How do you Define midlife?
August 2024 Edition
How do you define midlife?
Is it an age or a feeling?
Is it a lifestyle milestone or a financial goal?
Is it owning a home or having a family?
On the quest for one definition, I’ve encountered many definitions of midlife. My book research allows me to hear all the ways we recognize a true shift mentally, physically and emotionally in this transit of life.
Here are a few to chew on, including my first attempt to share when I noticed a shift.
“Midlife is when you start to wake up. It is truly an awakening. You have achieved (or not) all the things you believed you should achieve by this point and it is the first time you wonder, what else is there?” - Sonia Bercel Collins, Executive Coach
“Age isn’t as associated with mid-life for me. I see women who are burnt out- physically, emotionally as they navigate helping aging parents, their spouse, kids and careers. When I see them in my office, women in midlife have the highest stress levels worried about 4 or 5 major buckets in their life. Their entire system is worried about everyone else and their hormones are setting an alarm to finally take care of themselves.” - Dr Erin Kinney, Naturopathic Doctor, Founder of The Kinney Clinic
Midlife was not in my 30s when I was the sandwich caregiver but instead when my stress caused physical ailments and my work environment was so toxic I was emotionally debilitated. Working 7 days a week on a special project that was to get me to the next career rung, albeit during covid, my body started to bonk (a term used by marathoners and athletes when you just can’t move anymore). Crying daily was my only release, often on the floor locking my kids out of the bedroom as I sobbed. For me, entry to midlife felt like I was going mad. The extreme lying that occurred was making me think I was crazy and my adrenals were taxed to the point where I thought every email was a saber tooth tiger coming for me. And after the dip, I emerged with a new found purpose.
How do you define midlife?
