Midlife Mastery Journal

Learning to live life on life’s terms is the great spiritual lesson of midlife: allowing us to transition from the adult attitude of self-willed self-determination to the more mature and realistic attitude of acceptance and trust.

Acceptance of the changes and vagaries of the seasons depends upon our capacity to keep those changes in perspective; so the changes from youth to adulthood to maturity demands a perspective that only spiritual insight can offer.

So long as we’re stuck in the ‘me-centered’ universe of adulthood, challenges and adversity will continue to appear to us to be focused on us (because that’s where our unconscious focus lies, and that’s the perspective from which we view everything that happens around us).

I have come to believe that there are actually two types of fear. The one – healthy caution – provides us with the protection that we need against rash decision-making. There is another type of fear, however, that arises from insecurity and self-doubt.

Apart from outright physical and emotional abuse, I believe that many (if not all) relationships “on the rocks” could be healed under the right circumstances. From my perspective, the fact that this healing so often fails to take place could be an indication that one or both of the partners have stopped listening. Additionally, ceasing to listen indicates a spiritual problem.