Rediscovering Your Essence in Midlife: A Journey to Self-Discovery

In the whirlwind of daily responsibilities, it’s easy to lose touch with what truly centers us — that core part of ourselves that holds our truest desires, aspirations, and values. Midlife offers a unique invitation to reconnect with this essence, making it an ideal time for reflection, growth, and renewal.

This week, try the following steps to start this journey of rediscovery:

1. Daily Reflection and Mindfulness

Carve out a few quiet moments each day to reflect. Start by creating a new vision or reading the midlife vision you’ve crafted for yourself, or simply think about the goals and dreams you hold dear. If you can, spend a few minutes in meditation, allowing yourself to sit peacefully and tune in.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

• What are my deepest desires?

• What are my aspirations?

• How do I want to live during the next five years?

• What kind of future do I want to build for myself?

Write down what comes to mind in a journal. Don’t censor yourself — let your thoughts flow naturally onto the page. This practice can help you unlock and acknowledge what truly resonates with you.

2. Feel into Your Desires and Aspirations

Now, take another moment to pause and reflect on those desires and dreams, regardless of whether they feel attainable or practical. Allow yourself to feel the presence of these aspirations fully.

• How do these thoughts make you feel?

• Do you feel more alive, energized, or inspired?

• Are you empowered to start taking small steps toward them?

Capture these feelings in your journal, noting any new insights or clarity. Daily journaling will help you delve deeper into what matters most and open your journey toward meaningful change.

3. Commit to Daily Practice

These reflective exercises can help you stay connected to your core, returning to the essence of who you are and what you value. This practice will give you a clearer sense of purpose and fulfillment, equipping you with the wisdom and strength to live midlife authentically.

Consider committing to a 90-day practice to ensure your daily actions are aligned with your vision. Remember, your daily actions reflect what you believe about yourself. By renewing your vision and reflecting on it daily, you can move toward living out your desires and dreams. Grab a 90-Day Vision Journal with daily prompts to help you stay committed to the process. 

Why Now is the Perfect Time to Begin

As we approach the last two months of the year, there’s a natural shift in energy — a time for reflection and setting intentions as the year winds down. This season invites us to pause, reset, and reconnect, making it the perfect time to rediscover our essence. Embracing this practice now allows you to enter the new year with a refreshed sense of purpose and clarity, grounded in what truly matters to you. Let these final months be a season of self-discovery, preparing you to step into the year ahead with renewed energy and intention.

Embrace the Journey

Reconnecting with yourself in midlife can be an empowering journey that celebrates your wisdom, resilience, and individuality. 

As you rediscover your essence, the path ahead will likely align more with your genuinely desired goals.

Let this week mark the beginning of a new chapter. Embrace it thoroughly, and know you’re supported in every step of this remarkable journey!

If you need additional support finding your essence and renewing your vision, check out our upcoming online and in-person classes.

Live Inside Out: 8 Steps to Be Healthy, Move Beyond Anti-aging, and Age by Design

Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been. ~David Bowie

We’ve been thinking and talking about what it means to be ‘youthful’ recently. We believe that the key to being youthful is to have a long-term, sustained focus on being healthy. Live Inside Out is one of the Rumblings 4 Rocks (foundational principles) to Flourish After 50.

• Go inward to live authentically outward

• Look inside to determine what and how much you eat

• Recognize the joy of the journey

• Eat whole foods, mostly plants

• Be grateful for your body’s capabilities

• Enjoy what you eat and your daily movement without guilt or judgment

• Honor tradition

• Celebrate culture

 Even with our focus on health, we have experienced body changes as we age, such as a slight thickening around the waist, difficulty maintaining our weight, more wrinkles, muscle aches, and symptoms of menopause, to name a few. 

Women discuss the impact of these changes and nostalgic memories of how we looked in our 20s, 30s, and 40s with friends. We share tips and tricks for looking as young as we can - or as good as possible for our age. Yet, there is one part of aging that we may not discuss as commonly—the abundance of messages that our aging bodies are abnormal and we should fix them.

Individuals and organizations are competing for our attention and our money by selling promises of happiness and youthfulness. Their message is, if we conform to the culture of ‘thinness’ to fit in, we will have value and be worthy. It’s as if somehow aging is unnatural or makes us imperfect, so we must succumb and prioritize anti-aging. 

Media bombards us with images of unrealistic and unachievable ideals for a youthful appearance.  It would be hypocritical to imply that things like facials, overpriced skincare, or even injectables and fillers are the enemy. Still, the emphasis that aging is somehow a personal shortcoming or character flaw diminishes our value to what is superficial and appearance-related. 

Yes, our bodies are imperfect, and they sometimes let us down. As we age, our bodies may be less cooperative and cause us to struggle to stay thin and fit, or even simply healthy! 

One of the most beautiful things about aging is the opportunity to shed those superficial expectations of society and the media and instead step into the person we know we have become. 

We don’t need to fight against our bodies as they gracefully do what bodies do - age. Our bodies are not the enemy. The changes during midlife don’t make us diminished, less relevant, or even disgusting. 

There are social movements focused on body inclusion, body positivity, realistic weight, and promoting physical strength for girls. It’s now time for a movement of accepting aging too. 

We can shape the future of societal norms surrounding aging, particularly in women. We can demonstrate by example that our worth as we age is not defined by unrealistic and unattainable superficial beauty standards any more than it should be for our younger daughters, granddaughters, and nieces. 

We don’t have to accept aging trends focused on how we look, how we dress, our skincare, and our makeup routines. We can age by design, in our way, as we choose. 

If we focus our efforts instead on the approach to Live Inside Out, we can not only be grateful for our body’s capabilities; we can take that next step and embrace the process of fully stepping into the person we were becoming all along. 

Embrace all of the lumps, bumps, and wrinkles that represent a well-lived life. We have come by all of these ‘imperfections’ naturally - and they are perfect. We are creating and becoming a ‘well being’ - a healthy, inside and out human body, one that is more than our physical appearance. 

Our main goal should be to be healthy in a whole-person way, not to stay looking young, but to live well. Life is good, and midlife is the middle, not the end. It’s a new season that we can design to thrive and flourish. 

Living inside-out is a sustainable well-being approach and is the real pro-aging ‘secret’ for feeling youthful and thriving after 50!

To learn more about the Rumblings 4 Rocks (foundational principles) to flourish after 50 and receive tips, tools, and techniques to thrive, sign-up today.

More Than 25 Ideas for Living Well and Making This the Best Summer Ever

Spring is here! The days are growing warmer, longer, the birds are singing, and nature is awakening after a very long winter. The idea of renewal and awakening is meaningful after the extended hibernation of this past year. Spring typically brings a sense of hope and new beginnings, followed by an increased energy that is uplifting and positive. 

Many women have been telling us they are emotionally exhausted - the fatigue comes from caring too much for too long. They’re feeling burned out after the heaviness and struggles of this past year. We feel it too. 

We’ve dealt with many unknowns, changes, and disappointments, but we’ve also found new ways to laugh and be in the moment. We can embrace that and find joy in those new experiences and smaller everyday moments.

Some of us will sprint forward, anxious to get some semblance of our lives back after putting everything on pause. Others we speak with feel apprehensive and uncertain. 

Whatever feelings we’re experiencing, we can still begin to move forward through this tunnel to the other side. 

Let’s appreciate all we’ve been through and all we have learned about ourselves. It’s all helped us grow. Let’s look to the future and plan more fun and festive activities to do TOGETHER with friends and loved ones! 

Here are some of the activities we’re planning and putting on our calendars for the next few months. Some are tried and true. Others are new interests we want to explore and experience, refining what is most important to us over the past year. 

Join us as we jump into spring with a renewed mindset and mission to flourish, have fun, and live well. 

• Go outside and set an intention to notice  the small things — Spring blossoms, tree buds, sunshine, or just the fresh breeze

• Read a book while sitting in the woods, listen to the sound of the wind in the trees

• Rethink your wardrobe as you start wearing non-athletic or leisurewear clothes again

• Refresh your exercise routine: do more outdoor activities, maybe go back to the gym

• Get picnic supplies and schedule a series of picnics with friends and family

• Plan short or long road trips along scenic highways, with specific stops along the way

• Re-evaluate your skincare and makeup routine to better fit with your new lifestyle

• Plan a hiking and camping trip

• Plant a flower, herb, or vegetable garden and share the bounty with others

• Make a top 10 list of new things you’d like to try or places you’d like to visit

• Become a tourist in your town or city, going to places you’ve never been

• Visit a new beach, lake, or river 

• Do yoga, tai chi, or meditate outdoors, either by yourself or in a class

• Schedule a guided nature hike at a regional or state park

• Go berry picking at a local farm

• Stargaze to see how many different constellations you can find, maybe with a telescope

• Buy postcards wherever you visit and send them to people describing your adventures.

• Play fun outdoor games like cornhole, badminton, tennis, or Pickleball

• Take a lot of photos and create picture books and share to memorialize your fun

• Split community-supported agriculture (CSA) share with a friend or neighbor

• Check out a new neighborhood farmer’s market each week

• Rent equipment to try a new outdoor activity (hiking, kayaking, canoeing)

• Plan a campfire and outdoor hootenanny

• Plan a weekend getaway, or road trip with some of your favorite people

• Make reservations at local restaurants you haven’t tried yet and invite someone new to go with you

• Plan celebrations around small milestones — 5 workouts in a week, finishing a big work project, speaking up when your instinct was to stay quiet, or a friend’s promotion, your son or daughter’s new apartment,

• Make a pact with a friend to do something new or adventurous each week

We could go on and on - but even preparing this list got us excited to plan more fun activities. You get the idea, and we can’t wait to hear about your adventures! We’d love you to send us a note or connect with us on social media on your ideas or how you’re planning for this next phase. And, please send us pictures!

Rumble on!

Live Well as You Age with These 4 Tips to Reset Your Mindset

We now have evidence that the brain is malleable. What this means is by learning new skills, changing current behaviors, and modifying lifelong habits for better health, you can halt cognitive decline as you age — even into your later years.

Live Well As You Age with These 4 Tips to Reset Your Mindset

You’ve done it before - picked up a new hobby, learned a new skill for work, or started a new morning routine. It’s not always easy to learn something new or change an existing behavior, especially as you get older. All humans are actually hardwired to resist change, but the younger generations generally find it easier to change than those of us in our prime time. 

The reality is that getting out of your comfort zone, learning something, and adopting a new behavior (or two) is actually good for your brain health and has been shown to increase happiness. There is evidence that the brain is malleable. What this means is by learning new skills, changing current behaviors, and modifying lifelong habits for better health, you can halt cognitive decline as you age - even into your later years. 

The story of decline in aging you’ve been told isn’t true. Successful aging requires a
change-is-good mindset, the desire to learn, and a progress, not perfection attitude.      

Get Started with these four mindset reset tips listed below. 

Create a Gratitude Mindset

A gratitude journal is a wonderful way to reset your mindset. By focusing on what you are grateful for, you'll open yourself up to experiencing an abundance of emotional, social, professional, and health benefits.

If you’re already in the practice of writing down what you’re grateful for, try taking your journaling a step further. Make one of your points of gratitude everyday descriptive about someone else and what they've done for you, so that not only are you grateful for your own life, but you also recognize the people in your life and how they contribute to your success and wellbeing. Then challenge yourself to spread gratitude to improve someone else's day.

Send the person you recognized in your journal a note to let them know how grateful you are for them and the impact they have had on your life. Think of the lives you can impact by committing to sending just one message a day! 

Adopt a Fun Mindset

Rebecca’s high school boys had their high school finals coming up  in one week. She realized that her freshman would be experiencing high school finals for the first time and might be feeling added pressure.

When she asked him how he was feeling about finals’ week, he replied, “I am so excited; preparing for finals is fun.” 

Fun and finals weren’t the two words she expected to hear in the same sentence, but she was glad to hear he wasn’t stressed and overwhelmed. 

Fun was his mindset which was making the process of preparing enjoyable and exciting. 

What if you took this approach and reset your mindset when you had something stressful coming up in your life? What if, instead of an automatic response of being overwhelmed, you looked at a stressful event as something fun to be excited about? What if you focused on the process of learning being fun and took the pressure of the results off yourself? 

Give it a try. A reset mindset towards fun can help change your perspective quickly and your life may even feel more fun! 

Build an Intentional Mindset to Change for Good

Like many of you, we started 2021 by setting intentions and a word as our guide for what we want to give attention to over the next 12 months.Transitioning our desired behaviors into lifelong habits is part art, part awareness, daily work, and a whole lot of science.

A place to start is with proven strategies or ‘how tos’ on changing behavior for good. 

We all have patterns of behaviors that we fall back on when we're feeling vulnerable, helpless, angry, stressed or alone. These can be choices that feel more comfortable than sitting still with our emotions. In reality, the only thing that behaviors done mindlessly do is cast a shadow inhibiting our ability to live wholeheartedly. These mindless behaviors give us a false and fleeting sense of soothing and comfort. 

One reason we advocate for sitting still and going inward is the process helps you be mindful about the intentions behind your behavior choices. There are no checklists to identify mindless and comfort behaviors, but self reflection allows you to identify them for yourself. 

Here is one question you can ask yourself that may help. 

Do my choices comfort and nourish my spirit and contribute to my ability to live inside out and flourish, or are they a temporary respite from life?   

Be intentional and identifying red flag personal behavior patterns to help you stay mindful on the path to reaching your goals. For example, if you automatically reach for the sweets after dinner, try going for a short walk instead. 

Being intentional is a mindset. Intention can create awareness around habitual behaviors and help you create change for good. 

Seek a Joyful Mindset

Aging well and flourishing after 50 doesn't require a lengthy to do list or lofty goals. 

Focus on the joy in the journey! 

Do things that nourish you from the inside out. 

Here is where we have found joy the last few months:

• Participate in gentle movement like yoga or meditation

• Walk, ski, or snowshoe in nature 

• Have a conversation with a friend

• Enjoy a wholesome meal with family or friends

• Read a thought-provoking book 

• Listen to an intriguing podcast

• Have a conversation with someone who holds a differing view-point, listen, and seek to understand

• Plan a staycation

• Enjoy the extra time at home to do a puzzle or play a game

By resetting your mindset to focus on the pleasure found in the moment versus what you’re not able to do right now, you’ll discover the joy in so many new experiences in your life. Plus, it can help you positively navigate your life during these stressful times. It’s certainly helped us.

Discover a YOU-First Mindset

Does the recommendation of putting yourself first make you cringe just a little bit? For many of us it certainly does — especially for women. 

Stay with us here. As we’ve aged, we’ve grown tired of trying to live up to someone else’s expectation of who we should be, how we should act, and what we should look like as we age. For many of us, these external expectations create stress in our lives and have become an unrealistic burden that we’re trying unsuccessfully to live up to.  

The reality is you get to decide and write your personal story. And, in doing so you will soften your mind, have greater clarity, and calmness as you evolve closer to your truer and more authentic self.

This is hard work. Society will tell you the goal is to be ageless, instead focus on loving yourself as you are and live age free. 

How to begin? Go inward daily. Set your intentions. Do frequent check-ins to catch yourself if you get off track. Live. Love. Flourish. 

At Rumblings, our philosophy is this...we must reset our mindset in order to live the life of our dreams.  

By focusing on gratitude, intention, joy, and YOU, you can reset your mindset to flourish as you age!  

Rumble On!

Rebecca and Karyn