Dear Midlife – Our Midlife
Dec 14, 2023 by Anthony Damaschino
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On Tuesday I had the pleasure of being a guest on a podcast called Dear Midlife. It’s a podcast hosted by Shelby Bybee and Trinity Greenfield, and its audience is targeted at women ages 40 to 60 years old - right in the middle of their lives. Shelby and Trinity host weekly guests on a series of subjects about being strong, confident women, finding inner peace and empowerment, and discussing topics and issues that this cohort may be experiencing. Knowing that I was an upcoming guest, I dove in and listened to a collection of their overall archives (which is nearing 100 episodes). My takeaway from the first episode I listened to was WOW – a wide range of topics, covered with a real and humorous female perspective. There is emotion, personal stories, and vulnerability thrown in. As a male listener, I found this podcast really insightful into the mind of a midlife female.
The podcast and Empty Nesting has got me thinking a lot about the topic of Midlife. When someone hears the word ‘Midlife’ what usually follows is the word crisis. Midlife doesn’t have to be a crisis, but we can acknowledge that it is a challenging time for all of us. In my book, I mention a range of topics that all of us ‘Midlifers’ might be facing during this phase of life. For example:
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Taking on the responsibilities and care of an elderly parent
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Experiencing the loss of a parent or spouse
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Losing, plateauing in, or changing jobs
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Spouse or oneself going through a midlife crisis
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Menopause (okay, I’m not ‘experiencing’ this personally, but I do need to live with fans, fewer covers on the bed, and in an overall cooler environment)
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Overall health concerns
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Retirement preparedness anxiety and financial pressures
The list above is somewhat daunting, and frankly, it doesn’t include any of the major Empty Nest relationship and internal threats that are happening at the same time. I can say, with confidence, that this time is not the easiest time in anyone's life, yet at the same time, we’re all part of the Midlife community. Podcasts such as Dear Midlife and people like Shelby and Trinity are part of that community. The Empty Nest Blueprint was written for this community. We are each experiencing the same life events, and going through similar challenges in parallel. I truly believe most of us have high expectations of ourselves to persevere, buck up, and handle this time with resilience. Perhaps, that’s the main point, the hardest critics during our midlife trials and transition are ourselves. Don’t we deserve some grace as well?
Being a Midlifer doesn’t have to be hard. One thing we can do is leverage the midlife community that exists and is available to each of us today. Leverage the podcasts, the books, and the friends we have today and can make tomorrow. We don’t have to be so hard on ourselves. We are each Midlifeing together. I sincerely believe by doing this we can make this time the best it can be for ourselves.
ps: I’ll post when my episode airs on Dear Midlife in early 2024.
