Stressed Out At Forty-Something: What Does A Divorced Or Unhappy Married Woman Do

Many women find their lives turned upside-down, at least internally, when they hit their forties. They enter the zone known as the midlife crisis.

What is a midlife crises and why do so many women find themselves amidst the stress and unhappiness of that situation?

Mainstream psychology offers an explanation that women who never went through a rebellious period during their teens are now ready to release all their frustrations and ask the questions they, until now, buried out of their awareness for fear of rocking the boat in their lives.

Most women, across cultures, are raised to take care of the world, to be there for everybody else. If you are one of them then you know that any time you did something that even remotely alluded to you taking a moment for yourself while others had needs was deemed to be completely selfish and wrong.

Even being sick is not an excuse for shirking your responsibilities.

Your spouse gets sick and stays in bed letting you wait on him, right? But you get the flu with a fever and you are up making everybody’s meals and making sure they get where they need to be with the supplies they need regardless of a raging fever, aches or pains.

You know what I am talking about, don’t you? You’ve been there. The sad part is you’ve been there more than once.

Maybe that is why women with kids get sick less often. Who has the time to work with lower energy or confused thinking? It just is not worth the struggle. So does that mean extra pressure and responsibility is a natural immune booster?

Hardly. All that stress builds up in your system eventually leading to illness or conditions that run the gamut across mental and physical issues.

How many women do you know who dealt with cancer—of feminine organs? Breast cancer happens to women who never took the time or energy to nurture themselves, to feed their own desires?

The ovarian and cervical cancers often reveal a lack of giving birth to one’s own ideas and desires for their own personal lives.

Do you see the connection?

Midlife hits many women hard, marking the passage of time spent without paying attention to one’s own life and needs. It is the time to question what is your life about? What is your purpose here? Is this all there is?

Spiritual questions adds to the physical and emotional exhaustion of running on high for so many years without refueling spent energy.

Unfortunately most women will fail to take notice or step out of their serfdom and take charge of who they are until they create a crisis. Hence the midlife crisis becomes that moment of truth.

How will you live the rest of your life differently? Will you live at all?