A<\/span> couple of years ago, with the big 5-0 on my horizon, I started having a bit of a meltdown.<\/p>\n I found myself constantly thinking about age\u2014mine and everyone else\u2019s. Halfway through watching a movie, I\u2019d Google to see if the actress was older than me. Was she more accomplished than me? Changing the world in ways that I wasn\u2019t? Was she happier? Or thinner? Or nicer? Or less old-looking? I was getting a little obsessed.<\/p>\n Other women I\u2019ve spoken to have felt that reaching midlife meant, in no particular order, they would start becoming their mothers, stop having sex, forget how to have fun, become invisible to the opposite sex, and basically lapse into general stagnation and decrepitude.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t ready to be \u201cold.\u201d Plus, there was some weird shame attached to dreading this milestone because, on paper, I had a good life. I was relatively healthy, had a roof over my head, clothes in my closet, and family and friends who cared about me. I could hear my inner critic (who was sounding more and more like my long-gone Jewish grandmother) saying, \u201cWhat? You\u2019re complaining now? Please. At least you\u2019re alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Fortunately for me, this funk ultimately led to a kind of existential crisis. I say fortunately because I ended up in life coach training, which led me back to myself and right here to you.<\/p>\n I learned I had the power to see things differently, and when you decide to change the way you see things, the things you see start to change.<\/p>\n In truth, everything in my life is the same as when I panicked, except for one important thing: my perspective is different.<\/p>\n To be perfectly clear, having conflicting thoughts (or straight-up existential dread) at the idea of reaching midlife is normal. Of course, it can feel overwhelming!<\/p>\n We are constantly being told stories around how we\u2019re supposed to act and feel at any given age: \u201cYou\u2019re almost 35, and you don\u2019t have kids? What are you waiting for?\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re pushing 50? It\u2019s all downhill from there.\u201d \u201cLost your keys? You must be having a \u2018senior\u2019 moment.\u201d<\/p>\n We like to believe that we\u2019re independent thinkers, but it can be incredibly illuminating when you realize how much our inherent beliefs are informed by these cultural myths. Reaching midlife is the perfect opportunity to begin flipping those beliefs around and reclaim our lives.<\/p>\n The truth is that\u2014like the seasons, relationships, the TV line-up, and the balance in our checking account\u2014everything changes. Yet it\u2019s curious how often we brace ourselves against this. Change is a constant and inevitable part of being alive, so maybe it\u2019s time to accept it or, at the very least, stop resisting. Plus, you don\u2019t actually suck at change (even though you may think that you do). Look at all the changes you\u2019ve already weathered in your life!<\/p>\n Believing that you need to be in control all the time is pointless, not to mention the fact that all that plotting and planning is actually taking you out of the current moment. Also, it\u2019s exhausting. The only thing you actually have control over is how you react to any given situation.<\/p>\n With that in mind, start looking for ways that reaching midlife can be a blessing instead of an affliction. Here are some truths to help change your perspective:<\/p>\n Bottom Line:<\/strong> Pay attention to your overall attitude\u2014it\u2019s incredibly impactful. Start questioning long-held beliefs that may not even be true. And remember that the sooner we start to flip the lens on how we view aging, the easier it will be to age beautifully, healthfully, and holistically.<\/p>\n Midlife means whatever you make it mean. And that, my friends, is totally empowering.<\/p>\n Embracing middle age and making it a positive experience<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[186,187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-summe-2024","category-spring-summer-2024-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14953"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15270,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953\/revisions\/15270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Lisa Levine is an author and certified ife coach living and aging happily in Seattle. You can read more of her work at audaciouswellness.com<\/a>.<\/h5>\n
This article is an excerpt from Midlife No Crisis: An Audacious Guide to Embracing 50 and Beyond<\/em>,<\/a> by Lisa Levine. Used with permission.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"