Midlife is something that most of us dread rather than look forward to. Justifiably, the term “midlife crisis” sets panic in our hearts and fear in our minds because it can be a time of heightened emotions and big life changes. It can also cause us to question who we are and what we truly want and need out of life to feel fulfilled.

And, yes! It usually demands some kind of major change and forces us to deal with stuff that we’ve hidden away or have been avoiding. But, that can be a very good thing, and is often just what we need to rekindle our spark for life, reconnect with our authentic self, and rediscover our soul purpose.

Midlife is a time for us to go within, tap into our acquired knowledge and past experiences, and get crystal clear on who we want to be, what we want, how we want to live, and what we want our life to look like moving forward. It’s an opportunity to finally create the life we were actually meant to live without the confusion, indecision, and lack of direction we experienced in our twenties and thirties that often results in a “midlife crisis” experience.

The key to successfully navigating this empowering time of our lives understanding what this time represents in the grander scheme of things and being prepared to do the work required to transform our lives into ones truly worth living — lives of self-awareness, freedom, flow, and fulfillment — so we can live authentically on our own terms.

If we embrace this time of life as an opportunity for self-discovery and the chance to truly design our ideal lives, instead of dreading it and seeing it as the beginning of the end, we’ll find a pathway to all of the following:

1. A Greater Sense of Identity, Self-Awareness, & Clarity

Midlife is a time to go within, reflect and dig deep to reconnect with who we truly are at our core, and who we are meant to be moving forward. It is also time to reconnect with our inner wisdom (ie: our higher self, source, or the divine within) which always knows exactly what we truly need and want to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life. This clarity allows us to make conscious and aligned decisions and build our life around these things so we can experience the joy and empowerment of living a life we were truly meant for — our ideal life — and we can do so without any guilt, rationalization, or justification.

2. Intentional Living in our Soul Zone (Zone of Genius)

By mastering the art of connecting with our inner wisdom, we are also able to rediscover our natural gifts and talents that we might have hidden away, and unlock all of the divinely placed ideas, dreams and desires of our true heart. Once we have that kind of clarity or knowing, it is easier to weigh options and make more intentional and aligned choices that allow us to live more in our natural soul zone (ie: our zone of genius) so we can shine our light brightly, and live more authentically on our own terms.

3. A Stronger Sense of Purpose & Direction

This clarity also helps us design and create a life that feels authentic and true for us. Once we know what we truly want our life to look like, how we want to feel, and what we value most, we can create a soul map that acts as a roadmap to get us there in a way that fuels our creativity and passion and feels meaningful and fulfilling, while keeping us grounded in the knowledge that we are on our perfect life path. Every decision that needs to be made becomes easier to make because we are crystal clear on what we want our life to look like and feel like. We have a renewed sense of purpose and direction that we feel it deep down in our souls.

4. A Stronger Set of Boundaries

Once we now exactly what we want and the direction we want to go, it becomes much easier to set and enforce strong boundaries that align with those dreams and desires. We are no longer willing to go along with other people’s wishes and dreams for our lives or settle for things that aren’t in alignment with what we truly want and envision for ourselves, but instead stand fast in our own unique vision. It also helps us release and let go of anything in our lives that doesn’t support that vision.

5. More Freedom

When we can look inside and gain true clarity about the direction we want our lives to go, and make decisions aligned with those soul goals we’ve set for ourselves, and not get sidetracked by what everyone else thinks we should do with our lives, we are able take those first steps to personal freedom. The weight lifts and for maybe the first time in our adult lives, we feel truly free to be our authentic selves and be okay with who we are and what we want out of this life. This self-assuredness and sense of freedom allows us to pursue our goals and passions with greater determination than ever before.

6. A Greater Zest For Life

I believe that one of the reasons so many of us struggle with midlife is that it provides us our first real glimpse of our own inevitable mortality and creates a sense of fear around the unknown. It can cause us to question everything we’ve done up until this point and some of us get stuck in the head trip that causes us to wonder what we could have done differently. It forces us to search the very depths of our heart and soul for what truly matters to us in this life, and plants the seeds for the development of a deeper sense of gratitude and appreciation for the beauty and fragility of life — for everything that we have been through, everything we have, and for whatever life we still have left to live. If we let it, from that can bubble up a profound sense of focus and we learn to put out attention on the things that truly matter to us in life resulting in a period of great personal growth, fulfillment, and happiness.

These six universal truths are what I am learning as I navigate midlife and are what motivated me to start Soul Sparked. We all deserve to live beautiful and empowered lives as midlife women but to do that, we have to step up and take charge of our own lives and shine our light for others so they too might come to know these six truths so we can all transform a chaotic and confusing midlife crisis into an empowering midlife transformation.