Identity Issues at Midlife? I just can’t seem to recognise myself

Identity Issues at Midlife?

An identity crisis can happen at any time during your lifetime particularly when you are confronted with circumstances which challenge your sense of self. Perhaps you no longer see yourself as that person in a business suit, or your work as an engineer or teacher no longer fits or being in a relationship is no longer for you and you wonder what it would be like to be single.

Living contentedly in midlife means creating an identify you can identify and connect with!

People stabilise and find contentment in midlife when their identity and integrity is based on an internal sense of self – that is one that really connects and fits with who they are now are and isn’t rooted in externals such as societal expectations and values or cultural influences and it isn’t based on the identity we formed in our early life which was influenced and reinforced by parental figures.

In midlife we need to redefine ourselves consciously. By questioning long held beliefs which now compromise us and laying down the foundations of new beliefs that mean we will live differently, all help to shape our new true identity. This, of course can be challenging and it is means that for a while you will step into the liminal space and have to manage the anxiety that occurs when you know that you and your life are changing and you’re not quite sure who you are going to be and what your life in midlife looks like.