Rainy Day Reflections

I’ve been wondering what’s next, so I thought I’d invite you into my head as I take stock of my possibilities. Many of us who pivoted (who didn’t?) in the last few years are probably in the same boat, so maybe you can relate. Or maybe you’ve already shifted into a new space that doesn’t feel like some temporary universe. Do share if you’re settled but haven’t settled. Does that make sense?

Three years ago I completed my doctorate in health education. It was the culmination of a midlife career shift, interest in evidence-based data, and frustration with the health industry’s market driven approach to wellbeing. It probably didn’t help that my first career was actually in marketing, as I couldn’t ignore the fear driven messages promoting cosmetic facades as somehow equivalent to health. I felt it was either learn more or scrap the Life 2.0 plan I’d crafted, so I found a solution through academia.

It’s as though the American anti-aging culture was the perfect setting for vultures to swoop down into our heads and peck out any sense of worth that age and experience offer. We’re encouraged to be caricatures, lifted and dyed and filled and microbladed and dieted until we more align as an avatar instead of a naturally evolving human. How did we collectively buy into this at the tune of $22 billion a year?  

It was that dilemma that landed me back in school as a 55 year old. And five years later, just shy of my 60th birthday, I successfully defended my dissertation to become Dr. Lisa Hautly, a health education specialist. Ready to change the narrative on aging. Ready to tell the stories of real wellbeing in the later stages of life. I closed my wellbeing practice and cleared my calendar to move forward with a more targeted approach. But first, it was time to breathe again. A little travel, a little life planning, some new volunteer work, and even a return to tennis. 

Well planned, well balanced, well being.

But that’s not really what happened, is it? No, a virus sent us into quarantine, canceling all travel plans, my family had several health issues, political warfare drove wedges into relationships, and my mom passed away after an extended lockdown. I lost focus and doubted that I ever had the formula for wellbeing that I had so carefully created.

I do hope to grow my confidence as I put some distance between those events and the current me. It’s not that I think I’m done with life challenges, but I have a bit of breathing room right now, so it’s a good time to reflect on how I handled things and what I would do differently. I re-engaged in social media this year and see the critical needs of an aging population. 

Those five dimensions - physical, social, spiritual, emotional, and intellectual wellbeing are still so important. In fact, meeting the challenges of aging in our current environment requires more resources and more resiliency than ever before in my lifetime. I now see it from multiple perspectives. As a health specialist, an active midlife woman, a learner and a teacher. 

These are my current rainy-day meandering thoughts. Maybe you can relate?