Find your fabulous: Meet Sophie Benge, founder of the Ageing Gracefully retreats

I’m Sophie, the founder of Ageing Gracefully, a brand of retreats that inspire women in our middle years to Find Our Fabulous….  

This can sound glib and all-very-well, when we’re struggling to stay afloat as we steer the emotional and biological tidal waves that swell up even more frequently in our 40s and 50s. Career doubt, relationship breakdown, children doing their thing, anxiety and fatigue, can all chip at our sense of identity. Who are we? What’s our role? Where has all our chutzpah gone? 

The eye of the mid-life storm is not alien to me: six months after I was left for another woman, I was still waking in the night, collapsing in tears and mopping sweat from my cleavage. Falling hormones compounded it all. Thankfully it’s history now. 

I passionately believe we can all be that ‘woman who’s got it going on!’ We can be sassy, discerning, clear about what we want and what to do. Our middle years offer a beautiful opportunity to ‘come home’ and focus our energy in new ways; ways that will be different for each of us but make us radiant and plugged into life nonetheless. 

The ‘glow and flow’ path I find myself on is thanks to wonderful people and practices that have fed my personal experience, as well as 20 years working in wellbeing as an international writer and consultant. I want to share all this with other women, like me, to support and inspire us all to ‘find our fabulous’. I really believe connecting to our inherent feminine intelligence and innate wisdom is where much of this begins. It’s a subliminal knowing that feeds our, confidence, trust and intuition. 

We explore some of these maybe-hard-to-fathom concepts at the Ageing Gracefully retreat (November 28th - December 1st in Kent). Together with five wonderful women, each expert in different disciplines we ‘plug in’ with information around hormones, nutrition and exercise. We also enjoy subtle and profound ways to connect through our senses: with movement, meditation, breathing, being in nature and being washed by the sound of gong baths and crystal bowls. We play and stay in a luxurious country house. ’Finding Our Fabulous’ in my book - has to be fun. 

It’s heartening to see such growing awareness and support around ‘menopause’. Let’s celebrate, rather than question ourselves and make this phase of life the best it can be. After all we’re wise women and we do know we what to do. Sometimes we need a little help, to be heard and held. I know I do….. and Ageing Gracefully offers this to you too. 

The Ageing Gracefully retreat is from the 28th November – 1st December 2019 at Goodnestone Park in Canterbury. Price from £1,101 pp (double/twin) or £1,251 (single). Call us on 020 3735 7555 to book your space or book online.