Most of us don't like to think about getting older, do we? But often that is part of the angst of moving into midlife - the realisation that we have more years behind us than ahead.

Is it any wonder that hitting 50 can trigger a period of reflection. Reflection that so often leads to changes being made - in our careers, relationships, health... how many people, men and women, do you know who took up a new hobby, left a relationship that no longer made them happy, lost weight, got fit, started a business...? Maybe you did one of these things, or something similar, yourself?*

When we were children, as with so many life stages, ageing was something that we expected to follow a well trod path - the idea that we had choices about how we lived our elder years didn't occur to the vast majority of our grandparents and parents.

For our parents in the UK, the school leaving age rose to 15 in 1947. By the time they came to retire in 1995, both men and women could draw their state pension at...

Do you still dream? Not when you are asleep, but properly daydream as you might have done as a child and a teen?

So often we abandon the dreams we had when we were young and swap them instead for what we believe to be a sustainable life. Marriage, perhaps, mortgage, children, the corporate career climb... and we forget to create new dreams, telling ourselves not to be silly, impractical, unrealistic...

Those dreams we had don't quite go away altogether though. Whether we are conscious of them or not, they reside within us, dormant, waiting, just in case they might be needed again.

There's something about hitting midlife that triggers a stirring, a little tremor that can awaken old dreams and desires. Slowly, we often feel an almost imperceptible shift, a yearning for something we can't quite pin down, but that causes us to feel restless, often dissatisfied.

It raises questions, causes us to become reflective, reminds us of our long abandoned dreams. It can be a bloody nuisance,...

Turning 50 made me realise with a jolt that I probably have more years behind me than in front of me. It threw me for a little while, but then I realised my “midlife crisis” could be turned into a “midlife opportunity” if I could change my attitude. Here are just 7 things I learned at 50:

Knees don’t necessarily bend easily forever!  You don’t realise how much you take your body for granted until a part of it starts to hurt! At 50 I learned that regular exercise is no longer an option - I have to walk regularly, drag out my yoga mat and lift weights to keep me strong and stop me from feeling stiff all the time. It doesn’t stop me from feeling 101 when I wake up in the morning, mind, but at least I can do something about how strong and flexible I will be at 60, 70, 80 and beyond!

Failing eyesight isn’t always a bad thing. Without my glasses I can’t see my wrinkles, grey hair or whether my legs need waxing! (Maybe the last...

6 Ways we can Lose our Confidence in Midlife - and How to Rediscover it.

So many women tell me they lost their confidence as they approached menopause. For some it's a sudden omg, stop in their tracks moment, often accompanied by a panic attack. For others it's a gradual wearing down, a slowly dawning realisation that everything they had been certain of before suddenly isn't so certain any more.

Sometimes, there seems to be no apparent reason for this loss of confidence. Anxiety, depression, a feeling of being lost can come out of nowhere. So what can cause this loss of confidence and what can we do we do to arrest it? How do we get our mojo back?

1. Physical appearance. Slowing metabolism often results in weight gain, especially around the middle. Facially, we lose collagen and start to notice a softening in the jawline, wrinkles, eye bags - if we feel we don't recognise ourselves in the mirror any more it can knock confidence.

• If changes in your physical...