Why Midlife Needs Meaning, Not Hustle — and How Solar Rhythms Help Us Listen

For much of our adult life, we’re taught to move forward by strategizing, planning, and making things happen. As we go through the motions of cultural/societal programs and goal setting, we set ourselves up for a good life as we get older. This way of “doing life” creates a kind of rhythm that is linear and works for probably several decades.

This linear rhythm rewards effort, skill building, endurance and hustle — and for a long time, it works.

For women, this way of operating helps us get educated, build professional lives, raise families, build relationships and community and find a kind of success.

But somewhere between our early 40s and 60s, many women begin to feel a quiet but persistent dissonance that begins to stir during peri-menopause and gets stronger during menopause and after. The strategies that once brought success start to feel hollow, and motivation starts to fade, not because we’re tired or failing, but because something deeper is asking to be heard. Just the realization that our bodies are changing can activate subtle inner forces that want attention.

This isn’t burnout in the usual sense, but an inner call for a recalibration of meaning.

The midlife shift no one prepares us for – a deeper look

Midlife isn’t a crisis of competence; it’s a crisis of relevance and meaning and an initiation into a deeper relationship with yourself.

The psyche begins to ask different questions:

• Why am I doing this now?

• What does this cost me — in energy, integrity, or aliveness?

• What wants to emerge if I stop performing and start listening?

The problem is that we’re often still using hustle-based rhythms to answer these questions. And hustle is poorly suited for this phase of life.

Hustle assumes urgency equals importance. Momentum is always the goal. Slowing down means falling behind

But the midlife psyche isn’t interested in speed. It’s interested in truth and aligned action.

Why rhythm matters more than motivation

During the before-during-and after of menopause, many women don’t need another plan. They need a different relationship with time.

This is where solar-based rhythms —the seasonal changes the earth goes through — offer something quietly radical. They don’t demand constant growth and instead, they reflect phases of emergence, activation, integration and release as we journey through 12 months of every year.

This mirrors the internal experience of midlife and menopause beautifully. There are moments where the psyche asks for honesty, assessment, and letting go. And moments of renewed energy and clarity.

The question shifts from: “What should I be doing right now?” to “What phase am I actually in?”

That single reframe reduces enormous inner friction and can soothe a buzzing nervous system. I love a good reframe!!

Meaning over momentum

Hustle says: Act now or you’ll miss your chance.

The midlife psyche says: When I’m out of alignment, I lose myself.

Aligning to the solar rhythms of nature help legitimize our instincts to pause without guilt, meet endings without feeling like a failure, and to take more care with our decisions as our bodies and values shift.

They offer external validation for an internal truth many women already feel. They affirm: I’m not behind. I’m in season.

This is especially powerful for women who have spent decades over-functioning — in careers, families, and communities — often at the expense of their own inner life and health.

A different kind of power

Working with powerful natural rhythms instead of force brings in a kind of inner precision.

You begin to recalibrate as you sense when action is clean instead of reactive. When holding steady is wiser than pushing. When release is not loss, but preparation for something new.

This new kind of inner power helps us adapt to the everyday things of our lives by making subtle little shifts and welcoming personal rituals that keep us growing, going, and glowing.

Menopausal changes and the entry into midlife ask us to lead from coherence rather than pressure. And that kind of leadership — grounded, paced, meaning-led — is exactly what this stage of life is designed to cultivate.

If we let it.

Soul Expressions has a few ways to support YOUR menopausal recalibration: see In Your Element, download your free Soul Map to Awaken Your Midlife Magic, or reach out for a complimentary chat.

Midlife as a Spiritual Journey

Welcome to Andorra’s Box revisited – a place designed to support women going through big life changes around the start of midlife, or just before. This is the time of life when women’s bodies, minds, emotions go through massive shifts that can lead to serious challenges if not navigated with conscious choices and support. Can you say menopause and aging? 

If you read my About page, you’ll see that my personal journey had me start to acknowledge my spiritual journey sometime around my mid-30’s, and by 40 big changes were in the wind, as they say. Now in my 60’s and knowing what I know, I strongly suggest women approaching and navigating the middle years acknowledge and nurture their spiritual lives, their faith.

Why? Because aging can get uncomfortable and midlife offers a huge opportunity to see your life as an important piece in the web of life - ie, who you are and why you are here. This is an existential impulse, a spiritual issue, a “why-am-I-here?” issue.

So if you identify as “spiritual” or are at least curious about your inner life, here are 8 characteristic and ways spirituality can show up from the late-30’s to early 60s via thoughts and feelings - see if any resonate with you:

1. A desire to find meaning: This is the “what’s my life all about?” question. Or what did certain life events, circumstance, people mean? Why did things happen the way they did?

2. Shifting perspectives about the roles we play: Midlife is when we transition from roles that dominated our earlier years, such as parenting or career-building. This opens up opportunities for self-discovery and exploring new aspects of our identity, including the spiritual dimension.

3. Finding inspiration in nature and the cycles of life: Noticing how nature changes and renews itself can awaken our connection with something bigger than ourselves - a “natural intelligence” that we are all part of.

4. Realizing the importance of health and wellbeing: Our own health can spark a focus on holistic well-being, including mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health.

5. Wanting deeper, more meaningful connections: As our roles shift, we often crave connection with like-minded women who are also seeking meaning and sisterhood as we age.

6. Questioning old goals and desiring more soul: shifting toward a more soul-centered way of living can lead to increased compassion, empathy, and a deeper connection to others.

7. Wanting to heal challenging parts of our lives: spirituality can help tend to deep hurts and repair younger versions of our selves.

8. Wanting support for losses: spirit enters the room when we are grieving, often with unexpected yet welcome gifts.

Acknowledging these inner currents can help shape our journeys and steer away from what they say about having a midlife crisis. Leaning into these concerns can instead offer a midlife awakening.

Every woman's entry into and navigation through midlife is obviously unique.

Honouring the impulses of the soul is the way to go through midlife - the eternal part of each of us needs to be acknowledged as we age, otherwise the pains of the past will define how we age.

So “Midlife as a Spiritual Journey” is now the theme of Andorra’s Box, and there’s lots to share about the opportunities and challenges of the midlife passage….so stay tuned, stay curious.

And if you are curious about your own soul journey, let’s chat.

(You can read about my midlife awakening in previous blog entries, numbered 1-7.)