When I am preparing a spiritual travel experience for clients it’s often on the heels of a recent life change. Some are changes that they themselves are initiating while others are facing change that is imposed upon them by others…or so it would seem.
Whether it’s change in job, relationship status, a health crisis or even retirement, change is stressful and confronts our most basic precept: Who am I?
So many people that I connect with daily are facing life changes and many of those people are calling me because they forgot to prepare for aging.
The truth is: We all have an inner compass and timing mechanism (astrological aspects) which signals when it is time for change. It is our ability to read the signs that makes the transitions easy or difficult.
One of the most challenging times for many people is retirement. While they look forward to the new freedom there is often a sense of fear, dread or boredom that comes on the heels of all the celebration. For many it’s a complete loss of identity as we have become a civilization obsessed with “doing”, productivity has become the #1 barometer of worth and esteem.
So how do you prepare for aging? In this excerpt we learn some of the issues that are common:
The Pilgrimage of Aging | Spiritual Travels
And so it is with aging. If you reach your destination without having done the proper preparation, you’re not likely to be able to do much to redeem yourself when you’ve reached a ripe age. There’s a line in an essay by Stanley Hauerwas and Laura Yordy that I like very much: “The problem … is that when we are old, it is too late to learn how to grow old.”
A second reason I am thinking of writing this book is because of how a loved one in my life is aging. She is having a rather miserable time growing old (she’s 89) in part because of physical ailments, but in large measure her difficulties have to do with her lack of preparation. She has been a devout Christian her entire life, but somehow she did not acquire the spiritual practices and strengths that help others deal with greater equanimity the vicissitudes of aging. Instead, she grows ever more anxious, ungrateful and ungracious, and I believe it is too late to change her trajectory. I am most anxious to understand what was lacking in her spiritual journey that has made her so unhappy with her life despite the comforts and privileges it has contained.
via The Pilgrimage of Aging | Spiritual Travels.
When creating a customized spiritual travel experience I find that it is helpful to create experiences that allow an individual to tune in to the more subtle aspects of themselves to mine the fields of diamonds within their soul.
There are many paths to this kind of awareness and by including several different kinds of experiences one can experience those aspects via mental, physical, emotional, spiritual and sensual exploration.
By learning to recognize how their own soul speaks to them, whether it is a feeling, sensation in the body, a “knowing” or even a pattern of speech that they hear in their own mind.
We learn to recognize the intuition, to savor the moments in that subtle awareness and most importantly to trust what pearls of wisdom are obtained there.
As this intuition becomes stronger, like a reflexive muscle and the information becomes verifiable (over time), one starts to experience a sense of peace and tranquility knowing that within themselves are resources.
Every change brings an opportunity for growth and expansion and to discover even more diamonds in that inner mine of the soul. Aging can be a delightful journey of discovery, so why not prepare and then look forward with happy expectation?
How are preparing for aging? Do you know someone who is doing exceptionally well in this transition? Please share your stories below so we can all learn about this delicate time of life.
