I'm not sure I understand why people consider such things as "loss" or as some sort of backward motion. To me this smells like the beginning of something new. Well, not the way you're looking at it but you're not responding with the far more common wailing and gnashing of teeth which seems more natural to me.

To me, it sounds like a "clearing of the decks" - a "clean slate" - that sort of thing - which often happens when the generally happy get a bit too "content" which often translated to "bored" with what they're doing. The work they used to enjoy becomes actual "work" and they start thinking about doing something new.

Reality hears you. You're a part of it. It knows you - everything about you. It knows you better than you do. Those are anthropomorphizing concepts about reality but, in my experience, the effect is the same.

It doesn't occur to most people than they can walk away from a "set up" they've created and create something new but if that's what they want, reality, their subconscious or whatever you want to call it can act as a huge arm reaching down and wiping all of the pieces off a chess board - i.e. "clearing the decks" - because people are reluctant to do it consciously but where there's nothing, there can be anything.

You didn't go to psychology - you went to philosophy - which, to me, seems like the act of an explorer rather than a follower.

Forget about age. I'm old enough to be your mother and have cleared my own slate several times - the last time being just five years ago. Granted, the first time wasn't my doing and looked like "devastation" to others but when I was left standing in the pile of rubble that had once been my life, there was nothing to be "done". There was nothing to do and looking back, I saw the point in time when I wanted something new. Something real. Something that I specifically described as being brand new rather than some sort of validation of something I'd already thought of or believed. And then I forgot all about it. And upon further reflection on the time leading up to the decks being cleared, I realized that reality or my subconscious or whatever you want to call it had tapped me on the shoulder several times - and shown me some things I'd noticed but hadn't bothered to explore and when the devastation came, it was like the booming voice of reality saying, "Hey! You called me, remember? Now listen up, snowflake.".

My point is that you can look at it in any number of ways other than "loss". The way I saw it is just one of many. Move your attention and change your perspective on it. Or not - as you please.