You feel a “rumbling” inside yourself that your life should be different from what it is right now. You’re not alone. It’s common to experience an internal rumbling—a feeling something should be different or something needs to change. However, your old identity may be holding you back and sabotaging the future you. You may be stuck in old behaviors that are not aligned with who you are in midlife or who you want to be. It’s time to reimagine your midlife vision!

Kate Ostrem created her business, 9 Open Doors, to share the wisdom of the Enneagram in a practical, down-to-earth way. She loves helping women better understand themselves and others. We wanted to know if learning more about our Enneagram types could help us on our journey to aging well, so we sat down with her for an interview.

Midlife is full of change. We experience transitions ranging from kids graduating and starting on their own, caring for aging parents, health issues of our own, becoming grandparents, changing marital status, household moves, and career moves. Not to mention the changes that are happening with our bodies! Some of the changes are wonderful. Others are very messy and complicated. The only constant is the change itself.

How do you move through change in a way that is healthy and develops resiliency? These are a few of the guideposts that we’ve used to help ourselves and others navigate change.

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.

For many of us, reaching 50 was the moment we asked if there was more to life or wondered if we had a purpose beyond family and work. It's not that we don't love our children, careers, or our families. We have a rumbling that there might be more for us individually in the next half of life. We can use practical tips, tools, and techniques to rethink our rhythm for living well after 50 and managing messy, midlife transitions.

We all have the capacity to be fluid or fixed in our mindset. The growth path is to adapt to certain situations - to allow ourselves to be moved or changed due to our environment, experiences, and creative process. A fluid mindset creates new brain pathways leading to success, improves creativity, and helps growth, which will enable us to deal with the uncertainty ahead. At Rumblings, we believe our prime time and our best accomplishments are still ahead of us. To achieve our goals and make our dreams a reality, abundance, growth, and infinite mindsets are critical.