The beginning of the end?

Wise words from the queen herself, Oprah.

An inevitable fact of reaching midlife for us women is that dreaded M word - Menopause. It’s often talked about as the beginning of the end. Nice huh! Not sure I’m ready to call it quits quite yet. To be honest, I have most definitely struggled with “the changes”. Come on! Wrinkles, grey hair, weight gain and hot flashes are not fun.

But after putting up a good fight against the inevitable for quite some time, I have now slowly begun to have a change of heart and mind. What I previously saw only as the demise of my looks, my body and the end of my childbearing years (really, who wants more kids at this age?) I’ve begun to see this phase of life as a kind of freedom for creativity, expression and reinvention. 

Many of the things that have consumed us over the years, such as raising families, climbing the corporate ladder and prioritizing the needs of others, have come to or are coming to an end. What that means is that we now have the time and a bit more mental capacity to begin shifting focus towards those long-neglected things that are important to us.  Sometimes, like in my case, it requires a bit of a journey to figure out what those things are, but I guarantee you, they are still in there somewhere. What are your new priorities? What does your best life through midlife look like?