Even though every single being on the planet is aging, we are all having a very unique experience of the world and our reality while we age. Each of us experiences aloneness, and perhaps isolation. However, the truth is, we are each cultivating a practice of Private Courage.
There is a part of us that doesn’t experience aging at all. We feel ourselves to be eternally youthful, vibrant, energized. And then we look in the mirror, or down at our arms, and we see our bodies looking wrinkled, sagging, and just don’t see how it used to be. These moments confront and contradict our sense of truth of who we are.
“Wait a minute! What’s going on?!”
This is where most of us begin to feel frustration, anger, despair, and even powerlessness.
What if we could say, “In this moment, I am me! And, in this moment my body is informing me that change is occurring, and I’m powerless to do anything about it.” This dilemma, this powerlessness, this existential moment is what the ageless guru within each of us wishes we would address.
Though it sounds depressing, scary, and anxiety-provoking, we are all experiencing these dilemmas daily. How we choose to be with these thoughts, how we distract ourselves, how we avoid the truth of our aging, how we deny or ignore the reality of this human process, is very personal and very precious. Yes, precious!
We can hate ourselves for aging – though we really aren’t in control of the whole unfolding of the physical process.
We can experience hopelessness, powerlessness and despair – these are all very natural human qualities that are part and parcel to existing within this Earth-suit.
Or…. we can choose to experience curiosity about who we really are, and include the full potential of the You in this bag of bones.
You can hate aging all you like. It can make you feel powerful to hate, while at the same time it doesn’t do much else.
Connecting with you through these blogs and my podcasts have made me realize that it’s only when I get curious and fascinated with who it is that is having this human experience that I now have the makings for an adventurous life – one that can empower me to be present to consciously. We can hate this adventure, or we can embrace this adventure. It’s all in how we want to live in the years ahead!