Caitlin Manner

55+ Life • 15th July 2024

Smarter, Calmer, Healthier: The Positive Impact of Pets

We all intuitively know that animals can brighten our days. The interactions we have with our four-legged family members play a surprisingly large role in our mental and physical well-being, but it can be difficult to pin down the science that proves it. Nancy Gee knows this better than most: She’s the head anthrozoologist and director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Human-Animal Interaction, which studies human-animal relationships.Gee started out in cognitive and neural scienc...

55+ Life • 20th May 2024

Hormone Replacement Therapy: What You Need to Know

Approximately 6,000 women in our nation enter menopause each day, usually during their 50s. For some, it’s no big deal; for others, though, “the change” can be debilitating. Menopause can be more than just inconvenient hot flashes and mood swings (although those are common symptoms). It can also cause intense bouts of anxiety, depression, changes in skin conditions, difficulty sleeping, discomfort during sex, weight gain, chronic fatigue, thinning hair, vaginal dryness and feelings of a loss of

SevenPonds Blog • 15th May 2024

How to Know When to Say Goodbye To Your Pet

An interview with Dr. Dani McVety, veterinarian and founder of Lap of Love Veterinary Hospice and At-Home Euthanasia

If you’ve ever had the privilege of loving a pet, you are probably familiar with how emotionally draining it can be when they get old. Because as a pet owner, you are inevitably confronted with the question of whether or not it is time to ease them through their final days with humane euthanasia, or to engage in medical interventions that would prolong their stay.

As it stands i

SevenPonds Blog • 29th March 2024

The Tragic Death of Nex Benedict

Controversy surrounds the death of a young, nonbinary Indigenous student in Oklahoma

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary Indigenous student from Owasso, Oklahoma, died on February 8th, 2024, just a day after they were assaulted in a school bathroom. Although the medical examiner’s preliminary report found that their death was likely the result of a lethal combination of two medications and not the injuries sustained in the attack, questions remain about the accuracy of the initial incident re

55+ Life • 18th March 2024

Magic Mushrooms Making Way into Therapy

The possible benefits, risks, and what you should know

You may have heard that “magic mushrooms” are making a comeback, but this time, they’re medicinal. Instead of a recreational drug utilized for colorful, otherworldly hallucinations, they’re the latest innovative treatment being used for major depressive disorders.

Psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical found in magic mushrooms, has been effectively criminalized since the 1970s, when it was deemed a Schedule I drug (high potential for misu

SevenPonds Blog • 1st March 2024

The Human Brain 'Shields' Us From Grasping Our Own Mortality

Scientists are just beginning to understand this evolutionary phenomenon

Death is a universally shared fate. With the rare exception of lobsters (seriously!) all creatures will eventually die of old age if they haven’t succumbed to another means of demise. And while everyone knows in some vague sense that they will die someday, too, it turns out our brains actively shield us from contemplating that notion too closely.

Why Can’t We Grasp Our Own Mortality?

In a study conducted at Bar Ilan Univ

55+ Life • 13th February 2024

Quick Getaways: Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Celebration gets a bad rap but it’s actually a great party

Over the years, proposals to visit New Orleans’ bacchanalian Mardi Gras celebrations have earned disdain similar to that of seeing the ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Once considered items for a fun bucket list, both have reputations of being more trouble than they’re worth.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans gets a particularly bad rap. Yes, Bourbon Street is renowned for its displays of public drunkenness and other, ahem, risqué

55+ Life • 26th September 2023

How to Travel with Friends...and Remain Friends

Anyone who has traveled anywhere will likely agree with this: travel can bring out the best — and worst — of everyone. Going on an extended trip with friends or other couples seems to exacerbate this universal truth. If you want to plan a trip with a group, then, avoiding these common missteps can help make this a trip to remember in all the best ways.

We cannot stress this enough: a calm but awkward discussion is always better than a fiery argument. The best way to stave off disagreements is t

55+ Life • 31st August 2022

Up Close with Jean Remy-Monnay

Jean-Remy Monnay, 59, has held many roles over the years: HR representative, actor, director, and producer, to name a few. He has appeared in over 200 plays, films, and commercials, and he’s been in a documentary on the History Channel. He’s also directed a slew of critically acclaimed plays with his company, the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York.

But Monnay’s true calling — the passion that gets him out of bed on cold and snowy mornings in Albany — is education. Not education in the con

55+ Life • 10th April 2023

Making Friends (After 50!)

The importance of rebuilding your social circle

If you are looking around you and wondering, “Where did my friends go?” you’re not alone. Perhaps you’re an empty nester, a retiree, or recently bereaved or divorced. Whatever the reason, you feel like you finally have some free time, but the circle of people who used to surround you is shrinking.

In our younger years, making friends just seemed, to some extent, to happen without thinking. We met people on the sides of the soccer fields or at PTA

55+ Life • 24th May 2022

Forest Bathing: What Is It, and Where Can I Try?

How taking time out in nature can help your heart and mind

During the height of Covid lock-downs I often found myself stepping into my yard to find a patch of sunlight, raising my face to the sky, and taking deep, purposeful breaths for little five-minute breaks. I would concentrate on listening to the bees in my jasmine bushes, smelling my treasured plumeria tree, and tuning out the chaos that was barely muffled by my backdoor. I was homeschooling two rambunctious young boys, and felt overwhel

55+ Life • 18th May 2022

QUICK GETAWAY: Cooperstown, NY

A short drive from the Capital Region, Cooperstown has something for everyone

Described as a “proud one-stoplight town” on almost every municipal website, Cooperstown has a surprising number of draws for people looking to absorb a dose of pure Americana. Situated in the foothills of the Catskills Mountains, this “small” town is known by many as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but it has other notable cultural institutions as well, including The Farmers’ Museum and Glimmerglass Opera Fest

55+ Life • 11th March 2022

Up Close with Casey Bernstein

Nia is a sensory-based movement practice that draws from martial arts, dance arts, and healing arts. Through a specific choreography to music, it helps people of all shapes and sizes connect their bodies, minds, emotions, and spirit. Created by Carlos and Debbie Rosas in the 1980s, Nia was developed as an alternative to the period’s fascination with aerobics and the high-intensity/low impact fitness crazes that left them feeling unsatisfied. It is a practice that is amoebic in nature, flowing fr

55+ Life • 25th February 2022

Giving the Gift of Time

How to give your grandkids memories instead of Legos

Listen: We know how hard it is to keep up with the changing interests of grandchildren, which toys they already possess, and which ones they’re going to take one look at before it’s relegated to the bottom of a toy bin. It seems like playrooms these days are positively overflowing with toys and gadgets, and the kids still walk around moaning about how bored they are. (The nerve!)

We also know that when it comes to gift-giving occasions, it i

55+ Living Guide • 21st December 2021

Best Podcasts for Boomers (aka 55+)

Now that you’ve figured out how to listen to podcasts (i.e. whenever you want! Wherever you want! So convenient!) the next challenge is to find some to listen to. While everyone will have their favorites, we did some trolling to offer up 10 we consider worth checking out in what we’ll call the “General Topics” category. These podcasts can be enjoyed by anybody but are loosely aimed at the 55+ demographic, and kind of defy categorization beyond that. Nevertheless, these channels are guaranteed to

55+ Living Guide • 23rd November 2021

Surviving Family During the Holidays

5 tips to help make your family gatherings a little less fraught

Ahh, the holidays: That wonderful time of year when families are brought together in the spirit of joy and grateful celebration. When generations can bond over lovingly prepared food and participate in traditions that hark back to the times when things were simpler.

Sometimes, though, the reality is that we don’t live in a Hallmark movie. We don’t all have matching pajamas (despite what Facebook tells you), and we can’t always pa

55+ Living Guide • 8th November 2021

Considering Cannabis?

What you need to know before you visit your first cannabis dispensary

No longer relegated to angsty teens getting high in their parents’ basement, cannabis is becoming more mainstream as many states legalize both medicinal and recreational use.(New York State voted in 2020 to legalize cannabis, while Massachusetts and Vermont have been legal for several years.) With more and more adults realizing that cannabis can be a favorable alternative to alcohol, this burgeoning industry will only continu