Aging in a Soulful Way

Course Description

Connie Zweig explores how to find the treasures of late life. The potential treasures of late life are:

• genuine self-acceptance of who we are now, which liberates us from our inner critic and empowers us to feel and act with full authenticity;
• freedom from the past, so that it no longer controls how we feel or act now;
• a broader and deeper view of our life stories, which reveals our soul’s mission;
• our lost creativity reclaimed;
• a quieter mind, which gives us space from negative emotions about aging; 
• a deeper identity, which offers freedom from our past roles and responsibilities;
• revitalized energy that opens us to play, beauty, and gratitude, and
• a reconnection with activism and service, which ends isolation and connects us to a kinship community.

This is the precious promise of the inner work of age, which is also the title of her book.

This course is ideal if

• Extend your psychological and spiritual development along with your extended longevity;
• Learn how to meet the shadows of age and overcome the inner obstacles to aging consciously;
• Complete your emotional or spiritual unfinished business;
• Deepen your self-acceptance as you age;
• Release your ego’s heroic striving and reorient toward your soul;
• Find renewed meaning and purpose after 50;
• Complete a rite of passage to become an Elder;
• Deepen your spiritual experience with practices that fit who you are now.
• Practice life completion to die in peace.

Course Overview

Class 1. The Promise of the Inner Work of Age

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As Jung told us, “The afternoon of life is just as full of meaning as the morning; only, its meaning and purpose are different.” 

We have practices from depth psychology and contemplative traditions—but how do we apply them to age (or the process of aging) for renewed meaning and purpose, and awareness and vitality? How do we make the archetypal shift from the Hero to the Elder?

In Class 1, we set the context for the purpose of the new longevity and reframe aging from decline to a rite of passage. As we let go of past roles and identities, we enter a liminal period, uncertain of who we are becoming now. It’s a late-life identity crisis but with great potentiality. With the tools of the inner work of age, we learn to turn our attention from mid-life heroic-doing toward the soul. We face the unconscious inner obstacles or shadows that deny and resist this transition. Eventually, we consciously emerge into a new stage of life, experiencing greater authenticity and the desire to serve something beyond ourselves.

Class 2. Meeting Your Shadow: The Inner Ageist

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The first inner obstacle to aging consciously is our ageism against ourselves, internalized as a shadow figure from the collective shadow, and felt as self-hatred, invisibility, powerlessness, and shame. Research reveals that the consequences of “the inner ageist” are devastating for our physical, emotional, and brain health—even for our longevity. With shadow-work, we can become aware of this unconscious figure. With continuing self-observation, we can learn to stop buying into its debilitating message and, instead, cultivate self-acceptance and empathic acceptance of other older adults. 

 

Class 3. The Inner Work of Retirement

Available Now

Many people face retirement from paid work as they face any liminal time: full of uncertainty, loss of identity, and loss of meaning. This presentation is not about what we do: more work or less work, more volunteering or less volunteering. Rather, it will explore retirement as a Rorschach test, onto which we project our unconscious fears and fantasies of this stage of life. And we will discover the psychological and spiritual potential of this passage, as we learn to identify the unconscious inner obstacle or shadow figure that resists slowing down for self-reflection and allowing change to change us. Eventually, we learn to shift our identities from doing to being, from role to soul, a spiritual shift in awareness.

By the end of this course you will

• Understand the psychological and spiritual purposes of late life development.
• Identify the unconscious figure within us that denies age and its value.
• Define the difference between becoming a senior and an Elder.
• Identify the developmental tasks required to become an Elder.