To ask what your best investment in yourself has been?

[HeyItsPickleRick]

Come on mumsnet, creep my lifestyle!

Inspired by the personal stylist post - I’m wondering what is the best thing you’ve bought for yourself?

Mine has 100% been my peloton and all the dumbbells. First exercise I’ve ever stuck to!

Yes it’s painless and amazing. Perfect sight nearly straight away. Short op no pain .
I have varifocal lenses so don’t even need readers .

I know this question has been helpfully answered before but is eye surgery really suitable for people with age related vision deterioration? I so hope it is, must pursue although it's very expensive. I can't wear veridical and am forever changing between glasses.

Of course it is. It’s essentially the same as cataract surgery.

Lone global travel aged 29. Not only was it an amazing, mind broadening experience, it was a catalyst for other things. Made me get to know myself better, which led to have some therapy when I got back, which gave me the belief in myself to return to education. I now have a career that I never thought I’d be capable of at all.

I thought they could correct the short sighted bit but you still needed reading glasses

My divorce lawyer.

Counselling/therapy, lip filler and my Peloton.

Also a divorce!!

I might get roasted for saying this....It would be great to run these answers through AI/ChatGPT to see what the most popular answers are and to rank them.

Therapy/counselling; weight loss jabs; private health treatments (laser eye surgery, bloods etc); cosmetic treatments; gym membership/types of exercise and working on ourselves seem to be the most common themes.

A very inspirational thread! It would be really interesting to see how different the responses would have been 10 & 20+ years ago. It's great to see that we have the ability/urge/finances to make these investments in ourselves. Perhaps our parents generation would not have had these freedoms.

I think you're right. I almost came back to say my best investment in myself was the computer course I did at night school which got me out of retail and into a corporate industry that I've done well in. Which has enabled me to be financially independent and enabled me to pay for my original list items!

@Notsuchafattynow I agree! Looking back, it was my crash course in touch typing that indirectly led to many opportunities and helped me in lots of ways. It's a skill I still value.

Eye surgery. My vision became distorted quite suddenly and I had a hole in the centre of the macular at the back of my eye and two cataracts that had accelerated. It was either wait three months or more or pay the same surgeon who saw me within the week and offered to operate the following week. Absolutely no contest.

My best investment was hiring an experienced independent midwife to provide maternity/postnatal care and support me in a home vbac. A very different experience than the first time round and I wouldn't have hesitated in doing the same again

Loving this thread OP - such a positive vibe from everyone

@kerstina "Yoga , I don’t do it now but I suffer from inflammatory arthritis and the yoga moves I learnt then help me get out of the bath now and up of the floor"

Do you mind sharing which yoga moves had helped? I had knee surgery a while back and the two things I can't do anymore are get up off the floor and get out of the bath - both make me feel so unhappy, disproportionately so. I'd love to focus on being able to do them again which in turn would lift my spirits! 😊

With the bath I push myself up on the flat sides of the bath and do the steps that you would do as you come out of downward dog sort of walking backwards . The same if I am on the floor I somehow manage to push myself up and do the steps again . That’s if I can get down in the first place. Does that makes sense otherwise I will have to consciously rethink it when I am doing it and get back to you ! I just know yoga has definitely helped me not as bad as I would have been!

@kerstina Yes I think I get what you mean - did you use general yoga to get stronger? So much of it seems out of my reach, I can't kneel for instance so I think it's the child's pose (is it called?) that I can't do. So frustrating isn't it?!

Yes it is incredibly frustrating. If you had knee surgery yours should slowly improve though? I can just about kneel but can’t bend my knees enough to squat to say use an ash pan or get the weeds up in the garden .I have got a long handled ash pan now.
I did gentle Hatha yoga weekly for about a year at a class to help recover from a mental breakdown about six years ago.i think it did build my strength up yes Going to try and do a bit more yoga by myself. There is an inflammatory arthritis thread on the autoimmune section I think of mumsnet .Are you on that ?

I do yoga and have one knee I can't kneel on. If we do poses I can't manage, our teacher always just says to do what you can but not to strain. I find it really helps with flexibility, balance and clearing my mind.

@kerstina I'm not on that thread but I'll go and have a read - thank you. I'm pleased you found something that helped you recover from your breakdown, and hope you keep well. I too can't do a deep squat which makes so many everyday things awkward - but I think I just need to focus on that particular movement to improve general functioning.
@LillyPJ That's so encouraging to hear, I think I just need to 'feel the fear and do it anyway'!

Sorry if it’s been asked already but would you mind sharing which YouTube videos you use, please? I’m 49 and need all that toning up!

@Dagnabit I do Move with Nicole on YouTube

I just love reading this thread each day. The overall feeling is of wonderful women prioritising themselves in the loveliest of ways! I haven't thought deeply on mine but probably education for me as it's my thing (Two degrees and two postgrads) and giving myself the gift of short term part time work, for a few years anyway. I feel like I'm healing after some tough years. Also returning to my teenage hobby on a more serious level has been fantastic in every way.

No, you shouldn’t but there are plenty that feel they have to in order to get taken seriously. My GP tried to fob me off with CBT for poor sleep saying it was the cause of my symptoms. It’s cost a lot for a private menopause doctor. It really shouldn’t be like this.

Great thread OP, interesting to see everyone’s responses.

@nooschmoo I love your idea of 50 before 50. I’m going to go write 60 before 60.

Counselling after a pretty horrible childhood - it massively affected 25 years of my life. I still have my issues but it put me in a position to have a healthy relationship with my fiancé when I met him at 51

Going NC with my mother (see above). It was one outcome of counselling and I realised she wasn’t going to change

After my hair looking horribly fluffy and bonkers all holiday, I've booked back in for another Keratin Smoothing Treatment. Yes, it's expensive but it saves me 10 minutes every morning wrestling with my GHDs, and guarantees that my hair will fall just-so every day for 12 weeks.

I will be getting a multi focal lens that will fix all distances. It is 9100 with a blue light discount down to 8200. Can’t wait!