Full Description
A guide to working through the inner obstacles of late life and embracing the spiritual gifts of aging
• 2022 Coalition of Visionary Resources Gold Award
• 2022 Nautilus Gold Award
• Award Winner in the Health: Aging/50+ category of the 2021 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest
• Award Winner in Non-Fiction: Aging and Gerontology category of the 2021 Best Indie Book Award
• Offers shadow-work and many diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, and allow mortality to be a teacher
• Reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life
• Includes personal interviews with prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Fr. Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof
With extended longevity comes the opportunity for extended personal growth and spiritual development. You now have the chance to become an Elder, to leave behind past roles, shift from work in the outer world to inner work with the soul, and become authentically who you are. This book is a guide to help get past the inner obstacles and embrace the hidden spiritual gifts of age.
Offering a radical reimagining of age for all generations, psychotherapist and bestselling author Connie Zweig reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life, attune to your soul's longing, and emerge renewed as an Elder filled with vitality and purpose. She explores the obstacles encountered in the transition to wise Elder and offers psychological shadow-work and diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, reclaim your creativity, and allow mortality to be a teacher. Sharing contemplative practices for selfreflection, she also reveals how to discover ways to share your talents and wisdom to become a force for change in the lives of others.
Woven throughout with wisdom from prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Father Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof, this book offers tools and guidance to help you let go of past roles, expand your identity, deepen self-knowledge, and move through these life passages to a new stage of awareness, choosing to be fully real, transparent, and free to embrace a fulfilling late life.
Contents
FOREWORD
Meeting the Shadow of Age by Harry R. Moody, Ph.D.
PROLOGUE
A Letter to My Fellow Travelers in Late Life
INTRODUCTION
Age Is Our Curriculum
PART 1
The Divine Messengers
1 Aging from the Inside Out
The Buddha's Divine Messengers
Rites of Passage What Is "Old?"
Telling the Whole Truth
When Do We Become "Old"?
Aging as Fate
2 The Three Portals of Age
Shadow Awareness: Portal to Depth
Pure Awareness: Portal to Silent Vastness
An Interview with Rabbi Rami Shapiro
An Interview with Kirtan Chant Leader Krishna Das Mortality Awareness: Portal to Presence
3 Meeting Ageism from the Inside Out and the Outside In
Meeting Your Inner Ageist: From the Inside Out
The Dramatic Consequences of the Inner Ageist
Meeting the Collective Shadow of Ageism: From the Outside In
An Interview with Ageism Crusader Ashton Applewhite
4 Retirement as a Divine Messenger
To Retire or Not to Retire?
Retirement from the Outside In
Retirement as Reinvention: Encore Careers
Shadow-Work for Retirement: From the Inside Out
Retirement from Clinical Practice: My Story as a Helping Professional Retirement as Spiritual Practice: From Role to Soul
5 Life-Changing Illness as a Divine Messenger
From Terrible Wound to Sacred Wound
Closing the Mind/Body Split
Illness of the Body: Cancer as an Answer
Shadow-Work for Illness: From the Inside Out
Caregiving from the Inside Out
Illness of the Mind: Depression or Disillusionment
Illness of the Brain: Memory Loss as Epidemic
Delaying Memory Loss and Enhancing Plasticity
An Interview with Buddhist Psychologist Rick Hanson
Illness as Spiritual Practice: From Role to Soul
PART 2
Life Review and Life Repair
6 A Review of Your Lived and Unlived Life
Physician Rachel Naomi Remen on Seeing Her Life with New Eyes
The Ego's Life Review: What Was Expressed
The Shadow's Life Review: What Was Repressed
An Interview with Father Thomas Keating, Founder of Centering Prayer
7 Emotional and Creative Repair to Release the Past and Live in the Present
Emotional Repair: Reinventing Relationships from Role to Soul
An Interview with Jungian Analyst James Hollis
An Interview with Psychiatrist Roger Walsh
Lost Creativity Found: The Gold in the Dark Side
8 Spiritual Repair to Reimagine Our Beliefs and Reclaim Our Practices
Shadow-Work for Spiritual Disillusionment
Spiritual Work: Reclaiming Our Practices
PART 3
From Hero to Elder
9 Elder with a Thousand Faces
What Is an Elder?
Becoming an Elder: A Rite of Passage
An Interview with Ron Pevny, Founder of the Center for Conscious Eldering
Letting Go: Inner Work for Resistant Heroes
Meeting the Inner Elder: An Initiation
New Beginnings: Reimagining the Elder from the Inside Out
An Interview with Mythologist and Storyteller Michael Meade
An Interview with Poet, Novelist, Activist Deena Metzger
An Interview with Jungian Analyst Lionel Corbett
Honoring One of My Elders: Jungian Analyst Marion Woodman
10 Elder Wisdom and the Call to Age into Awakening
The Final Divine Messenger: The Monk's Call to Awaken
Awakening into Higher Stages of Awareness
What Is Wisdom?
Transmitting Wisdom to Future Generations
An Interview with Integral Philosopher Ken Wilber
An Interview with Mystic Robert Atchley
An Interview with Buddhist Teacher Anna Douglas
11 Elder Activism and the Call to Serve Something Larger than Ourselves
The Call to Sacred Service and Elder Activism
The Shadow Side of Service
Heeding the Call or Denying the Call: Inner Work for Resistant Elders
An Interview with John Sorensen, Founder of Elders Action Network An Interview with Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Former Abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles Conscious
Grandparenting: Caring for the Souls of Our Young Ones
Climate Change: Collective Mortality Awareness
PART 4
Life Completion
12 Moving toward a Completed Life
An Interview with Altered States Pioneer Stanislav Grof
An Interview with Transpersonal Psychologist Frances Vaughan
13 Reimagining Death as the Last Rite
The Shadow Knows: Its Secret Preparation for the End
An Interview with Spiritual Teacher Mirabai Bush, Coauthor with Ram Dass
EPILOGUE A
Legacy Letter to the Grandchildren Acknowledgments
APPENDIX A
Shadow-Work Handbook for Aging Consciously
Bibliography
Index
