Sometimes the hardest part of midlife is not the changing body, the hormones, or the responsibilities. It is realizing you have become so practiced at being who everyone needs that you are no longer sure where you are in your own life.

If you keep waiting for work, family, stress, schedules, and responsibilities to settle down before you take care of yourself, you may wait for years. The answer is not finding an empty life—it is learning how to include yourself in the one you already have.