At midlife the meaning and purpose of the first half of life begins to fail. The agenda changes. It is no longer focussed on differentiation but integration. We must give up the identity we worked so hard to get so we can become more. There is a crisis of meaning.
Life often seems to fall apart.
Signs and symptoms arise to get our attention so we will make the change. This is a spiritual question and midlife takes us into a quest for a deeper and more powerful spirituality. The midlife problem is that all of this change is extraordinarily difficult and can be both greatly resisted and denied. You may retreat into the stagnation pattern of holding on to youth. You must die to the old self that has become egocentric so you can reshape yourself.