Women Are Not Done At Midlife: Why I Wrote Empress Rising

What would you do if someone told you that your best years were behind you? That your dreams had an expiration date? That becoming older meant becoming invisible?

In this deeply personal solo cast, Rose shares the real story behind writing her book Empress Rising. What started as a conversation with a brilliant woman in her 50s who felt "useless" became a calling to challenge everything we've been told about aging as women. Rose opens up about her own journey from breast cancer diagnosis at 49 to becoming a yoga instructor, podcast host, and author in her 60s—proving that our most powerful years might just be beginning.

Key Topics Covered

• The conversation that changed everything: meeting a successful woman who felt useless in her 50s
• How we've internalized limiting narratives about aging and worth
• Rose's personal transformation after breast cancer diagnosis at 49
• The cultural myth of retirement at 65 vs. today's extended lifespans
• Why older women are revered as wisdom keepers in other cultures
• The ripple effect: how women stepping back affects younger generations
• The quiet revolution happening as women redefine their later chapters

Empress Rising launches soon! Sign up at rosewippich.com to be notified when the book becomes available and to stay tuned for other offerings around women rising and supporting women.

"Remember your wisdom is your crown and your experience is your power."

IT'S TIME.....TO WEAR THE CROWN - Empress Rising

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Chat Off the Mat
• 0:41 The Conversation That Changed Everything
• 1:42 The Real Reason Behind Empress Rising
• 4:01 Personal Journey After Cancer Diagnosis
• 6:24 Challenging Outdated Aging Frameworks
• 9:15 The Quiet Revolution Begins
• 10:10 Episode Closing and Call to Action

Transcript

Rose: 0:01

Ready to unlock your most vibrant, authentic self? Welcome to Chat Off the Mat, where holistic wellness meets practical wisdom and extraordinary transformation. I'm your host, Rose Wiippich. I'm a Qigong instructor, yoga teacher and a Reiki master, so get ready for inspiring conversations with wellness experts who understand your unique journey, plus practical tools for energy healing, life transitions and conscious and soulful living. Your journey to radiant wellness starts now. Let's create magic together.

Rose: 0:41

Here's a question for you what would you do if someone told you that your best years were behind you, that your dreams had an expiration date, that becoming older meant becoming invisible? Well, I met a brilliant woman in her 50s her early 50s who had already started believing this story about herself. She was successful, accomplished, had raised amazing children and overcame real challenges. But she looked me in the eye and said she was dreading getting older because she knew it meant becoming useless. Well, that conversation changed everything for me. It's why I spent the last year writing a book. It's why I'm here today talking to you about it.

Rose: 1:26

Welcome back to Chat Off the Mat. I'm your host, Rose Wiippich, and today I want to tell you, I want to really get honest with you about why I wrote Empress Rising. Last episode, I talked about launching a book at 61, but today I want to dig deeper into the real motivation behind this work. To dig deeper into the real motivation behind this work Because the truth is there's a difference between the polished answer I give people when they ask why I wrote this book and the deeper calling that actually drove me to spend months pouring my heart onto these pages. The real reason I wrote Empress Rising is because I had a profound awakening. I began to see something that had been invisible for me for years, and once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. And for someone who spent most of her life quietly observing, this awakening became impossible to ignore.

Rose: 2:19

I mentioned this woman in her early 50s that I had a conversation with. She was brilliant, had amazing kids, started to become an empty nester with her kids leaving. She had her own health challenges, but she used the word useless as describing herself or her life without her job or her kids at home. This was an eye opener for me. I realized that we're living in a narrative that suggests women become less valuable with age and that we feel that ourselves right, that our wisdom years are consolation prizes rather than the magnificent culmination of everything we've learned and become. These are stories we're telling ourselves. Hum, these are stories we're telling ourselves and we don't need to do that because it's not true. So I felt a deep calling to challenge that story and to encourage women to sort of rewrite the rules of aging that, well, we perceive society has for us, or maybe we perceive we have for ourselves. I felt compelled to speak up for the brilliant women in their 40s, even 50s, 60s. Apologizing for taking up space, I want to be an advocate for women in their 60s, 70s, 80s, being told to step aside instead of being celebrated as mentors and even leaders. I realized we were accepting these limitations as natural instead of recognizing them as stories we could choose to rewrite. But this calling became deeply personal when I started looking at my own life and the lives of women around me who were absolutely flourishing in their later years.

Rose: 4:01

My own journey to writing this book really began with my breast cancer diagnosis at 49. Not because cancer made me wise though it certainly clarified some things but because of what happened in the years that followed. I still had young children at home. My kids were about seven or eight at the time, so I was still in the throes of motherhood and raising. But a decade after my diagnosis actually less than a decade, just several years after my diagnosis I became a yoga instructor. I completed 200 hours and then 500 hours of training. I started my podcast, became a Reiki master teacher. I deepened my spiritual practice in ways that transformed not just how I see the world but how I can move through it. I wasn't slowing down, I was expanding. I wasn't becoming less of myself, I was becoming more myself than I'd ever been.

Rose: 4:59

And I started noticing this pattern everywhere. I started noticing women in their 50s starting new businesses, even the 60s. I've seen women in their 50s starting new businesses, even the 60s, leaving corporate to start their coaching or healing or, you know, retail businesses. Whatever their passion was about Traveling solo. For the first time, women were partnering up with groups of other women and traveling and creating these circles of support. Traveling and creating these circles of support Women in their 70s learning new skills, going back to school or advocating for causes they care about, even falling in love again. But when these women talked about their accomplishments, they often prefaced them with apologies like I know I'm too old for this, but or I probably should be starting something new at my age. But yeah, those are conversations or those are way to start conversations that we need to change. It's when I realized the challenge just wasn't external messaging. We had internalized these limitations. We were editing ourselves. So I wrote this book because I refuse to apologize for blooming at 61 or even earlier. I refuse to accept that my most creative, productive, powerful years are behind me just because outdated stories say they should be, and I was never one to follow the rules.

Rose: 6:19

When I started researching for this book, I discovered something fascinating. The whole concept of retirement at 65 was created when the average life expectancy was much lower. We're living decades longer than previous generations, but we're still operating under frameworks designed for much shorter lifespans. We have 20, 30, even 40 years of life ahead of us after what society considers our productive years. Are we really supposed to spend all that time in the shadows of our former selves? I also started looking at our culture and realized that this dismissal of older women isn't universal. In many societies, older women are revered as wisdom keepers, decision makers, spiritual guides. The idea that we become irrelevant with age is actually quite culturally specific, which means it's changeable.

Rose: 7:14

This research reinforced what I was feeling in my bones we don't have to accept these limitations. We don't have to accept these stories. We can choose to see our later years differently. We can rewrite the story, rewrite the rules of aging. But here's the real reason I wrote this book, the one that kept me going when the writing got challenging. I realized that every time a woman steps back because of her age, she's not just limiting her own life, she's unconsciously teaching every younger woman watching that their value has an expiration date. And every time a woman stands in her power, regardless of her age, she's showing younger women what's possible. She's expanding their vision of what their own future looks like or can look like.

Rose: 8:06

I wrote this book for the younger voices, the younger people out there who will then know what to expect when they get older, that their magnificent years are not over and they don't expire at a certain age. And I wrote it also for my friends who are older and who feel a passionate stirring to reinvent themselves and don't know where to start. The women who feel that they have more to give, more to create, more to become, and who are ready to trust that feeling. I believe we are witnessing a quiet revolution. Trust that feeling. I believe we are witnessing a quiet revolution. Women are living longer, staying healthier, accumulating more resources and wisdom than ever before. We have an opportunity to completely redefine the later chapters of a woman's life. That is the real reason I wrote Empress Rising. This transformation begins when we reject the old narratives, when we refuse to shrink, when we claim our space, step into our magnificent power that comes with being women who have lived full lives and emerged wiser. This book is my contribution to that quiet revolution. It's my way of saying to every woman listening you are not done, you are not fading, you are not irrelevant. You are an empress and your most powerful reign is just beginning.

Rose: 9:50

Empress Rising launches October 16th and I can't wait to hear how it resonates with you. But remember, the transformation doesn't start when you read the book. It starts the moment you decide you're done accepting limitations that were never truly yours to begin with. Thanks for listening to Chat Off the Mat Until next time. Remember, your wisdom is your crown and your experience is your power. Thank you for sharing this sacred time with me today. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd be so grateful if you'd share it with a friend who might need these gentle reminders. And, speaking of support, your reviews help other women find our community, so please take a moment to leave one wherever you listen to podcasts. Ready to go deeper, visit rosewhippagecom to explore my personalized healing sessions, courses and workshops. Until next time, remember you are exactly where you need to be.