Reaching 50 years old is not a joke. It is a huge milestone that should not be ignored. Let’s face it, people are living longer so even when you get to 50, there are many more years ahead of you. So does life begin at 50 or is it a myth created by wishful old women? Can you start over at 50?
Celebrating Being 50
The life expectancy for women has always been higher than our opposite sex and it is increasing most of the time. Who knows what the next half a Century bring us?
It is easy to assume that the future is going to resemble the last 50 years but the fact is, it will only be so if you let it.
Some women might look back on the last 50 years and feel that they were the best days of their life. Others might view their past was filled with sad memories, anxiety and suffering.
But we must remember the past does not necessarily define your future in the same way you never know what is around the corner. What actually determines the outcome of the future is basically your decision today. Yes, the decision; whether you are going to make the future awesome or miserable.
Some women mark their 50th birthday with the determination to make the next 50 years significantly better than the last, others would just carry on with how things are regardless of whether they are happy or not.
Nevertheless, it is okay to celebrate the milestone knowing that you are now wiser and more experienced than you have ever been before as if it is an achievement in itself.
Making The Most of The Next 50 Years
One of the decisions I personally made as I was approaching 50 was to live my life without regret. Some might call this a midlife crisis, but I felt overwhelming fear of being on a death bed reflecting my life and feeling terrible sadness for not even ‘attempting’ to live my life as I desired. I am sure I am not the only one.
Most probably because I was unhappy at the time. I was grateful of the life I had but something important was missing. You might have noticed it is not rare to hear celebrities walking away from their long term marriage at 50. The changes in women’s body’s hormone causing different emotions and minds may explain the statistics; over 65% of divorces after 50 are initiated by women.
Even women who are happily married many seem to decide to ditch their lifestyle that has become unsatisfactory such as in their career, deciding to go traveling or doing something radical. Perhaps because they have finished raising their family, looking after others and it was time to do something for themselves.
From the desire to discover new passion or to experience something new, some of us set out in search for fulfillment, or the last chance at grabbing happiness.
Whatever it is that drives you, it is an opportunity to evaluate what’s important and what’s not. It is a good time to actually re-design your life for the next decades.
It Might Just Be The Beginning
A word of warning though. If you are feeling that you desperately want to get out of your current situation whether it is an unhappy marriage, a job or a place you live. Some element of logical thinking is needed. We are emotional creatures and it is easy to convince ourselves that we must let our emotions, gut instinct or intuition guide us and make sudden decision.
But be aware that there are some physiological changes happening in your body in parallel to those emotions, mainly cause by hormonal changes. Instead of making a snap decision about the rest of your life, take a few months or a year to really consider and design your future life.
It might involve going away for a long ‘time alone’ or learning to meditate and taking time off from a busy schedule. It is often than not that a new insight or perspective that comes from a higher self or wisdom emerge which is not simply ruled by hormonal imbalance at times of calmness in your mind and body.
Let this time be on your side and look inwards instead of outwards. Instead of seeking something external for your fulfillment, it may be that rediscovering your true self is the beginning of a journey to a liberation of beautiful ‘you’.
By soul searching in a true sense, you may discover that the source of your un-fulfillment is not to do with your annoying spouse or the job or the clothes you wear.
It could be more to do with not having been allowing yourself to express your true desires. Perhaps you have always wanted to be an artist but you never pursued it because becoming something else seemed more practical. Perhaps you have always wanted to climb mountains but you never got around to it because your spouse or children weren’t interested.
The key is to discover perhaps the very person stopping you from leading an awesome life has been you.
So, go and soar. It is never too late.
Billie x
