-young women, and I recognise that there is plenty of room for growth when it comes to representing more diversity as we move forwards. I actively seek out a range of contributors and if you have expertise that you believe would be valuable to our Members then please feel free to email me at hello@middleyearsmonday.com
NEWS! Our Membership doors are open for just a few days
We usually have two or three Membership joining periods each year, when our Membership doors open for a brief period to enable a limited number of new Members to join us. This ensures the sense of gentle and intimate community - without noise or overwhelm - which is an intrinsic part of MYM Membership.
We have the pleasure and privilege of having around 70 beautiful middle years women from all around the world in our private community. And we so look forward to getting to know the new Members who choose to start their Middle Years Monday journey with us in June.
More kind words from our Members…
“It’s with mixed emotions that I shared this group with my Instagram followers - half of me loves the way it is small and intimate but the other half wants the whole world to know about it! And the cohorts that have joined since I’ve been in it have all been so wonderful that how can we not tell everyone? Pip, I know I’ve said it before but you have created something truly special in this group. I love knowing it is there for me. It has been such a soul soothing place to be this year. I’ve questioned a LOT about myself as I’ve entered my middle years and the support, education, love and knowledge that this group gives me is amazing. It’s really helping me feel comfortable and confident in the woman I’m becoming, and I have learnt so much from the incredible workshops and group leaders.”
“MYM is the warmest, most nourishing group where I feel free to be myself, accepted and understood. I can’t wait for more people to experience this.”
“When I first read about a new community for middle years women I was intrigued. I have now been a member for 6 months and can honestly say it is the best online space I have ever found. I would love to keep it a secret but it’s too good not to share.”
“Thank you so much for curating this fantastic community and for being such a warm, welcoming, and wise host.”
“What a wonderful, honest, vulnerable experience. Pip, you continue to find ways to speak to this community before we even know we need to have the conversation. THANK YOU.”
