Is this a mid-life crisis?

Lately, I have had many conversations with many different women who all appear to be experiencing some form of a "mid-life crisis".
It appears as:
* discontent with life and/or the lifestyle that may have provided happiness for many years
*Boredom with things/people that have hitherto held great interest and dominated your life
*Feeling adventurous and wanting to do something completely different
*Questioning the meaning of life, and the validity of decisions clearly and easily made years before
*Confusion about who you are, or where your life is going.

Everyone seems to think they are "the only one" experiencing these feelings and feel terribly guilty about having these feelings in the first place especially in a time when so many people are experiencing tremendous level of hardship. Well, listen up, ladies, YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Carl Jung identified 5 main phases of midlife many years ago and what you are feeling is real and part of life's natural transitions.

Carl Jung identified 5 main phases of midlife:
Accommodation (meeting others' expectations - actually, this takes place in the first part of life, but is the context in which midlife processes take place)
Separation (rejecting the accommodated self)
Liminality (a period of uncertainty, where life seems directionless and meanders)
Reintegration (working out 'who I am' and becoming comfortable with that identity)
Individuation (facing up to and accepting the undesirable aspects of our own character)

It is a fluid process - but recognizing the stages can help to make sense of what is otherwise chaos and confusion. Perhaps understanding of mid-life transition might help some people to move from thinking 'there is something wrong with me' to seeing that the feelings and changes associated with mid-life are quite natural. In fact, they are experienced by most other people at a similar stage of life. So, embrace the fact that Change Is Strange and look forward to moving towards Individuation!

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