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Creating Magic in Midlife: 101 Questions and Answers to Reinvent Your Work, Relationships and Life!

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Karla Freeman declares midlife to be magical.

If you're a 50-something baby boomer, you've had significant life experiences. Seeing yourself with the potential to live another 30-50 years can empower your choices. Freeman says seeing this potential and knowing there's half a lifetime ahead of you beats sitting and staring at your wrinkles. She calls it the "Midlife Return" when you return to your hopes, dreams, creative yearnings and yet-to-be-explored self.

Do you want a second career, a new life abroad, a chance to be a writer or an actor? You have the time.

Using her 30 years of experience as a psychotherapist, the author helps individuals and groups cultivate magic in midlife. She is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) who maintains a private practice and facilitates workshops internationally.

This book consists of short easy-to-read chapters. It is a question and answer format, divided into four sections. Freeman suggests you read Section One, then flip around to any questions that are important to you. Section One is called "The Magic of Your Mission." The topics covered in the other sections include Work, Money and Passion; Health and Well-Being; and Relationships.

Section one explores Freeman's "syn" theory of creating magic. She explains how synchronicity, synergy and synthesis create midlife magic and apply to your lifetime choices. She describes a balanced life divided, like a pie, into slices. PIE stands for "put in energy." You choose what each piece of your life pie represents, and prioritize which slices to put your energy into.

Another exercise is used to start the process of change. On a sheet of paper, you draw a box and divide it into nine squares. Based on Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you write a value in each square. Then you rate each by the amount of energy you are putting into it. The next step is to start shifting your energy to where you want it to be.

Addressing the key areas of love, work, money and health, Freeman skillfully guides readers on a journey toward fulfillment in the second half of life. She offers well-researched advice with humor and sensitivity. A list of resources is included, as well as an invitation to readers to relate their stories and experiences.

--- Reviewed by Elinor Nuxoll

Before I started listening to my own still, small voice, I dragged myself around and tried to be happier by having more goals. Magic didn't come into my life until I started to ask myself what I really wanted, this moment. ~Karla Freeman

Creating Magic in Midlife is Karla Freeman's gift to anyone looking for answers as they enter a new stage of their life. Karla Freeman's vibrant and encouraging writing style creates a nurturing environment for anyone wishing to avoid a midlife crisis. Helpful questions draw attention to enlivening moments, as readers are encouraged to discover their true heart's desire.

Is it too late to improve relationships?
How can you begin a new career?
What does it take to handle drastic changes?
Can you still satisfy your deepest longings after 45?
Can a crisis become a moment of spiritual awakening?

The 101 questions and answers focus on ages 45-70, but anyone over 35 will find a wealth of wisdom in the life evaluation sections. Health, finances, energy enhancement and even a brief explanation of Ayurveda keeps the writing fresh and enlightening.

Ideas about walking to sort out emotions and suggestions for maximizing endorphin release gives this book a practical side. There are ideas for healing vacations, unique sections on menopause and she even discusses the issue of how we become stressed about trying to stay healthy. Isolation, Transference, grief ritual retreats, working from home and healthy living to prevent memory loss is also discussed.

Karla Freeman draws on her life experiences and well-read life to explore ideas about why a balance of work and love leads to a healthy life. This book may be the perfect starting point for a journey into your soul's deepest desires.

With numerous book suggestions throughout, Karla Freeman succeeds in not only creating an environment of support, she encourages further reading into areas that will be especially helpful for anyone wishing to avoid a midlife crisis as they embrace the ideas in Creating Magic in Midlife.

~The Rebecca Review

Creating Magic In Midlife: 101 Questions & Answers To Reinvent Your Work, Relationships And Life by psychotherapist Karla Freeman is an informed and informative guide of the to enhancing the quality of our midlife experiences. As an easy to use and well documented guide, Creating Magic In Midlife is enhanced with a "user-friendly" four section premise of finding your mission, relationships, health and well-being, and work, money and passion. As an ideal book to assist the reader through their potential midlife crisis and the many issues that may be faced in such a time, Creating Magic In Midlife is highly recommended addition to the self-help, self-improve reading lists for anyone reaching that time of their life.