Being a mature woman still full of life and with years of adventure ahead of you is a wonderful thing. You are leaving behind the stresses of bringing up children and preparing to embark upon a new and exciting stage in your life. This is a time to be looking forward to having more freedom and the ability to achieve all the things you never had the chance to when you were younger. Rather than holding on to the feeling that your youth may be behind you, rather realise that this is a new chapter in your life. Having a positive outlook will ensure you move forward with a better mindset to enjoy yourself for many years to come.
New opportunities
In early adulthood, there is an emphasis on having fun, exploring the world and finding your place in it. There are exams and studying and first loves to be negotiated, but there are also parties and plenty of new experiences as well. As you mature, your focus becomes career and relationships, finding a special someone to spend your life with and if you want children, to start a family of your own. By the time middle age comes around, you will probably be settled, secure and more confident in yourself. Having older children means they are more independent, so you have more time and energy to focus on yourself and your desires. Consequently, you will find there are any number of opportunities to pursue interests and achieve ambitions in whatever sphere you wish. You may want to devote more time to your career, gain new qualifications and go for more senior roles. You may feel like you want a change and decide to retrain for a new career. Or you could think about starting your own business if you have an idea you’d like to make money out of. Not having such a response to your children anymore gives you the freedom to take more risks and be more daring, and there’s nothing to stop you doing anything you like.
Fear of the unknown
The opportunities might well be there, in abundance, but you may also have a fear of reaching out and taking them. After years of looking after others and putting them before yourself, you can become almost conditioned to be cautious, so even when the effects of getting something wrong aren’t going to be a problem for anyone else anymore, you still have a reluctance to take the plunge. That’s understandable, and everyone approaches this stage of life with mixed feelings. As much as you may like the idea of having freedom and independence, there may still be a fear of failure and possibly regrets about some aspects of your life up to now. The familiar routines will be changing, and for some people, this can be hard to cope with. The best thing to do is not to retreat into your shell, or carry on in denial that anything is different, but to be bold and embrace the changes as positive and be optimistic about your future. If you do find yourself struggling with any aspect of growing older, it can help to talk about it, either with friends and family or with trained professionals like counselors and therapists.
Health in middle age
Looking after your health is always important, but when you’re younger, the effects of mistreating your body aren’t felt as keenly as they will be now. The fitter you are and the better you care for yourself, the more you will be able to do, and for longer too. For women, middle age heralds the start of the menopause. It’s the closing bracket to your fertility, which for some women can be depressing, as being potentially fertile is a very empowering concept and has been part of your identity up to now. However, a woman isn’t defined by her fertility – at least not anymore, so this process of change is one of positivity, the end of contraception concerns
and the freedom from menstruation. The change itself can take a fair while to get through and varies in its effects on women enormously. Some breeze through with hardly a hot flush to their name, while for others it can be a lengthy and more inconvenient process. If you are finding it difficult to deal with, it’s worth asking your doctor’s advice, as you may be suitable for hormone replacement therapy, which should ease the symptoms. If not, they may be able to recommend an alternative that could help. One common side effect of menopause is the hot flushes and sweating. There are herbal remedies that may help with these symptoms, or if you have extreme problems with sweatiness, you can consult with a treatment service like Dr Aesthetica, who can advise you on alternative therapies such as Botox injections.
Age is a state of mind
They say you’re only as old as you feel, and that’s often true – except some days you feel more like ninety than fifty! But the principle is sound; how you feel about your age is due in large part to your attitude to growing older. If you are positive and see opportunities in your life, and carry on with no regard to your age apart from acknowledging the importance of screening tests and the like, you should remain youthful regardless of when you were born. If you are unlucky enough to have physical problems or health issues, you can still be active, and your brain certainly won’t age before its time if you keep it stimulated.
The fact is, we all grow older, no matter how much we might hope that for us it will be different. The fact of ageing may be inevitable, but letting it get you down is not. Middle age has the potential to be the best time of your life, so make the most of everything that comes your way and enjoy the freedoms and opportunities of this new chapter.
