Two Things To Avoid When Having a Midlife Crisis
Today, I want to discuss two crucial things to avoid when dealing with your midlife crisis. While these might sound simple, handling them can be quite elusive.
Let's start with the first one: spiritual bypassing.
In simple terms, spiritual bypassing occurs when you use a spiritual practice meant to address deep-rooted issues superficially. For instance, you might meditate to calm down and relax when you're angry at a colleague or spouse.
Meditation, a tool that can expand consciousness and dissolve ego boundaries, becomes a mere quick fix to feel better, allowing you to evade the struggles and challenges of daily life. It's like taking a painkiller for a headache instead of addressing its root cause.
While navigating the years of your midlife crisis, marked by uncertainties about whether it's a genuine crisis or just a phase, you may encounter difficulties in your marriage, career, family life, or health. Using practices like meditation and yoga to regulate your nervous system and manage change is crucial, but if meditation serves as your go-to painkiller for anger or frustration, you should question whether you're genuinely resolving the underlying issues or merely skimming the surface.
Now, let's move on to the second critical point: staying trapped in your mind.
Transforming your life takes time, as I've mentioned in previous articles. Gaining certification, experience, or the necessary skills may be required to change careers, explore new opportunities, or even relocate to a different country. Everything takes time, and if you have financial commitments like a mortgage or a family to support, you can't change everything overnight. Gradual change ensures that nobody suffers during your transformation, allowing you to evolve while preserving your family, children, and relationships.
However, staying solely in your mind can be counterproductive. It involves reading about change, attending courses, watching YouTube channels, or reading books for inspiration, without taking concrete actions. You may believe that gradually absorbing information will eventually spark the motivation to make changes. Unfortunately, this often leads to getting stuck in your comfort zone, preventing you from delving deep into the actual experience of transformation, including facing challenges, making sacrifices, and deciding that your current path no longer aligns with your goals.
To avoid these pitfalls, you need to confront the difficulties and challenges head-on. Recognize that you're in a midlife crisis, an emergency, and that you need to take action. Embrace the urgency to change your life rather than remaining complacent. Once you realize the crisis, don't get stuck in the mental realm. Start making choices and taking action, even if it's gradual. Experience the transformation you desire, and don't let it remain a mere idea in your mind.
By avoiding spiritual bypassing and resisting the temptation to remain solely in your mind, you can truly touch the root cause of your midlife crisis and embark on a profound journey of self-discovery and transformation.