Female Midlife Crisis
By Johanna Lyman posted
Normal
0
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}
What
is it that causes so many women in their forties to re-evaluate their lives and
enter a mid-life crisis?
For
some, their children are grown or nearly so, and they can finally take time to
decide what’s important to them. For
others, it could be the death or infidelity of a spouse, job loss, or a journey
of spiritual growth that leads them to this place. Regardless of the impetus, a process of
self-reflection and re-prioritizing occurs for many women in their forties and
fifties.
Typically,
a woman in this phase of life will decide that nothing fits anymore: not her job, her relationship or her
beliefs. She may join a women’s support
group and take on a whole new circle of friends.
What’s
really happening is that she is finally getting to know herself. Most women
spend the first forty or so years of their lives trying to please everyone
around them. Most women thrive on nurturing others; unfortunately it happens at
the expense of their own needs. That’s unsustainable behavior and eventually
her well runs dry. Her inner reserves
depleted, she must turn inward to figure out what’s wrong and fix it.
This
process is completely mysterious to the men in her life. Men don’t have the problem
of feeling like they have to take care of everyone else before themselves. They
understand that, like the airline attendants say, you have to put your own
oxygen mask on before you can help anyone else.
Not
all women enter this phase of life, but for those who do the effects can be
devastating, and then utterly liberating. It’s possible to come out the other
side with your relationship intact, but it doesn’t happen often. When it does, it’s because both partners
commit to their own growth.
