The Changing Body

SEPTEMBER SERIES — Women on a Journey

This Month’s Journey: A humorous, honest, liberating exploration

of the midlife body — and the woman we are becoming.

Week 1 — The Lived Body

Week 2 — The Changing Body

Week 3 — Midlife Sexuality

Week 4 — The Woman I Am Becoming

Week 2

1. This Week’s Focus — The Changing Body

This week we explore how the body shifts in midlife — not as a failure, but as a transition into wisdom, strength, and deeper self‑understanding.

The Changing Body: Meeting the Woman You Didn’t Notice Becoming

I stopped going to the movie theater the year a new date took me to see Shrek. It was meant to be silly, light, a bit of fun. Instead, I sat there trying to hide tears behind a napkin, pretending it was allergies.

I remember thinking, Who have I become? When did joy start leaking out of me like that?

For years, I worked in rooms filled almost entirely with men. Ninety percent, at least. The only other women were the secretaries who poured coffee and typed minutes. During that time, my body was shifting in ways no one around me could see—or understand. The bleeding was so heavy I learned to be the last one to stand up after meetings, just in case I had left an embarrassing reminder behind on the chair. My mind felt foggy, my patience thin, my irritation sharp.

I didn’t have language for it then. I just thought I was failing at being myself.

And then there were the mirrors.

Why do they put enormous mirrors right outside the shower, so you see every inch of yourself before you’ve even had coffee? I knew I was fifty, but I only felt fifty in those moments—stepping out, catching sight of a woman I didn’t immediately recognize. I used to joke that I couldn’t run too fast anymore because I’d knock myself out; everything was gravitating toward the floor anyway.

But beneath the humor was a quiet truth: midlife doesn’t arrive politely. It shows up in movie theaters, in boardrooms, in bathrooms with too many mirrors. It shows up in the places where you suddenly realize you’re not who you were—and you’re not yet who you’re becoming.

Maybe that’s the real story:

• not the shock of change,

• but the slow, brave work of meeting yourself again.

A Ritual of Becoming: How Viking Women Marked the Midlife Threshold

In the Viking Age, women were not quietly pushed aside as they grew older — they were often elevated. Archaeological finds and sagas show that Viking women held strong roles in society, running farms, managing trade, influencing law, and shaping community life.

They were formidable, independent, and deeply respected for their wisdom.

When a woman reached midlife — when her body shifted, and her intuition sharpened — she often stepped into a new identity: the wise woman, sometimes connected to the tradition of the völva, the seeress who practiced deep intuition and spiritual guidance.

This transition wasn’t subtle. It was ceremonial.

The Cloak, the Staff, and the Circle of Women

Historical accounts describe rituals marking this shift:

• She received a staff, symbolizing authority and insight.

• She donned a cloak, often decorated with protective symbols.

• Women gathered around her, offering support, songs, and blessings.

• She was invited to speak, sharing wisdom and guidance with her community.

This was not a ritual of fading.

It was a ritual of arrival.

A woman entering midlife wasn’t losing value —

• she was gaining status,

• voice,

• spiritual weight.

• Her changing body was seen as a sign that she had crossed into a new season of power.

So why do we not celebrate midlife and beyond?

Why do we hold back instead of looking forward to what life offers us as wise women with lived experience?

It Is Biology, Not a Failure of Will

If you are standing in front of your own bathroom mirror right now, looking at a stranger, I want to tell you something completely different than what the world tells you:

You are not broken. You are recalibrating.

When estrogen and progesterone begin their slow, chaotic exodus, it ripples through everything. It changes how we sleep, how we process energy, how our skin feels, and how we experience the world. Too often, we internalize these changes as personal flaws.

Let’s put that burden down right now.

What you are experiencing is real, physical, and deeply demanding. Your body is doing the heavy, sacred work of transitioning from one season of life to the next. The fatigue or sudden waves of emotion aren’t weaknesses; they are your body insisting that you finally slow down and pay attention to yourself.

Shifting from Fighting to Stewarding

For most of our lives, we have demanded that our bodies perform for everyone else. We used them to build careers in rooms that didn’t understand us, to care for families, and to carry invisible responsibilities.

The changing body of midlife is a boundary line. It is your physical self saying:

The old way of running on empty is over.

This chapter is not the beginning of your fading away. It is the beginning of your return to yourself.

We Walk This Journey Together

Transformation never happens in isolation. It happens when women sit together, look each other in the eyes, laugh about the mirrors, admit the boardroom anxieties, and say, “I feel it too. You are safe here.”

You do not have to carry the weight of this changing season silently or perfectly. Your body is not betraying you. It is shedding the skin of who you used to be, preparing you for the powerful, grounded woman you are actively becoming.

Lean into the transition. Trust your framework. You are stronger, wiser, and more beautifully complex than you have ever been.

Join the Conversation

Where did midlife “show up unpolitely” for you? Was it a mirror, a meeting, or a random moment that caught you off guard?

Share your story below — your humor, your honesty, your reality. We grow stronger when we speak these truths together.

Love to you all,

Sissel the Modern Viking Woman

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September Month’s Special Offers: Take Your Next Step

• The Passion Kit ($29): A self‑paced toolkit with workbooks, exercises, Action Sheets, and frameworks to help you build steady momentum — at your own rhythm.

* JOIN the Facebook Group: “We are Women on a Journey”, our closed Facebook group. It’s new, supportive, and ready for women who want to be part of forming it.

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For the Curious Mind

Evidence‑Based Midlife Resources.

Here are three trusted scientific sources you can explore:

• NIH – Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) https://www.swanstudy.org One of the largest long‑term studies on midlife women’s health.

• Mayo Clinic – Menopause & Midlife Health https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/menopause/symptoms-causes/syc-20353397 (mayoclinic.org in Bing) Clear medical explanations of hormonal changes and symptoms.

• Harvard Health – Cognitive Changes in Midlife https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/menopause-and-your-brain (health.harvard.edu in Bing) Research showing that “brain fog” is temporary and biologically driven.

Midlife isn’t the body breaking down. It’s the body reorganizing itself for the next chapter.

Disclosure: This blog shares personal reflections, midlife practices, and wellness rituals based on my own experience and research. It is not medical advice, therapy, or a substitute for professional care. Always listen to your body and consult a qualified professional if you have health concerns. Some posts may include links to my free or paid resources; you are never obligated to use them.