“I believe that life, especially for women, comes in chapters. This is really going to be a new chapter for me,” the Goop founder tells PEOPLE

precious and finite and that you don’t have to hold it

Gwyneth Paltrow assumed life in her 50s would slow her down. Turns out, she was wrong.

“I had the erroneous idea that I would be able to downshift a little bit,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “But life is very full-on. It’s been very intense.”

The Goop founder’s busy schedule is in part due to the company’s latest endeavor: good.clean.goop, a new line of skincare, body care and wellness products available at Target and Amazon.

“We felt passionate about creating clean, efficacious products at a more accessible price for a broader audience,” she says. “They call it ‘masstige’ in the industry. I love that word, between ‘mass’ and ‘prestige.’ So we set out to create this, and it’s been so much fun.”

GOOP

While her day-to-day is hectic, Paltrow, 51, says this time of her life also comes with a new sense of ease.

After marrying TV writer-producer Brad Falchuk, 52, in 2018, she’s cherishing the quieter moments at the “Faltrow” residence, as she calls it. Nights are filled with cooking family dinners while listening to French pop music (her current favorite genre) and watching European murder-mystery shows.

But Paltrow admits blending a family, especially one with four teenagers, is no easy task.

The Oscar-winning actress has two children, Apple, 19, and Moses, 17, with Coldplay singer Chris Martin, and Falchuk has two kids, Isabella, 19, and Brody, 17, from a previous marriage.

“It’s hard, and it’s not intuitive, and nobody tells you how to do it. You just stick with it,” she says. “Now it’s one of the things that brings me the most happiness in my life.”

Gwyneth Paltrow.COLIENA RENTMEESTER / TRUNK ARCHIVE

With Apple in her second year of college and Moses in his senior year of high school, Paltrow is preparing to be an empty nester. Just don’t call it that.

The woman who popularized the phrase “conscious uncoupling” when going through her divorce with Martin says she prefers the term “free birds.”

Gwyneth Paltrow.COLIENA RENTMEESTER / TRUNK ARCHIVE

“I’m trying to reframe it so that I can at least try to convince myself there’s some kind of a silver lining,” she says. “Empty nest sounds so sad and lonely.”

Call it what you want, it’s clear Paltrow is ready to continue spreading her wings. “I believe that life, especially for women, comes in chapters,” she says. “This is really going to be a new chapter for me.”

For more on Gwyneth Paltrow, pick up this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.