What if life can get better as we age?
How we can live healthier and wiser lives as we grow older
The lie we are quietly fed about growing old
Is getting older a ‘decline?' Or is it our opportunity to become lighter, wiser, healthier and calmer?
There’s an unspoken but deeply engrained narrative, a norm, in Western culture, that sees youthfulness as the pinnacle of life. Aging is seen as a slow collapse, a diminishment, and that the best years of your life are behind you. We seem to value the soulless information and images produced through social media and by AI more than the depth of experience of a life well lived.
All of this amounts to a trend – that we have not valued ‘getting wiser’ as an important part of growing older.
The wisdom of elders - our wisdom bankruptcy
In many of the older and indigenous cultures worldwide the search for wisdom is seen as a necessity for developing genuine leadership. This leadership is often found in the wise elder. In his conversation ‘A Lack of Elders, A Loss of Wisdom’ on the Living Myth' podcast, Michael Meade observes that the wise elder is a valuable living resource to any social group. Elders remember essential values and enduring truths lost amidst modern day ‘progress.’ When any culture fails to develop and support their elders, we end up with what we have in our world today – a lack of true leadership in critical times, and as Meade says, ‘a draining of life from the very course of life.’
Darcia F. Narvaez PhD’s research finds wise elders to be:
Positive, resilient, and possess a calmer, wider view of life's challenges.
Available as mentors for younger people where they share experience without needing to control outcomes. They encourage the young to not surrender their originality and life force to conformity and approval seeking.
Aware and accepting of their own past suffering and mistakes, rather than running from them. They have turned setbacks in learning and wisdom.
Consciously cultivating wisdom, continuing to grow mentally and spiritually throughout their later years.
Seeing the bigger picture, realising that life is an ongoing series of seasons, some harsh, others easy, but all making up a life to celebrate.
Compassionate, rather than blaming and guide people towards love and away from fear.
Embracing humility with the truth that ‘the more we know, the more we realise we don’t know’.
This is why it’s helpful to see the process of aging as not simply growing older but growing deeper. When we go on the inward journey, and slow down, and deepen our understanding of our self, and how the world works, we get insight into a source of wisdom that has always been there, waiting for us to catch onto, that we might have been too busy, and living too shallowly to notice previously.
Could the second half be the best half?
Through intention, we can make the second half of life the best half.
A long-term Harvard study that tracked adult development for decades came to the conclusion that aging is not necessarily the slow decline and collapse of health and vitality for life we think of.
The study found that wellbeing, emotional stability, and life satisfaction can often increase with age – if we choose to live wisely.
When we think back to our 20’s, we might remember our beauty and our energy, and our determined attitude to achieve things quickly. For most of us, our youthful years were often about speed.
However, aging increases our life mastery, which is more powerful than speed.
Mastery is having a depth of lived wisdom. We learn what to edit, and most importantly, where not to put our energy. We have learnt that some things are just not what matters in life. We are less concerned about winning every argument, and more concerned with conserving the health of our own nervous system. We are less concerned with the latest crazes, and popular trends, with anti-aging products and strategies, and more concerned with mind and body practices that remind us we are made to move. We don’t try to escape aging, we befriend it.
In short, we age gracefully not because we are adding more, because we are letting go of what’s been exhausting us - mentally and physically. We glow as we grow old because we make a choice to prioritise calm, connection, and clarity, which induces vitality and cellular repair.
“Youth is energy without direction.
Later life is direction with controlled energy.
One burns fast. The other burns bright”
- Thomas Blake
BOOK A SESSION WITH JO
jo@heartandmindyoga.co.nz, 022 125 3011.
Jo Jarden is a personal trainer, yoga teacher, and the founder of Heart and Mind Yoga studio 54 Holmwood Road, Merivale, Christchurch.
She has 12 year's experience as personal trainer, yoga teacher, and workshop facilitator including working with:
Business executives
Gyms, group yoga & fitness classes
Farmers and rural settings
Workplace retreats, events, and conferences
Her approach combines both body and mind practices to help people boost their health and general feelings of positivity. She utilises the combination of ancient yoga wisdom and wellbeing science techniques to help people release tension and grow their inner strengths.
Qualifications include:
Certified Yoga Teacher Santosha Yoga Institute, Registered Australian Yoga Alliance 2017
Certificate in Advanced Personal Training, Fit College New Zealand, 2016
Bachelor of Science with Honours Public Health. University of Canterbury, New Zealand 2006
Bachelor of Arts Mass Communication and Psychology. University of Canterbury, New Zealand 2005