Experience 50 Podcast for Midlife

Experience 50 is going on a brief, yet purposeful, hiatus. The next episode will release on June 25th, 2021.

Enjoy listening to the who, why. when, where, and how behind the season-long spring break for host, Mary Rogers.

I believe the finish line of your Experience 50 experience is that you become the person you’ve chosen to be.

To follow Mary's adventure, become a $5 Friend at https://www.patreon.com/maryrogers

Transcript:

MARY:  In recent episodes, I’ve been dropping some obvious and not-so-obvious hints that I’ve been itching to shake things up in the 57-year-old version of me.. Like so many of you, I’m not completely certain which way I want to shake, but shake things up I must or I am going to lose my mind.

So, I’ll cut to the chase:

I am taking a three-month break, a spring break, from producing the Experience 50 Podcast for Midlife. The podcast returns on June 25th.

It’s really no wonder. After six years of featuring hundreds of midlifers telling their stories of audacious career changes, exciting entrepreneurial endeavors, bold experiences planting the seeds for tremendous personal growth and transformation well, it should come as no surprise that I would be inspired, right along with you, my listeners.

I’ve also mentored, advised, encouraged, and cajoled mentoring clients to shed the weight of their labels, the must-dos and should dos, to get out their own way and live a little. Shake things up. Do the unexpected. Find out what you’re made of, see who they just might be under the armor of their comfortable existence.

At 57, I have personally navigated my way through most of the milestones that you will experience in this stage of life. I have learned and shared my own advice as well as the gems of wisdom that my guests brought forth. 

In my early 50s, I made a huge leap- away from the comfort of my executive chair in a respected leadership position in my region’s business community to enter the world of independent podcasting and freelance writing, My husband and I have cared for aging parents who have now passed, watched our children grow into a couple of very cool independent adults and we have found our way into new relationships with each of them. 

Also, my husband and I have successfully redefined what our 24-year marriage can look like when co-parenting is no longer the focus of our conversations and our relationship.

Together with this amazing man, we have grieved the loss of loved ones, supported each other through my health scare with cancer, grown into people we never expected to be, and like you, as individuals and as a couple learned how to live through a pandemic.

I absolutely believe that our 50s offer us the greatest challenges in learning who we are when the labels become fewer, less obvious, and significantly less important. I believe the finish line of your Experience 50 experience is that you become the person you’ve chosen to be.

The person that I have chosen to be is: a woman who is nowhere done living my life story. There are I hope, at the very least,a couple of big chapters ahead which will define my life.

This brings me to my decision, that I need 3 months of undistracted headspace to take the first few steps in writing the next chapter, exploring my options for the sake of exploring. I can’t really see the destination, but I do know how to lay the groundwork for being able to jump into what’s next.

.To that end, my husband and I have decided we must be nimble. We use that word a lot lately. 

So we are walking the walk not just talking the talk.

This week we closed on the sale of our house. I now have 30 days to downsize our possessions to a fraction of what we currently own. Then establish a new minimalist home in a rented house about a mile from where we live now. As of today, we are mortgage-free, completely debt-free, child-free, and in short order, we will be free of literal generations of things and stuff, only keeping what we absolutely need.We are learning Spanish and over time making increasingly longer trips, traveling outside of the country to see if, perhaps, an expatriate life suits us and where that might be. Mexico? Ecuador? Thailand? Don’t know, need to take a look..

The show will be back June 25th, and that’s not much time.   But it gives me just enough time to manage the mundane chores of moving, unloading possessions, improving my Spanish, and spending some time exploring Ecuador first and perhaps  Mexico, Costa Rica, well, several by the end of the year.

While the podcast is on hiatus, I will be taking a break from my various social media platforms and even Experience 50 email - effective April 1st through the end of June. The only place I will remain in touch, providing updates, and responding to messages is my Patreon page. I am eliminating the higher levels of membership because I will no longer be offering the accompanying benefits. Members donating $2 each month will have access to limited updates, with more detailed videos and posts remaining exclusive to $5 Friends of Mary.

I can’t wait to see what I have to share with you on June 25th!

I encourage you to take a spring break from whatever you can, big or small, stop doing things you don’t want to do or have to do and focus your attention on your own next chapter.

To follow me on my adventure on Patreon, visit patreon.com/maryrogers

You’ve got this.

Hasta luego (see you later) !

Mary Rogers answers her listeners' most asked question "How can I learn to meditate?"

Includes two recommended resources: Sam Harris Waking Up and Dan Harris Ten Percent Happier.

Includes a guided Loving Kindness Meditation with Mary

This story of a midlife pivot goes south, way south - to Ecuador. Meet Amelia (52) and JP (49), American Expatriates living in Ecuador since 2017 when they faced the fact that they had no choice but to leave the United States.

Full show notes https://www.experience50.com/241

Get exclusive updates on Mary's Leaving America Pivot https://www.experience50.com/outtahere

Become a Patron to JOIN our book club https://www.experience50.com/donate

LEND YOUR VOICE to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com

Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email

Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity

Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate

Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

Joan Lunden, former host of Good Morning America, meets with the Experience 50 Virtual Book Club to chat about her latest book, Why Did I Come Into This Room, A Candid Conversation on Aging.

Full show notes https://www.experience50.com/240

Become a Patron to JOIN our book club https://www.experience50.com/donate

LEND YOUR VOICE to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com

Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email

Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity

Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate

Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

Midlife divorce. Hear Dr. Katy Jane's story of divorce, including the business and financial losses which led to her becoming one pissed-off yogi. Her anger was preceded by denial and guilt and when she discovered that her husband had destroyed her business and livelihood - leaving her with only $500 to her name - that is when she allowed herself to be pissed-off.

We discuss anger triggers, meditation practices, the divine feminine, Hindu goddess Kali, western adoption of yoga and meditation, self-love, and opening yourself to new love.

Full show notes, guest info links, and images: https://www.experience50.com/239

Named “One of 75 Yogis Who are Shifting the Planet” by Origin Magazine, Dr. Katy Jane is a counseling Vedic astrologer, Sanskrit & world religions scholar, and teacher of yoga teachers. Dr. Katy received her doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2001, taught at the University of Colorado and Naropa University in Boulder, CO. She also created Sanskrit for Yogis, an innovative and traditional method for learning the sacred language of yoga. She’s the author of Awakening with Sanskrit and teaches immersions in Vedic astrology online. After 30 years of traveling and studying yoga & Sanskrit throughout India, Dr. Katy now lives at Dunagiri Retreat (in India’s northeastern Himalayan foothills) which she shares with her husband, five Tibetan mastiffs, and frequent groups of yoga retreatants and spiritual seekers. 

LEND YOUR VOICE to the podcast! Send your questions for Mary's next Cleopatra's Vagina: Answers to Listeners' Questions. Send voicemail: https://www.experience50.com

Book Club with Joan Lunden 1/17 & 19, 2021: https://www.experience50.com/book-club-lunden/

Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email

Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity

Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate

Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

Is midlife looking frighteningly dull? Let's take those chains off! Your emotional baggage and old beliefs will hold you back from any glimmer of growth, so listen in.

Joanie Marx joins Mary for a deep dive into how to improve your outlook toward life by doing a bit of inward-focused detective work. Yes, this episode comes with homework. 

Buy the Book, Full show notes: https://www.experience50.com/236

Book Club with Joan Lunden 1/17 & 19, 2021: https://www.experience50.com/book-club-lunden/

Get Mary's weekly email: https://www.experience50.com/email

Midlife Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity

Enjoying the podcast? Could you please support the show with a donation? https://www.experience50.com/donate

Be a guest on the podcast, tell your midlife story: https://www.experience50.com/podcast-guest-information/

Middle seat. Middle child. Oh, woe is the middle of anything. So here we are in the middle of our adulthood, sigh.

Think of your life as a story. Beginnings and endings are easy. It is in writing the middle part of any story that things get a bit messy.

Full show notes and quotes: https://www.experience50.com/235

Mary Rogers launches Experience 50 Book Club 2021 with Joan Lunden's book "Why Did I Come Into This Room, A Candid Conversation on Aging". To participate in Book Club Zoom meetings, become a Patron! Register here: https://www.experience50.com/donate

Nobody wants to be a beginner. Tom Vanderbilt, 52, spent a year as a beginner surfer, chess player, juggler, singer, jewelry maker, and more. His newest book, Beginners: The Joy and Transformative Power of Learning, is his memoir of becoming a beginner in midlife.

Full show notes with links: https://www.experience50.com/233

Get goodies: https://www.Experience 50.com/newsletter

Support the podcast, get more goodies: https://www.experience50.com/donate

Join Mary's Midlife Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MidlifeCommunity

Who joined our ranks in 2020? Mary welcomes the birth class of 1970 into their 5th decade. Also, in a first for Experience 50, Mary names her 50-Year-Old of the year. Congratulations MacKenzie Scott, 50!

Full Show Notes at https://www.experience50.com/232

This episode is brought to you with the generous support of Plexaderm: https://www.buyplx.com/EXP50POD special 6-pack trial offer including shipping $14.95, money-back guarantee. PROMO CODE EXP50POD

The Happy Life formula is all about your response reflex. Michelle Fishburne, 57, joins us from her RV to share her story of how she responded rather unconventionally to the events of 2020. 

Michelle's project,  Who We Are Now, is her response to finding herself unemployed and without a home, a partner, or kids, or... anything.

Episode sponsored by:

KINDRA https://www.ourkindra.com 20% discount with PROMO CODE EXP50POD. Estrogen-free, plant-based support for your menopause journey.

PLEXADERM https://www.buyplx.com/EXP50POD special 6-pack trial offer including shipping $14.95, money-back guarantee. PROMO CODE EXP50POD

Guest information and Full Show Notes/links: https://www.experience50.com/231

Thanks for listening, support the podcast: https://www.experience50.com/donate

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