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Finding Perpective as We Age

Perspective can be defined as the way we think about things, people, objects, etc, based on our beliefs and experiences and which determines how we act in the world. There is a possibility that our strongest beliefs remain unexamined since we formed them, perhaps decades ago. They may be based on assumptions that are no longer relevant to our current stage of life. This may well include attitudes to ageing and being older. We live in a society that glorifies youth and the acquisition of goods and status – things that can impede us as we age. If we continue to base our lives from the perspective of mid-life or earlier we may encounter unhappiness and dissatisfaction when we retire from paid emplyent and perhaps experience a significant drop in our income.

Within the process of becoming an elder is an invitation to examine our lives and to question whether we are living in a way that enhances this stage of our lives or are we struggling under the weight of what we have gathered to ourselves and have assumed are essential. This might include our attitudes, the things we own, the people around us and the things we do.

We are invited to lighten our load, to let go, to look inwards and really determine what it is that we to be and how we wish to live. It is an individual process in which we can choose to be freer than we have been since childhood. I have be known to describe this time of my life as being like ten years old but with some coins in my pocket.

Exploring Life Perpective:

Living Your Unlived Lfe
Dr Anna Dixon, Robert A Johnson and Jerry M Ruhl, ISBN 978-1-58542-699-1, Penguin, 2009

The Age of Ageing Better? A Manifesto for Our Future
Dr Anna Dixon, CO of the Centre for Ageing Better, ISBN 0-553-375505-9, Bantom, 1997

How Then Shall We Live?
Four simple question that reveal the beauty and meaning of our lives.

Wayne Muller, ISBN 978-1-4729-6073-3, Green Tree, 2020

This Chair Rocks, A Manifesto Against Ageism.
Ashton Applewhite, ISBN 978-1-9115545-26-2, Melville House, 2019

The Spirituality of Age, A Seeker's Guide to Growing Older.
Robert L Weber and Carol Osborn, IBSN 978-1-62055-512-5, Park Street Press, 2015

The Ten Steps Of Positive Ageing.
Guy Robertson, ISNB 978-1-4729-7280-4, Green Tree, 2020

Still Here, Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying.
Ram Dass, ISBN 978-1-57322-049-3, Riverhead Books, 2000.

For more information check out the Ageing page

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