Why Age Impacts A Woman's Decision to Get Divorced

Growing older is one of the most difficult aspects in life with which to come to terms and it can be an even bigger factor when contemplating divorce for women that are over the age of fifty. 

None of us want to lose the free, energetic and timeless feeling of our youth. However, more often than not, a woman's age, physical appearance and perceptions about being older can become an obstacle to moving forward and away from an unfulfilling and unhappy marriage.

Society's Emphasis on Youth

Our society puts an emphasis on the way we look externally and the number of years we’ve been alive, rather than the wisdom, experience and spiritual growth that we have acquired and hold within us.

All one has to do is flip on the television, watch a commercial, look at a billboard or browse through a magazine. Airbrushed models with the perfect, line-less face, amazingly shaped figures and of course, long, thick luxurious hair are all around, highlighting the contrast between society's definition of beauty and how women over the age of fifty actually look. ​

Industries are built upon the premise of staying young and large companies prey on women's fear of aging and their change in appearance as they mature. Thousands of products and programs are developed annually, with the promise of washing away the natural evolution of aging. The constant message is that growing older and the way it appears on our faces and bodies is something about which, we should feel awful and dread since it will put an end to life as we know it.

Personally speaking, one of the greatest preoccupations I experienced before and during my divorce process was concern over my chronological age.  I was fifty-one at the time my ex-husband and I ended a seventeen year marriage.  It took me close to ten years and a great deal of contemplation, therapy, general unhappiness and a feeling that my inner soul was shriveling up and dying to take this pivotal step.

Yet, in spite of all my misery, I was terribly frightened of making such a bold move, largely because of my age.

What Being 50+ Means to Women

As women hit the milestone age of fifty, there is a subtle shift in awareness as many begin to comes to terms with the idea that they view themselves differently than they did a decade prior. And, while today, fifty may be the new thirty in many ways, in reality, we know, it is not.  ​

For women, passing the threshold of fifty years old is often not just a mental perspective, but it also includes a myriad of physiological changes which highlight this chronological milestone even more. Beauty regimens usually get up-leveled and involve more than they once did to help us to look our best.  Going through or approaching menopause has its own set of challenges mentally, physically, and emotionally, and our self esteem may suffer a bit, as we have to work harder to look and feel as good as we did, even just a decade earlier.  
​

​ “Maturity is not about aging,
it's a development of getting wiser; 
to be independent and make
our own decision in life.”
​- H. Preet

Contemplating Divorce Can Highlight Age Perception

While many women in this age bracket have come to a place of maturity where the opinions of others are not of major concern and have developed a relatively stronger sense of themselves than might have existed in earlier years, there can be a sudden “Oh my God! I’m old” feeling that can overtake us when we contemplate or move into the realm of divorce. 

All of a sudden, we are mentally concerned that we are too old to reimagine our lives or get out of a situation that we have outgrown or doesn’t serve us any longer.  Mentally, it might sound like a good idea, but practically speaking, some of us may view the idea of being “unmarried” as a life sentence for eternal loneliness and so many other negative possibilities.

Although this concern may not hold any real basis in reality since past research published in The Journals of Gerontology found that more than 1 in 4 people getting divorced in the United States are over age 50. Over half of those divorces happen after 20 years of marriages. However, that does not mean that women do not emotionally struggle with the fear of being “unmarried” and shifting both their status and way of life.

For me, the idea of getting a divorce post fifty years old was frightening and at times seemed like I was going to be walking into an abyss of unknowns. I had known for nearly ten years that I was unhappy in my marriage. I knew deep down that I had a choice to make - I could easily stay in this unfulfilling and limiting connection and in the blink of an eye, I would be turning sixty, still feeling just as dead, just as unhappy, only to have wasted ten more years of my precious life - or I could make the bold move and journey down a new path.

In the abstract, I wanted to venture out and reinvent my life!  I had no idea how, but I just knew that my marriage was not the place to do this.  However, on the flip side, I had this gnawing feeling that I was too old to start over; that while I did not want to be with my ex-husband, and fantasized that there might be a more fulfilling way of life and even a relationship out there in the world, I was afraid that not being married, would find me nowhere, good for nothing else and most terrifying...incapable of going it alone!

Forget Your Age

​What I found was that nothing could have been further from the truth! And if you are plagued with the same fear or feelings of inadequacy, uncertainty, fear of the unknown and the myriad of other emotions about leaving an unhappy marriage, over the age of fifty,  let me say one thing to you - FORGET YOUR AGE. 

Live Your Life
and 
Forget Your Age

Did you know that you are timeless?  Our souls, our thoughts, our essence, are all timeless.  If you are unhappy in any way with the current status of your life - either contemplating divorce or recently divorced in your fifth, sixth, seventh - even eighth decade on this planet,  the very first thing you must do is to forget your age. This is not easy, as I said, particularly with all the “reminders” around you. 

You’re probably thinking, “yeah, but Elisa, my hair is graying, I see more lines on my face than I did before, I’m not as limber and my memory is not as sharp.”

​You know what I say - so what!  

If you are feeling old, you are paying too much attention to society’s definition of beauty and age and not going within to embrace the timeless person that you are.  

Remember Your Power

You have more power than you may realize in feeling, looking and being young. When your mindset is grounded in feeling empowered and self assured, something amazing happens to the way in which you view yourself.  Your confidence increases, you stand a little taller, you take better care of yourself from the inside out and you embrace a youthful attitude in your stride.

You also release much of the stress that adds to the aging process, relaxing your body, lowering your shoulders and allowing your facial muscles to stop tensing. As a human being, living in a three dimensional forward moving world, it is not likely that you can stop the aging process altogether, but you can certainly alter and stop the negative and critical way in which you view yourself with each passing year and replace this with kindness and compassion towards the evolving you!

With this new mindset, you will be able to see more clearly through the blinders of chronological age when deciding if divorce is the right next step for your soul's evolution and life's happiness.

- Love & Light,
Elisa