Can midlife lead to higher levels of consciousness?

In my post called “Am I in Midlife?” I mentioned that for some of us, the quest required by our own midlife crisis can lead to higher levels of consciousness. What does this mean?

This can mean that the negative effects of say a divorce or a job loss or any combination of depressing and confusing midlife happenings, can catapult us mentally and emotionally into some deep questioning of how we got where we are today and, BTW, is this where I wanted to be by age 50?

This can lead to higher levels of consciousness which can be quite a freeing experience, one which prepares us to open to all we have missed out on because of pre-existing rules in our heads, or just plain limited thinking.

The part of my experience that both threatened my life but also saved it, was my version of a midlife crisis. How this dynamic worked for me is that first the divorce and then the job loss woke me up out of my own complacency. I had wrongly believed that job security was the meaning of life, but then realized that it was only a “means” to a life. If you have financial security, but still no life that you want to live, what’s the point?

I finally came around to seeing that although finding a career I could love was important to my overall happiness, finding a life full of love was so much more so. Once I worked through many of my previous problems with love and embraced how important it was to me now, I soon (through pure, dumb luck and Match.com) met a man who loved me unconditionally.

In fact, he loved me and believed in my pure potential so much, that he was willing to support me through the difficult stages of changing careers, learning the ropes, and slowly building a writing career from scratch at age 50. That, my friend, is my version of hitting the jackpot.

So I went from assuming that my career was my best shot at finding adult happiness, to realizing that a strong, supportive relationship had everything to do with living my best life. Just by chance, that love also included the support I needed to pursue my own version of professional nirvana.

Now, partially as a result of my constant love and encouragement, my husband Mike has gone from assuming that he could not improve his work situation, to finding his own dream job! He starts in about a week working to improve solar technology.

Do you see how this positive cycle can snowball? And all from each of us hitting rock bottom only a few years ago. That’s why I love that quote from billionaire author J. K. Rowling:

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation I built my future success upon.”