Joy & Adventure: How to Make the Most of Midlife – The Happy Menopause Podcast

Season 1 • Episode 18
Jo Moseley, Joy Encourager & Midlife Adventurer

Summer is here and lockdown is easing in most places so I thought this would be a good time to start thinking about new adventures. Midlife is a time which can be transformational and enormously liberating because the hormones that have driven your decisions, approach and emotions for years start to subside and there’s some space for you to become more aware of yourself and consider life from a different perspective. Lockdown has also offered a period of reflection for lots of us. I’ve spoken to several people who are considering making changes to the way that they work or how they live, so this episode is a great opportunity to explore that a bit further. I’m speaking to the brilliant Jo Moseley a self-confessed midlife adventurer who says that you’re never too old to do something wild and it’s never too late to make a difference.

Jo describes herself as a joy encourager, midlife adventurer & beach cleaner. In 2019 she embarked on a coast to coast challenge in the north of England, travelling along 162 miles of canals on a stand up paddleboard, picking up litter & raising money for charity. But life wasn’t always one big adventure for her. Several years ago, Jo was hit hard by the perimenopause, so tune in to find out how she went from sobbing in the supermarket to paddleboard pro!

Jo is an incredibly inspiring woman and it’s so interesting to hear her story. I really love that she’s done all this alongside her day job and bringing up her children. It just goes to show that you don’t have to make a drastic life change to introduce a bit of adventure into your life. I hope this episode gives you some food for thought to embark on your own midlife adventure.

This is the end of Season 1 of The Happy Menopause and I’ll be taking a break in August. This is a great chance for you to catch up with any of the episodes you haven’t listened to yet. I’ll be back in September with Season 2, which starts with a series of specials to kick things off. I’ll be speaking to more inspiring women and exploring more of those pesky menopause symptoms, so look out for episodes on skin, hair, nails and much more over the autumn.  In the meantime, I hope you have a great summer, full of joy and adventure!

Show Notes

If you’d like to find out more about Jo and the work that she does, visit her Healthy Happy 50 website.

Pick up a copy of her new book: Stand Up Paddle Boarding in Great Britain

Listen to her podcast The Joy of SUP

Follow Jo on Instagram and Twitter.

Here’s the trailer for her film Brave Enough – A Journey Home to Joy, a a film about her coast to coast challenge, created with Frit Tam of Passionfruit Pictures. It’s already been selected for two prestigious film festivals, Adventure Uncovered and SHAFF – Sheffield Adventure Film Festival.

Jo has recently launched her own podcast The Joy of SUP – The Paddleboarding Sunshine Podcast all about the health, happiness, friendship, adventure and possibility of the growing sport of stand-up paddleboarding.

Sign up for her monthly newsletter, Postcards of Joy – Stories to Lift the Soul.

Check out Jo’s blog to hear about more of her adventures.

Useful Resources

Here are some of the websites and services that we discussed or that are relevant to the theme of the podcast:

Discover The Wave Project, a surf therapy course.

Join the 2MinuteBeachClean, via the 2 Minute Foundation, a charity that is devoted to cleaning up our planet 2 minutes at a time.

For information on Stand Up Paddleboarding & how to buy a Waterways License, visit British Canoeing.

Be inspired by This Girl Can.

Photo by Charlotte Graham