I found myself in the world of the late eighties with a complete loss of identity and direction. My professional life was in upheaval; my personal life was a disaster. That's when my first significant experience with feathers happened.
I now have officially become someone who looks good ‘for my age,’ or so I have been told, which is another sign of aging. People don’t make such a comment unless you are old. They also say that 60 is the new 50 and 50 the new 40, and so on, but really?
- By Simran Singh
Every situation in life has been an initiation—the leap forward, an activation; the reconciliation and clearing, the integration; and all of it leads to the brilliance of your illumination. Let each moment in life be an awakening to...
We live in an extraordinary time: increasing numbers of us are living longer than ever imagined before. It is a major achievement of modern science and healthcare. The tough part of longevity is working out how to ensure those extra years are...
When a growing percentage of the population lives past one hundred, we will see what happens to the psychological and spiritual direction of our culture. As we move into the future, we will be redefining aging. After we battle the cultural attitudes that try to define us and attempt to stall us out, we will be staying involved in life in any way we can...
A simple way of defining a pattern is a predictable response to a specific type of situation. The most obvious patterns are those that pop out when we are tired, feel attacked, in the middle of a conflict, a little ill, or overwhelmed. This is because we have less energy and attention to keep them locked down.
Something significant happened to me as I started writing this book. I had a profound insight: I realized that I could not have written this book any sooner in my life because who I am has never stopped changing.
Sometimes people on a spiritual path feel a hesitation about using creative visualization. Their conflict comes from the apparent paradox between the idea of “being here now,” letting go of attachments and desires, and the idea of setting goals and creating what you want in life.
Change is a necessary part of living. Many of us use planners to lay out the course of our day. Then, plans change — someone cancels a meeting, or the car won’t start, or the kids get sick. You couldn’t predict that something else was going to happen, but it did. So, you...
Our ego mind prefers safety, routine, and the status quo. It does not want us to step too far out of the front door into anything too new or different. On the other hand, our essential self wants us to stretch, grow, shed what is unnecessary or heavy, and explore this life more fully.
Buckets lists – inventories of things to do before you die – are often developed by people who know they have little time left. It seems like a good idea.
For seniors who want to age in a supportive community environment, cohousing is an exciting alternative to traditional options such as retirement homes and assisted living centers.
- By Tama Kieves
I doubt you want a “mediocre” life. I doubt you want to just pay your bills or settle for a sort of loving relationship and call it good. I think you want to cry with gratitude when it’s all said and done. I’d like you to cry with gratitude before then.
When a crisis erupts in our lives, we need to ask ourselves what is really going on. Whatever form it takes, it’s usually some kind of wake-up call. However difficult the circumstances are, we need to trust that something isn’t working and is trying to change— ultimately for our benefit.
We come to know our true potential through opening to whatever life offers us — the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Chinese character for crisis includes those for both danger and opportunity. Birth and death, joy and sorrow, gain and loss, success and failure — these are all partners. You can never have one without the other.
“Weak”, “sick”, “immobile”, “decrepit”, “lonely”, “depressed”. If the prospect of growing old brings thoughts like these to mind, you are not alone. It seems that many people – of all age groups – have a preconceived idea of what being old will be like. And it’s generally not good.
Since change is the only constant in life, we have to get used to the idea that letting go of our fear of the unknown allows us the opportunity to create space and the potential to birth something new and potentially greater in our lives...
As families consider the living options available to their college students and look at the costs of college education, what might not be as evident to them is how on-campus living can actually maximize their college investment.
For every terminal couch potato, there’s another person, probably older than you, who has cast off a mislabeled past history and is living life wholly, vibrantly, victoriously. They didn’t accept that it was “too late” to do what they wanted to do.
Despite the fact that we have a good chance of reaching one hundred (whether we like it or not), many of us fear the unknown landscape of aging. We fear illness, not having enough money, losing our mental abilities, being dependent on others, and becoming a burden to our families. Truth is...
For the past five years, I haven’t lived anywhere for more than six months. I spent 28 days in Lisbon, three months in Bali, and a random half-year in downtown Las Vegas.
When we were children, the summer holidays seemed to last forever, and the wait between Christmases felt like an eternity. So why is that when we get older, the time just seems to zip by, with weeks, months and entire seasons disappearing from a blurred calendar at dizzying speed?
I’m tempted by efficiency. My overactive brain craves the order of a predictable routine, a color-by-numbers life, the safety of no surprises. But I also crave enchantment. My heart craves the unpredictable, the spontaneous, the magical. In many ways, the two are...