I’m sure we can all agree that there are so many times in life when we want to scream I NEED HELP. Not a single one of us had made it to midlife without someone’s help here or there along the way. So why do so many of us feel that saying I need help is a failure of some kind? We are raised from childhood for the end game of becoming self-sufficient. We were told to think for ourselves. Choose for ourselves. Do for ourselves. A big part of…
Category: midlife
Life After Fifty; Welcome to the Judgement-Free Liberation Zone
Life after fifty definitely comes with some downers but over all, it’s time to celebrate moving into the judgement-free liberation zone! There’s something sort of magical that happens when we get past fifty. We start to gradually shed the pressure to be more. More successful, more popular, more fun, more accomplished, more perfect. We ramp up to this point our entire lives – always trying to be more. Now that we’re here and we realize how many years have gone by with us working so hard and trying so desperately…
Learning to Embrace The Big Shut Out
One of the hardest things about our kids growing up and becoming independent is learning to let go and embracing The Big Shut Out. It’s not easy to go from being intimately involved in (and even responsible for) their every need for at least their first decade, to having to get in line for a moment with them when they are teens. As they mature and start to make decisions for themselves, we instinctually back away, a little bit at a time, to give them space to learn and to make…
Finding Purpose Can Help Fight Feeling Down
Everyone has times when they’re feeling down – that’s normal. But to feel down more often than not over a prolonged period of time is not ok. So how can we pull ourselves up and out of those blues? Purpose, true and authentic purpose, is one way that can help fight feeling down. I’m not suggesting it fixes clinical depression. I’m not a psychologist and I wouldn’t dare suggest how depression should be treated. I’m talking about the sadness we feel on those rainy foggy days (like today if you’re…
Mindset: What happens if we focus on what could go right?
What could happen in our lives if we could steer our mindset to focus on what could go right instead of what might go wrong? Even those of us who consider ourselves eternal optimists (yours truly included) can still have boat-loads of fear crippling us and preventing us from personal growth and from achieving our goals. Growth happens when we have the courage to push through our fears and worries to get to the other side. What gets presented to us on the news is an stream of mostly the…
Midlife: A Stop on the Path to More
It’s called midlife because there is a second half of life to live. In years, our second half may not end up being equal to our first, but in terms of personal growth and satisfaction, it can be. In fact, it can be more. It’s up to us to make that happen. Our second half of life might include pursuing new (or old) dreams, interests, passions or perhaps even newfound purpose helping others. No one can give us a map for our journey, it’s our path and it’s unique to…