Midlife Mastery Journal

Just the fact of knowing what your emotional reactions to encountering change will most likely be (grief and fear), will also allow you to begin opening yourself up to the possibility of achieving an appreciation for the change process in your own life, and the rich rewards that are yours, if only you can train yourself (and your pesky emotions) to look beyond the momentary present discomfort to the growth experience that awaits you.

I’ve been working on a program to help guide people who are recovering from a serious (perhaps painful) life experience and are having trouble getting back up on their feet. It gave me the opportunity once again to explore the grieving process. Keep in mind that almost all life transitions result in the grief process, [...]

The bottom line is that, above all, Santa’s a guy, and guys are expect to just ‘suck it up’ and make the best of it all. I keep telling him that, especially at midlife, that can be so dangerous. It can lead to depression, or outbursts of anger at people that really don’t deserve to be treated that way.

For those who have gotten themselves enmeshed in the emotional morass of the midlife transition and remain unaware of the dynamics of this volatile period of life (both men and women), the prospects for their relationships, even after twenty or thirty years together, may seem hopeless.

How can you manage your way through the holiday minefield? Start with two simple approaches: 1) raise your awareness of your own inner feelings; don’t deny how you feel or look for someone to blame for it. And 2) use these two effective methods of diffusing the pressures you’re feeling.