Why is preventing burnout and recovering from it harder for women after 40?
Consider…
- Caring for older children and aging parents
- The worries of retirement and not being ready for it.
- New health issues.
- Changes in the needs and priorities of love partnerships.
- Existential pain and lack of meaning
- New body and image challenges.
These, on top of day-to-day and past stress, can lead to an intense form of burnout for women close to or well past their 40s and 50s. Ignoring somatic intelligence can cause heightened symptoms because burnout mixes with hormonal changes. This is a time for wisdom, self-actualization, and inner listening, not for hustling.
The intersection of midlife, burnout, and dissatisfaction can feel daunting. An inner alarm says you can’t keep spinning your wheels or trying the same old things alone. At this point in your life, you don’t have time to waste on superficial fixes or postponing the inner work. But what can you do? First, listen to the alarm. You’ve heard this internal signal go off, with a sense of urgency to pay attention to what matters. Before, you may have ignored it, but now it shows up in every area you have neglected, like your health, relationships, career, or self-worth. This alarm is trying to save you from a Midlife Crisis.
If you don’t dismiss the alarm, you’ll enter “The Midlife Rite of Passage,” where you work with your nervous system and emotions to create peace, joy, and satisfaction. This means understanding your new rhythms, depending less on IQ and more on emotional intelligence (EQ), trusting your body compass for intuition, and becoming wise. Starting this journey can make your life’s second half more meaningful professionally, emotionally, and physically. Instead of burnout or a midlife crisis, you can enter a “Somatic Midlife Awakening.” That means feeling safe to experience your changing chemistry, neurobiology, and emotions. Safe to be you.
A life of safety, connection, and joy for women past 40 and 50 begins with the willingness to honor this phase of your life. In the process, you can close the stress cycles from productivity, attachment, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or harsh demands from the first half of your life. This empowers you to face the new challenges of this phase with grace instead of burnout.
