Midlife Crisis Or Awakening?

Somehow they made us believe that we are forced to live the so-called midlife crisis. Anyone who has reached their 40s or 50s must know that they are actually experiencing an awakening. It means abandoning old beliefs, conventionalisms and stereotypes to reinvent yourself, to write a new and better personal chapter.

If there is one word that we have heard too much in recent years, it is the word “crisis”. There are social crises, economic crises, cultural crises… not to mention the well-known personal crises. Rather than an occasional situation along our life cycle, we could say that the human being lives in a perennial state of changes, oscillations and ups and downs of greater or lesser intensity.

If we analyze the term “crisis” for a moment, we will realize one aspect. In a clinical setting, a crisis implies a temporary disorder of disorganization. The person, therefore, feels unable to manage certain dynamics with the methods or tools in his possession up to that moment. There is also a traumatic component in seeing one’s expectations threatened or destroyed. If we apply this definition to the so-called midlife crisis , we will realize that many of these points are not completely fulfilled. At least not in the new generations of men and, especially, of women who have reached the mature stage of their existence.

This new sector of the population already challenges the traditional view of this period previously seen as critical. Because now what many call an “awakening” occurs. A quest to achieve something better, a positive reformulation to gain strength and personal growth.

Does the midlife crisis still exist?

In psychology it is well known that each stage of human existence brings with it a series of challenges and difficulties. The so-called developmental crises or transitions configure those phases between childhood and senility in which, often, various interferences arise that put one’s identity, expectations and feeling of control in check. The person is obliged, without ifs and buts, to leave behind certain ideas to take on new realities.

Throughout history we have always accepted the existence of certain “predictable” crises and an example is adolescence. The midlife crisis, however, is undergoing changes that require re-definition. Until a few years ago, accessing this kind of late summer with an autumnal air (mature age) involved only one thing: accepting the withering of youth and the consequent transformations, namely aging, menopause, loss of parents, emptying of the home…

Nowadays, however, new ideas are forcefully imposed. We are witnessing a breath of renewal.

Maturity is not synonymous with loss, but with gain

Nowadays there are many critical voices that demand to change the term “midlife crisis” with “search for identity” at the heart of the journey of life. There is a transition, no doubt about it. However, more than the loss of something, a personal search takes place, there is the will to leave behind one stage to reach the next with better tools, freedom and identity.

It is an age of improvement for several reasons:

• You don’t want to go back, recover the freshness of 20 or the energy of 30.
• We are convinced of the fact that the past has been well lived, that it has had its usefulness, but the mature age must consist in a step forward towards personal fulfillment.

• Most people, especially women, want to find their place in the world. And this can turn into an exceptional engine of change.

A phase of expansion

Social networks are a reflection of our reality. To understand the essence of the change in the so-called midlife crisis, just do a search with the hashtag #FaB ( Fifty and beyond , “fifty and beyond”). We will discover a generational movement full of vitality. Because mature age is not senility, it is not loss, but gain and, above all, expansion.

Today’s 50-year-olds are very intellectually and professionally active people. They are the human capital that offers excellence to companies and quality to every organization or project. Because they have a greater critical spirit, know how to solve problems better and can count on an experience that knows how to update, which applies lateral thinking.

Nor can we forget that unstoppable and encouraging social change experienced by middle-aged women. We see them assume positions of power, we witness how they carry out their leadership projects, their ability to make drastic changes in their lives to make their youthful dreams come true.

The midlife crisis has stopped being so critical. Because nothing is lost in mature age, on the contrary, we win. The old values ​​have now expired and happiness is no longer related only to youth. Well-being, fulfillment and enthusiasm have no age. A person really begins to age the day he stops setting goals on his horizon, the day that purpose fades and fear or the shadow of limitation arises.