What Life After A Divorce At 50 Is REALLY Like

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October 1, 2018

Divorce is difficult at any age but divorcing at 50 or later has unique challenges.

Divorce rates may be highest for people under 50; but divorce rates for those over 50 have practically doubled since 1990. And for those over 50 who are ending a second or third marriage, the statistics are even worse.

Life after a divorce at 50 is unique in both its immediate consequences and future outlook.

The upward trend of divorce after 50, led by the Baby Boomer generation, has been so dramatic that it now has its own epithet: gray divorce.

Obviously, there are characteristics unique to people and marriages in the “50’s+” stage of life.

Those who married in their 20’s or even 30’s have history -- and probably children -- together. Many spouses have been together for more than half their lives, making life after a divorce at 50 a veritable unraveling of a lifetime.

As life expectancies continue to climb and gender roles continue to equalize, there are more opportunities for individuals to grow. There are also more opportunities for them to grow apart. (A testament, perhaps, to the fragility of relationships and the need to invest in their sustainability.)

By the time people reach middle-age, children are…

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7 Tips For Adjusting To Life After Divorce

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July 23, 2018

Life post-divorce is different from married life. By using these tips, your different can be great.

The dress. The guests. The honeymoon. Newlyweds walk down the aisle planning a life of home and happiness, not adjusting to life after divorce.

But statistics speak to the glaring frequency of divorce:

• 41 percent of first marriages end in divorce.
• 60 percent of second marriages end in divorce.
• 73 percent of third marriages end in divorce.

Every divorce is different, of course -- as unique as the individuals going through it. The age at which the two people married; the length of the marriage; the presence or lack of children. Countless factors chime in to make this painful journey as personal as the feelings each person experiences. Adjusting to life after divorce, therefore, is also a personal journey.

There are, however, many tips for helping those on the road to singlehood make that adjustment and come out the other side whole and happy. Let’s look at 7 of the biggies:

1. Let yourself mourn.
   
   Divorce is a loss, plain and simple. It really doesn’t matter who initiated the split, or who owns what responsibility for what actions leading to it. It’s a loss -- a death of the dreams that…

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Rebuilding My Life After Divorce Wasn’t Easy, But The Effort Was Worth It

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September 17, 2018

Rebuilding your life isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination, but if I can do it so can you.

When I was dealing with my divorce, I never thought I would get to this place — this vantage point of talking about “rebuilding my life after divorce.” When I say I was “stuck,” I was stuck! Add “spiraling” to the mix, and I’m sure you get the ugly picture.

Divorce is traumatizing on just about every level. The shifts in finances, custody and other pragmatic matters can be seismic in their effects. And the emotional upheaval can leave your life shattered when your world comes crashing down.

You would think that the person initiating a divorce would skate through the process less scathed than the other — at least emotionally.

But it really doesn’t matter if one person initiates the split or both partners come to the table with the same mindset. It sucks. It hurts. It turns your life and your sense of self inside out.

Little did I know that rebuilding my life after divorce would be just as difficult as living in an unhappy marriage. The defining difference was that one scenario was a slow, hopeless death of my spirit,…

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How To Have A Better Life After Divorce Than When You Were Married

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June 11, 2018

You’ll need to be proactive, but living a great life post-divorce is totally worth it.

You might not believe it now, but that doesn’t make it any less true. You can have a better life after divorce than you had when you were married. It probably won’t happen for you right away, but it will happen – if that’s what you truly want.

You’ll have to really want it because you’ll have to work for it. A great life post-divorce won’t be handed to you on a silver platter no matter how much you wish it would be.

A few of the things you’ll need to be proactive about to have a better life after divorce include:

• Grieve what was and what will never be.
  
  When you divorce, you say goodbye to a lot – your marriage, your lifestyle, seeing your children every day, and your dreams of happily ever after with your spouse to name just a few. You need to mourn all of it before you can fully move on.
  
  
• Let go of feelings of failure, blame, regret and guilt through compassion and forgiveness.
  
  Letting go of the painful feelings means that you work through them – not ignore them or stuff them down.…
  

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