When things you once took for granted undergo a radical shift, it’s normal to wonder if you’ll ever feel passionate about life after 50 again. The good news is that you can rediscover your passion and purpose, and this show explains how.
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Women over 50 can get knocked sideways by major life transitions and/or the feeling that “there must be something more to life.” Today, I share my own raw journey following the death of my sister and my unfulfilling marriage that caused me to lose sight of my business direction – only to discover that the confusion itself was leading me to a new purpose. You’ll hear why it’s OK not to have the answers right now, how to trust the messy middle of transformation, and what actually helps when you’re trying to redesign your life from the ground up. Plus, you’ll receive a light language transmission to support your own journey of rediscovery.
You’ll discover:
- Why major midlife transitions can strip away your old sense of purpose, and why that’s actually the beginning of something deeper, not the end
- The different ways grief can affect you and why giving yourself permission to feel all of the attending emotions is essential
- Simple practices and resources that helped me navigate my darkest moments
- Why “surrender and trust” became the two most powerful themes in my healing and how letting go of needing to know opened the door to clarity I couldn’t have forced
- How speaking about spirituality and the L.O.V.E. Method (even when it felt scary and off-brand) unlocked my true purpose and made my feel light again
- The gift of a Light Language transmission designed specifically for women who are in the thick of transition and need support reconnecting with their inner wisdom
Remember: It’s okay not to know. The answers will come. You will find your passion again. Don’t give up on you. I’m not giving up on you either.
Resources & links mentioned:
Daily Word magazine by Unity: https://www.unity.org/en/daily-word/mag
Bob Sima’s song: “I Don’t Know (And That’s Alright)”
Good Grief Women’s Retreat – June 25-29, 2026 in Black Mountain, NC (Early bird ends Jan. 31): goodgriefretreat.net
Explore 1:1 coaching and other ways to work with Gloria Grace: gloriarand.com/offerings
Take the Personal Power Archetype Quiz to discover your unique strengths as a midlife entrepreneur: bit.ly/PersonalPowerQuiz
Book a private Light Language session to clear energetic blocks and reconnect with your divine nature: gloriarand.com/light-language-healing
Design Your Life, Your Way – next steps:
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Share this with a friend who’s navigating transition, reinvention, or a fresh start after 50.
Connect with me on LinkedIn @GloriaGraceRand to continue the conversation about midlife, meaning, and living on purpose.
TRANSCRIPT – Rediscovering Your Passion & Purpose After 50
You know, midlife isn’t for sissies.
You know, it’s just one thing after another. Menopause, your kids leave home, you start really losing people close to you. You know, family members die, maybe good friend relationships go through changes. You know, maybe you’re, you’ve been married for a long time and maybe you’re realizing that you’re not quite in alignment anymore. And any of these things, or all of them, but certainly even any one of them can cause you to rethink where you are in life.
And the things that you are passionate about may not quite hold that same grip on your heart anymore. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today because that was certainly the case for me.
Navigating Common Midlife Transitions for Women Over 50
You know, actually menopause was relatively okay for me. That wasn’t a major thing. Kids leaving home. I was very blessed in that. Well, when my daughter went off to college, I was glad to see her go.
I loved her, but it was time for her to step on, get out of, get on her own a bit and, and, and, you know, live away from home for a little bit. And so it’s, we have a much better relationship now that she’s older.
But I was going through some challenges with my relationship with my, with my spouse, but wasn’t really serious about doing, doing anything about it.
And all this time I was attempting to grow my business. I was doing copywriting, online marketing for small businesses. And then my sister died. And that really shook my world in so many ways that I was not prepared for.
How Grief Changes Everything: Losing My Sister
I think the, the, one of the biggest reasons is because she was that last link to my, what’s the phrase? Nuclear family that, that I grew up with because both my parents had, had passed. I had an older brother and he died long time ago back when I was in college, as a matter of fact. So it was for, let’s see, my mom passed in 2003. So for 12 years it was just me and my sister, you know, and she was 10 years older than me, but still not that old when she passed.
She was just shy of turning 65, getting, you know, we’d filled out the Medicare forms and she was getting ready to go on to med Medicare. And then she went and passed from cancer.
So when that happened, my world just imploded. Yeah, I think that’s the best way to say it. My world imploded. You know, I, I, yes, I had two wonderful adult children. I had, I had a husband who was doing his best to be supportive, and yet I didn’t know what to do with myself.
The business that I was running didn’t have the same appeal anymore.
When Grief Affects Your Business and Health
I had. In the year prior to my sister passing, I had released a lot of weight. I. I was. I think I’d released about 50 pounds. And when she passed, I gave myself permission to eat again.
To eat too much. Not just eat healthy food, but. No, eat all the junk food that I’d given up. And so I wound up putting all those pounds back on.
Well, not good. You know, when you’re, when you’re, when you reach a certain age and you have too much weight on your body, then body parts start hurting. And I remember actually in that first year after my sister passed, my back, I had major issues with my back. I’ve. Off and on over the years, I’ve had back problems.
And so I would go to a chiropractor, would kind of get out. I’d get out of alignment, and I’d go to a chiropractor and they straighten me back up. And so I, I did that, but it still wasn’t working. And so I actually worked with another. Another woman who was a. I forget what she’s called.
She was like a medical massage therapist or something like that anyway, but she. So she helped me, you know, get. Get the pain reduced and eventually, you know, felt better again. So. Yeah, so I’m, you know, I’m…
Emotional Eating and Self-Care After Loss
I’m eating my grief, which is not healthy for you at all. I’m grieving, which is not great, you know, because you, when you’re grieving, you don’t want to do stuff. You know, it’s, it’s. I wasn’t doing the things in my business to grow it that I had been doing. You know, I was someone who would do at least one blog article every week.
I was writing and posting on my website. I was even doing infographics, like, once a week. So I was. So really, I was like, posting on my blog twice a week. I was sending out a weekly email to my list and, you know, doing all the other things that you do when you’re growing a business, you know, being active on social media, things like that.
Well, again, when you’re grieving, it’s hard to keep that stuff up, even though you try. And I just, I, I stopped. I wasn’t, I wasn’t emailing very often. I definitely stopped blogging. I wasn’t doing that every week.
Maybe, maybe once a month if I was lucky. I’d have to go back in and look, look at my analytics and see what I was doing.
When You Stop Showing Up: Grief and Business Isolation
So I. Yeah, it’s. It’s. It’s just not great. And I was also. I wasn’t even showing up like, you know, I use again.
I was, you know, growing your business. You go to networking meetings. And so I would go. You know, I had been. I was part of a group and that would have regular networking meetings.
And I know that I was not showing up very much at those. And because, frankly, I. I was really confused about what I wanted to do with my business. Do I want to keep doing copywriting? I don’t know. Or.
And then I was working some coaches at the time, and they were like, well, maybe you should pick a different niche. And so I tried focusing in, on, I think, green businesses and. And things, but it still wasn’t. My heart wasn’t in it. My heart wasn’t in it.
The “Is This All There Is?” Question Women Face at Midlife
- And especially because the. Here’s the other thing, too. It was that. And I know this happens a lot with.
With people when you get into midlife, you start really questioning, is this all there is? And you start maybe thinking, I want to do something more with my life. I. I feel like there’s something more significant. And I definitely felt that because two months before my sister passed, I was meditating, as I had been doing for a very long time at that point, regular meditation practice.
A Divine Message: Being Called to Write About Love
And this idea came into my head that said, you need to write a book about love. And I thought, that’s crazy. What do I know about love? I do marketing. It’s like, what the heck?
Where is this coming from? Well, you could say it came from God. It came from source, came from my higher self, whatever it was. But it was something that I definitely did need to do. So again, now I’m grieving and I’m.
I have this idea about that I need to write a book.
And so that’s part of this. I feel like there’s something more that I need to be doing, something more significant. So what do we do when that happens? Well, I tell you what. What I did was searched for answers, started working with different coaches and therapists.
Finding Support: Alternative Healing Modalities for Grief and Purpose
I went to grief counseling. I went to regular counseling. I went to. I. I did alternative healing modalities. Like, I went to someone who practiced theta healing and someone who specialized in working with your chakras.
And. And then I went to a coach to help me with my business, who then wound up helping me more with my spiritual side, which was interesting.
And all of those things helped for a little bit, but it was still rough going. It was still rough going And.
And if you’re going through something similar right now, I do want to tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It doesn’t seem like it when you’re in the throes of it, because I tell you, especially that first year now, each year after that got a little bit easier. But that first year, I really felt alone. I really, really felt alone. And it was very frustrating, frankly, to feel that way, because even though I’m an introverted person, I don’t.
You’re Not Alone: Healing Through the First Year of Grief
I like to be around people. But I also. I guess I felt. I wouldn’t say abandoned by God, but I just. I didn’t feel close to.
To Source or, you know, the universe. And. And. And as I was going through this, you know, my. My spiritual beliefs were evolving anyway.
I had been a member of Catholic Church and regular churchgoer, mostly because I like to sing, and I would sing in the choir and somewhere. And this was actually, I think, before my sister passed. I got really upset with our local parish priest and. And said, you know what? This is ridiculous.
If I don’t believe in. In some of these spiritual tenants, why am I still going to church? And, you know, I felt like my mom had passed. It wasn’t like I owed it to her. So I said, you know what?
Spiritual Evolution: Finding a New Path After Leaving the Church
Forget it. I’m gonna figure this out on my own somewhere else or. Or find spiritual guidance elsewhere. And so I. I did. I went to Unity church for a while.
And. And what was interesting about that was that was something that actually connected me with my mom because my mom used to subscribe to a magazine that Unity publishes called the Daily Word. And. And so I started subscribing to that. So again, there’s lots of different things that I was doing to help me figure out, you know, what is my purpose in life, what is.
What am I passionate about now? So it took a while. And. And that’s my point, is that.
Give Yourself Permission: Why Clarity Takes Time
Don’t feel like you have to rush it. If you have had something significant happen in your life right now, just be with those feelings, be with it, and know that you’re okay. You’re human. You’re allowed to feel sad. You’re allowed to grieve.
You’re allowed to even have, you know, a pity party from time to time. It’s okay.
And I would encourage you at the same time is to do some of the things that I’ve been talking about here, is to reach out to people, know that you don’t have to do this alone, that there are people out there who can support you. There are groups, there are individuals, there are coaches, there are therapists, there are spiritual mentors. Whether, you know, if you are someone who is religious, you can go talk to your minister or your priest if that is what feels good for you.
Trust Your Timeline: The Healing Process Can’t Be Rushed
Give yourself grace of time and allow yourself to have that time to figure it out and trust that you will. You will figure it out. It will come to you. And I know it can be really frustrating when you’re in the throes of it going. Well, maybe not, but for me, it was frustrating going, not knowing what to do, which direction to go in, and just feeling that there’s something more.
There’s something more. I know I should be doing something more.
So that’s natural. It’s. It’s part of life. It’s part of growing older. Well, I don’t like to say growing older.
- I always say it’s. It’s the result of having more years under your belt. Let’s. Let’s put it that way, because there’s such a connotation of being old that I don’t. I don’t like to call that.
It’s probably because I’m a baby boomer. You know, we. We. We don’t like the idea of getting older, but I like the idea of living longer with a healthy mind, body, and spirit. So that’s.
My goal is to. Is to do that. So where was I going with this? Okay. All right.
You Will Figure It Out: Why Confusion Is Part of the Journey
So, yes. Know that eventually you will figure it out, and it might feel really messy in the middle of it, when you’re feeling, you know, perhaps distressed and possibly even depressed, Know that you’re not alone, because that, That’s. That’s the thing, is that you’re never alone, even if you feel that way. And that was what I finally realized, was that I had never been alone. I did have source, the universe, looking out for me because I think that’s why it kept leading me to different people to work with and different modalities to try and different ways to be able to heal from this loss and to be able to start seeing that light at the end of the tunnel.
The Turning Point: Speaking My Truth About Spirituality
And, and the big. I would say the big turning point for me came when I was. I did start writing my book. And I was also working with a coach at the time who, who again, I had hired to help have him help me with my business. Well, he did it in a roundabout way, because what he did was encourage me to talk about the love method, which was what I was writing about in my book and in Talking about it, even though it was scary the first time I did, because this was something that was much more spiritual in nature.
I had been known as someone who always talked about online marketing. You know, I was doing presentations about blogging, I was doing classes on how to use LinkedIn effectively. And now I was going to talk about letting go and letting God. That’s the L in love, opening your heart to receive. That’s the O.
Valuing your uniqueness. That’s the. And embracing your divinity. That’s the E. I mean, embracing your divinity. I mean, when I first even that idea came to me, it was like, huh, what?
Understanding the L.O.V.E. Method for Midlife Transformation
But then as I was writing this book and talking about it, I’m realizing that, yeah, we are divine. We are spiritual beings living a human existence. And my mom always referred to, referred to me and, and, and always would say that we are, you know, we are a child of God, we are connected. And so that means we should embrace our divinity, our divine nature. Excuse me one second.
Sorry about that. Had a cough. Maybe. Maybe it’s time for a sip of water as well.
There we go.
So starting to talk about that is really what I think became that switch to start to really unlock my purpose, my passion in life is that every time I started talking about that and I started talking about spirituality, I felt better. I really did.
When Speaking Your Truth Lightens the Grief
I started feeling lighter. The, this, that, that heaviness of grief started to come off my shoulders. And even though it still took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with my business, and I’m still have still just evolved again over this last last eight months or so, and, and the culmination of it is the rebranding of my podcast from Live Love Engage to design your life your way is. I, I, you know, I got clarity. And, and it wasn’t even that I didn’t have clarity before, because I did.
I’ve gone back in and looked at things I was journaling about or notes I was taking and old elevator pitches that I had written or trying to write my bio and things like that. And I kept coming up with this, but I, it wasn’t. I didn’t feel confident in it. I didn’t feel confident in it. And I think that’s because three years ago or almost four years ago now, I also had another significant shift in my life.
Another Midlife Transition: Navigating Divorce After 50
And that was when I decided to ask my husband for a divorce. And so we wound up separating. So another midlife change, and I had to deal with that. And so again, I found myself in the throes of confusion and losing my way, a little bit of my purpose and passion. So it’s okay.
And I think that’s something else I want to point out is that, you know, as I mentioned at the beginning, you know, often it’s like one thing after another. You know, this happens, that happens. You know, another life change happens. And the one constant about life is change. I know they say death and taxes, but really it’s change.
When Life Keeps Changing: How Your Higher Self Guides You Back
That’s the one constant is that things change. Just when you feel like you’re. You’re going down, you know, a road and then boom, something happens and it can knock you off the path and you might go on a detour for a little while. But I do believe that our higher power, our higher self, or our greater self, as I heard somebody refer to it not too long ago, which I kind of like to always has our best interest in mind and will guide us back to the path. And it might be a new path, and that’s okay too.
But it’s again, it’s comes back to. And this has been a. This was a theme of mine for the last couple of years when I was. I was journaling a lot. I actually signed up for like a journaling course of really connecting with your higher self to journal.
Surrender and Trust: The Two Themes That Changed Everything
And it was trust and surrender. Surrender and trust. Those are the two themes that kept coming up over and over again. And that’s what I want to encourage you to do when you’re going through these changes and things are happening in your life and you’re trying to figure out, okay, yeah, how do I design my life my way? How do I boldly live life in a way that is going to make me happy when I don’t know even what the heck that is right now?
Let go and let God. Surrender to not knowing and just say, okay, I don’t know. I don’t know. Oh, there. I’ll come back to that thought.
Stay there. But I want to finish this thought first before I jump around. And then trust, trust that the answers will come. It may be something pops into your head yourself, or maybe it’s the answers will come in the form of meeting someone, starting to work with someone who will help you and come up with those answers. When I was going to say little idea was popping in my head in the middle of surrender and trust was.
“I Don’t Know and That’s All Right”: Finding Peace in Uncertainty
There’s a wonderful singer songwriter by the name of Bob Saima, who I am fortunate to be able to actually know, meet in person because he lives in my area, but he tours all across the country and he writes wonderful inspirational songs. And one of the songs I have on one of his CDs goes, you know, I don’t know. And that’s all right. I love that song. I don’t know.
And. And that’s all right. It’s okay not to know. The answers will come if you trust and surrender, because they do. And they may not come in the way you think they should or want, and they may take longer to come than you would like, because we’re impatient people, especially nowadays, it seems like we’ve just gotten more impatient.
Impatient. As. As life goes on, It will happen. You will find your way again, and you will develop a passion again. You will find your passion.
You will find your purpose. So don’t give up. Oh, my gosh. I just had. I love how my brain works.
I just had. It was. And I know I had heard this recently. I think it was this song by David Soule that was popular in the 1970s because he was on Starski and Hutch at the time. He’s an actor, but he also had a song called don’t give up on us, baby.
Don’t Give Up On You: A Message of Hope for Women in Transition
So don’t give up on you. Okay. Don’t give up on you. I’m not giving up on you. And that’s why I’m going to be here doing these podcasts every week, whether it’s me or whether I’m interviewing a guest.
And we’re going to help you to design your life your way, because it’s so good when you do. Oh, my gosh. I feel so much better now that I’ve gone through all these, and I know something else will happen down the road, and I’ll deal with that when it does. But for now, life is going pretty good, and I’m excited about this year, despite all the craziness that’s in the air. And, you know, I’m not going to go down that road, but I’m much more happy in my skin now, and I want to help you to get there, too.
Light Language: A Sound Healing Gift for Your Journey
So one thing I’m going to do along those lines to help you is share something that is part of my passion and purpose, and that is to share a light language message with you. And light language is this amazing sound healing modality. It’s also written, but for me, it’s a sound healing modality because it’s something that I’m able to. It’s a language that I speak, that I sing. I even use hand signals.
And it’s something that is ultimately a language of love, and it’s something that you might not understand it, and that’s okay because it’s not for your mind to understand, it’s for your heart and your soul to understand. And when I do this with clients, I, I, I always set an intention that, and when I do it for myself, I always set an intention that whatever message comes through is going to be for my soul’s highest good and the highest good of all. And that’s what I’m setting an intention for you today. Especially if you are someone who is in the throws of feeling like you’ve lost your purpose and your passion and you’re not sure where to go. Now I’m going to set the intention that you find some clarity.
How to Receive Your Light Language Transmission
Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week, but let’s say this, this year, sometime, maybe hopefully sooner rather than later. So if you are listening to this podcast right now and you’re driving, I would encourage you to pause it and come back to this when you can be in a quiet place and be somewhere where you can just close your eyes and allow whatever comes through to touch your heart and to be for your soul’s highest good.
So think of it as a meditation.
So that’s, that’s what I’m going to do do. That’s why my, my intention is, is for you. So I am going to trust now that you have paused this and now you’re back. Welcome back. I’m glad you’re here.
So I encourage you to just close your eyes, maybe take a deep breath in and out and just relax and, and set that intention for yourself that what you’ll hear today is for your soul’s highest good and whatever you need right now.
Okay.
(Audio only)
Blessings. Oh, I love doing that.
I hope it felt as good for you as it did for me because it was really lovely. And one last thing I want to, I want to share with you before we go today is that if you are going through something right now where you have, where you are grieving in particular, I encourage you to check out something that I’ve got happening in June that I am co facilitating with a wonderful dear, dear, dear soul sister of mine and, and two other also amazing women. It’s called the Good Grief Retreat. It’s a, it’s a retreat for women helping you to be able to release some of that, some of the grief that’s been going on. We’re going to do wonderful exercises and, and spirit walks and all sorts of different ways to be able to help you to heal.
Good Grief Retreat: Healing for Women Over 50
And I’ll be sharing light language as Part of that, we’re also going to do a keening circle and, and in a few weeks, I’m going to actually have and have a one of our podcast episodes. I’m going to have the other three ladies on and we’re going to chat more about this. But I wanted to let you know about it right now because we’ve been offering a, an early bird special and that ends on January 31st. So you can actually save quite a bit of money on the retreat. It’s, it’s going to be from June 25th to the 29th, and if you go to good grief retreat.net you will be able to get all of the details there.
I will have that in the show notes as well, but I’ll just pop it on here one more time so it’s good grief retreat.net and you’ll get all the information about it. And I would love to have you join us in North Carolina this June. So hope you’ll. Hope you’ll be there. And yeah, I think that’s gonna wrap it up for this week.
Final Words: You Deserve a Great Life
And I, I hope that some of my stories have helped help you to know that, number one, it’s normal in midlife to when things happen to go through this challenge now of feeling like I don’t know what my purpose is anymore, I don’t know what my passion is anymore. What I used to feel passionate about just isn’t have that same for me anymore. So know that that’s okay. It’s. It’s normal.
And you will find it again. You will find it again. So until we meet again, go out today and make today great because you deserve, you deserve it. You deserve to have a great life and a great day and a great year. So do it.
Go out there, be bold, be brave and make today great.