Why Midlife Is Having a Moment
Carl Jung called it the great shift and neuroscience backs it up
Your twenties ask, How much should I learn? Your thirties demand, What should I build? Your forties wonder, How high should I go? Your fifties whisper, Who should I become?
For as long as I can remember, midlife has been framed as a phase where everything we’ve spent the past two decades building starts to unravel.
Marriages end. Health falters. Children become impossible, sometimes estranged, or leave for college. Loved ones pass away. It’s a crisis on every floor of the life we’ve so carefully constructed.
But my own experience tells a different story.
Midlife isn’t about things falling apart. It’s about everything finally coming together. The pieces start to align, and for the first time, life begins to make sense.
Carl Jung called this transition the great shift. The first half of life pushes outward, career, success, family, identity-building. The second half pulls inward, toward meaning, wholeness, and deeper self-awareness.
This isn’t a breakdown. It’s a breakthrough.
The Myth of the Midlife Crisis
We’ve been conditioned to fear midlife. Pop culture paints it as a time of crisis: expensive fast cars, impulsive career changes, existential dread. But this stereotype is deeply flawed.
Jungian psychology suggests that midlife is not a collapse but a necessary transformation. The goals that once drove us, like status, external validation, fitting in, lose their grip. In their place, we begin to crave something more profound: authenticity, purpose, a life that feels deeply ours.
This is what Jung referred to as individuation, the process of integrating all the different aspects of ourselves to become whole.
The Brain’s Role in the Midlife Shift
This transformation isn’t just psychological. It’s neurological. The brain itself undergoes profound changes in midlife, reinforcing the shift from external ambition to internal fulfilment.
From Speed to Wisdom
While processing speed declines slightly with age, the brain becomes better at making connections, seeing patterns, and integrating knowledge (Goldberg, 2005)1.
Emotional regulation also improves, making us less reactive and more reflective (Phillips, 2011)2.
Neuroplasticity & Reinvention
The brain remains plastic well into later life, meaning we can rewrite limiting beliefs and rewire our responses to stress (Merzenich, 2013)3.
This is why midlife is an optimal time for deep personal growth. Our brains are built, and primed, for adaptation and reinvention.
The Default Mode Network & Self-Reflection
Midlife sees increased activity in the default mode network (DMN), the brain’s introspection centre (Dohm-Hansen, 2024)4.
This is why we start asking, What really matters? Our brains are literally wired for deeper reflection at this stage.
Hormonal Shifts & Cognitive Renewal
The perimenopausal and menopausal brain is undergoing a recalibration, pruning old connections and optimising efficiency (Guo, 2016)5.
While this transition can cause temporary brain fog, it also creates an opportunity for cognitive renewal, provided we support it with proper nutrition, sleep, and stress management.
Why This Feels Like an Identity Crisis
The midlife shift can feel unsettling because it challenges everything we’ve built so far. And of course, we live in an ever-changing world as well. We change, the world around us changes too.
The persona we carefully constructed in our 20s and 30s and beyond, the career-driven achiever, the devoted partner, the person who played by the rules, starts feeling incomplete.
This is the death of the old self, and any kind of death, even metaphorical, triggers resistance.
But here’s the key: this isn’t about abandoning the past. It’s about integrating it. Jung saw midlife as an opportunity to reclaim lost parts of ourselves. The creativity we set aside for responsibility, the adventurous spirit we buried under routine, the dreams we dismissed as unrealistic and shelved, sometimes for decades.
A New Model for Ageing: From Success to Significance
If the first half of life is about building a foundation, the second half is about what we build on top of it. This is the shift from success to significance, from proving ourselves to expressing ourselves.
What does this look like in practice?
From Climbing to Deepening: Instead of chasing the next promotion, we focus on work that feels meaningful.
From Competition to Connection: We shift from ‘winning’ to building relationships that matter.
From Doing to Being: We stop defining ourselves solely by our output and start embracing who we are beyond productivity.
The Heroine’s Journey of Midlife
In Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, the protagonist sets off on an adventure, faces trials, experiences a death and rebirth, and returns transformed.
Midlife is a version of this journey — but with one major twist. The real adventure isn’t climbing mountains or conquering new territory. It’s diving deep into the self.
The call to adventure is the whisper that says, There has to be more than this.
The ordeal is facing the fears of change, uncertainty, and reinvention.
The return is stepping into the most fully expressed version of ourselves.
This isn’t a midlife crisis. It’s a midlife awakening.
How to Navigate the Great Shift
Embrace Reflection – Journaling, meditation, and solitude aren’t indulgences; they’re essential tools for self-discovery.
Redefine Success – Ask yourself: If I weren’t afraid of judgment, how would I define a fulfilling life?
Prioritize Brain Health – Support cognitive flexibility with nutrition (omega-3s, antioxidants), stress management, and creative pursuits.
Reclaim Your Forgotten Self – What did you love as a child? What dreams did you dismiss? Start exploring them again.
Build Your Third Act with Intention – Midlife isn’t the beginning of the end. It’s the start of a new chapter, one you get to write.
The Best Is Yet to Come
Carl Jung believed that midlife wasn’t a time of decline, but of potential. The shift from external ambition to internal fulfilment isn’t a loss, it’s a homecoming.
So if you feel the pull of change, go for it. This isn’t the end of the story. It’s the chapter where the heroine becomes fully herself.
If you liked this post, support Shenmag:
→ If this sparked something in you, give this post a like.
→ If you have a thought to share or just want to chime in, leave a comment.
→ And if it made you rethink something and you want to spread the word, restack.
Shenmag is more than a newsletter. It’s a conversation about ageing on our own terms. Every interaction helps it grow. Let’s rethink midlife. Redefine ageing. And rewrite what comes next.
Related posts:
Shenmag Digest: Last Week’s Top Takeaways
Missed a post? Catch up on last week’s best insights on pro-ageing strategies, brain health, and thriving in your Third Act.
What We Eat Is Written All Over Our Face
The connection between gut health, skin ageing, and why our diet matters more than our skincare routine - With my 7-day skin reset plan
Mon, March 17Don’t Lose Sight of Your Eye Health. Literally.
Why skipping eye exams could cost you more than just your sight
Wednesday, March 195 Perimenopausal Body Myths That Need Busting
Perimenopause: a time of transition, transformation and a truckload of myths
Friday, March 21
The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older, Goldberg, E., Penguin, 2005.
The Mind at Midlife, Phillips, M.L., American Psychological Association, 2011.
Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life, Merzenich, M., Parnassus, 2013.
The 'Middle-Aging' Brain, Trends in Neurosciences, Dohm-Hansen, S. et al., 2024.
Brain structural changes in women and men during midlife, Guo, J. Y. et al., Neuroscience Letters, 2016.
I love this article. This is also the time when women come back to their dream of learning a language, it's a part of their self-care. It's perfectly possible to learn a language as an adult, I see it happen every day.
I am loving your style and your format! This is one of the best publications on the Stack!