It occurred to me recently: if I’d been born a hundred years ago there is every chance that I would currently be institutionalised.
“It is above all necessary that women at this critical age [midlife] abstain from all excitable pursuits, such as dancing, reading novels, or any kind of social distraction which, by agitating the imagination, could provoke or worsen the nervous storms so common in the menopause. Those women who seek new pleasures or yearn insatiably for social amusement at this time are most at risk of hysterical attacks and mental alienation, forgetting the dignified reserve that should mark their entry into mature age.” – Marc Colombat de l’Isère, Treatise on the Diseases of Women and the Special Hygiene of Females(1838) .
I find myself forgetting my dignified reserve. I yearn for new pleasures and wild adventures. I want to move to Italy, learn Italian, hike the Dolomites, take weekend trips to Malta and Sardinia, downsize the family home and move into a fabulous apartment in the city, hit the road with my surfboard, run a half marathon, write another book, fly at the pointy end of the plane, find my pelvic floor, start lifting weights, invest in my future, flee winter and chase the sun.
I shared my reflections with CEOWorld Magazine –Â click here to read more.
