BlueDogDem31
New member
Hi ladies, I am just curious of what new things you have tried as part of your midlife crisis? For me I am 46 years old and a divorced mother of 2 daughters who are 12 and 15 who are both active in athletics and girl scouts. I work as a high school social studies teacher. One day last year I noticed an advertisement while working at a daycare at the local YMCA that advertised belly dance lessons. I thought "wow this sounds interesting" and so I went. I thought that this class would be full of ladies in their 20s and 30s and discovered that it was a mix of women ages 16 to 60 with most in their forties. I struggled the first day to keep up but the instructor was great and helped troubleshoot where I was going wrong. I learned and eventually became confident enough to be in recital. My daughters were wondering what I was doing when I was practicing bellydance in a costume. They said, "Mom, what are you doing?" I explained and they think it is a really cool thing which my oldest has since taken up. I currently still dance and have graduated to the advanced class. I have found that bellydancing has brought out my sensual self that is more self confident at 46 than 26. When I was 26 I would be too afraid to show bra straps but now can run outside in a sports bra and wear a bikini to the pool. It seems like wearing a bellydancing costume has allowed me to gain confidence. Due to that I was able to gain the confidence about my appearance and self to meet a dashing younger man who is now my fiance. He is 28 by the way and has gained the thumbs up from my daughters. He is a first year school teacher and we met at the beginning of the school year when he needed help operating the copier and I showed him how it works. I knew something was good when we both smiled at each other. The next time we saw each other was later that week and we talked about books we like. We both like Dan Brown and so he asked me if we wanted to talk some more. So I we exchanged phone numbers and emails. Eventually we went out to dinner on a Friday night and then watched a movie. I then talked of how I did bellydancing and he LOVED that and asked me to be his love. He proposed to me over a candlelight on New Years Eve and we will be married in July of 2014. He is wonderful for he has also helped my daughters with their homework and also plays boardgames with us and watches movies. My daughters were a little weirded out by my fiance being so younger but have come to really enjoy him as we play boardgames and like to go to sports games. They love the happiness that has come over my face since bellydancing and meeting him. It seems to me that I found the fountain of youth with my man as he has made me feel younger. What I love about a younger man is that in addition to his GREAT! appearance and features he is positive and sees the glass as half full. To celebrate the engagement I got my first tattoo on my back of a phoenix for reinvention and have gotten my belly button pierced after my daughters dared me too . How else to stay current with the times but to embrace change and not fear it! Before I met him and before bellydancing, I was solving the stress from my divorce in many ways as I had taken up smoking and eating junk food. I have since quit both of those things and have forgotten about the jerk that my first husband was. Does anyone else have a similar experiences with trying a new activity like bellydance during your midlife crisis and allowing that hobby to meet a younger man