Michelle Obama is an empty nester now, which isn’t always an easy space to navigate. To help the former first lady move through these changes, she’s been speaking with a therapist about transitioning into her next phase of life. The author shared her experience while on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast.
“At this phase of my life, I’m in therapy right now because I’m transitioning, you know?” Michelle said, relating to her decision to return to counseling. “I’m 60 years old, I finished a really hard thing in life with my family intact. I’m an empty nester. You know my girls are in — they’ve been launched. And now for the first time, as I’ve said before, every choice I’m making is completely mine.”
“I now don’t have the excuse of, ‘Well my kids need this,’ or ‘my husband needs that’ or ‘the country needs that.’ So how do I think about this next phase, and let me get some help,” she added.
The author has always championed therapy, so, unsurprisingly, she’s utilizing it as a tool during this phase of her life.
“Let me unwind some old habits. Let me sort through some old guilt that I’ve been carrying around. Let me talk about how my relationship with my mother has affected how I think about things,” she continued.
Since leaving the White House, Michelle has had her hands in various projects, from authoring her books Becoming and The Light We Carry to co-hosting her podcast, IMO, with her brother Craig Robinson. Mrs. Obama isn’t stopping here and continues to explain that she wants coaching to get through this next phase.
“So, I’m getting that tune-up for this next phase because I believe this is a whole other phase in life for me,” she continued. “And I now have the wisdom to know— let me go get some coaching while I’m doing it so that I have other voices other than the people who know me best. I’ve got a new person that’s getting to know me, and seeing me completely new and hearing all these emotions.”
This isn’t the first time the mother of two has discussed her newfound freedom. She also chatted about the subject while on Sophia Bush’s iHeart Radio podcast, Work in Progress.
“It’s the first time in my life all of my choices are for me,” she said, before later adding, “I think if I’m honest with myself, I could have made a lot of these decisions years ago. But I didn’t give myself that freedom.”