Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Oct/Nov 2016 Aspire Mag Full Issue | Page 40
time since young adulthood that we’ve given
ourselves permission to explore our own
passions and preferences, and to make them
a priority. Like adolescence, this is a time
when we’re compelled to pay less attention
to the clamoring of the world and to the
opinions, expectations and voices of those
around us, and to pay far greater attention to
the voice that arises within ourselves.
The realization that there is perhaps more
of this par ticular physical lifetime behind us
than there is ahead of us can be a catalyst
for a degree of freedom we’ve never before
experienced. No longer willing to allow limiting
beliefs such as “I can’t do it,” “people won’t like
me,” or “I’m not worthy” to silence our voices,
narrow our options or dictate our behaviors, we
may now find the courage to say no when we
mean no, and to say yes to new opportunities
and adventures, even when they bring us
face to face with the unknown. For maybe the
first time ever, being true ourselves becomes
more important than winning the agreement
or validation of others.
As our perspectives and priorities change, we
may find that we’ve outgrown circumstances
that we once found to be completely fulfilling,
and in this regard, midlife can also be a
radical time of awakening. If our work is no
longer fulfilling to us, or if we’re in a marriage
that has grown stagnant or cold, we are more
sensitive to our discontent, and less apt to
disregard or deny it. Rather than trying to
“shrink” ourselves so we continue to fit into
a life that is too small or no longer serves
us, midlife calls us to embrace the new
direction our soul is urging us toward, and
make the choice not to shrink, but to stretch.
Instead of continuing to follow a pre-set path
that we’ve been taught will guarantee our
security, we find the courage to listen to the
40
What we learn at
midlife is that every
human being is in
a continual state of
becoming, and with
each experience and
passing year we become
exponentially more than
the sum of who we
have been in the past.
impulses and desires that arise from within,
and allow them to guide us.
Society would have us believe that youth
is the ultimate summit of life and that once
we reach it, each year that passes marks
a steady slide downward from that peak.
What we learn at midlife is that every human
being is in a continual state of becoming,
and with each experience and passing year
we become exponentially more than the
sum of who we have been in the past.
In our youth, life spans before us as a long
list of things to be accomplished, and we’re
convinced that happiness will be waiting
for us at the achievement of each one.
At this stage of maturity, we realize that
www.AspireMAG.net | October / November 2016