{"id":332,"date":"2019-02-20T15:20:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T15:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/?p=332"},"modified":"2019-02-20T15:20:40","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T15:20:40","slug":"well-being-everyday-spirituality-attending-to-our-better-aging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/?p=332","title":{"rendered":"Well-Being = Everyday Spirituality + Attending to Our Better Aging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"74\" height=\"178\" src=\"https:\/\/new-futures-7291c.ingress-baronn.ewp.live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/helix.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-333\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong><em>\u201cWell-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive,\u201d according to\nAtul Gawande. <\/em><\/strong><strong><em><\/em><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/strong><strong><em>\u201cEverything changes, all the time,\u201d according to Buddhist\nwisdom.<\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This double helix demonstrates <strong>b<\/strong><strong>etter aging<\/strong>\nas a relationship between\nour practical <strong>everyday spirituality<br>\n<\/strong>&nbsp;and <em>actively<\/em> nurturing integrated elements of our <strong><em>well-being<\/em><\/strong> in the <em>process<\/em> of growing older wisely and well. <br>\n<br>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This gross over-simplification of a basic tenet of Buddhism\nhighlights a fundamental challenge of our aging experience. As soon as we\nbecome adjusted to its current form and needs it changes again, forcing another\nadjustment. For many (most?) people, commencement of felt \u201cchange&#8221; begins\nsomewhere in midlife: in the 40s for some, the 50s for many, or the 60s for most\nof the rest. It often becomes sharply felt just before or just after\nretirement, when people become more acutely aware of the style, type, tone, tenor,\nand magnitude of the numerous changes impacting them, and their response to them.\nWilliam Bridges makes the main point that<strong>,\n\u201cIt\u2019s not the changes that do us in, it\u2019s our transition.\u201d <\/strong>That is, our\nresponse to ongoing changes over which we have little to no control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our <strong>everyday\nspirituality is how we <em>choose <\/em>to deal\nwith the never-ending transitions of our aging life. <\/strong>It is <strong>our regular practice<\/strong> of all that puts\ninto action our personal \u201creasons\u2026to be alive.\u201d It is expressed in <em>how<\/em> we maintain our wellness\nbalance. It is the outcome of the thoughts we nurture and the actions we take\neach day, and our value-laden reason(s) for both. It is the process and\nlifestyle we choose that contributes to our personal well-being and better\naging.&nbsp; Very simply, <strong>our <em>spirituality<\/em> is our way\nof being in the world<\/strong>; it is most clearly shown by the path(s) we choose to\nfollow\u2026and avoid. The more conscious we are of these things the better. Which\nis why we encourage and promote our program <strong><em>Conscious Aging as a Spiritual\nPractice<\/em><\/strong> (CASP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why our daily <strong>well-being is not static.&nbsp; <\/strong>It evolves and matures, grows and moves,\nfrom one interesting thing to another as life unfolds for us one day at a time.\nActively attending to our well-being reflects our <em>everyday<\/em> spirituality in action. As does avoiding doing so. When we\nactively attend to its call to life, we are basically practicing our own form\nof conscious aging as a spiritual practice. When we are oblivious to it, for\nany length of time, we experience soul sickness.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But sometimes we get stuck. Sometimes\nour stuck-ness can be something as benign as a \u201ctime out\u201d where we take time to\nconsider our situation and options. Sometimes we get stuck because we can\u2019t see\nany way to get unstuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recently I experienced a malaise,\nthat I see now was really a message from my deepest self, aka my Soul, telling\nme in no uncertain terms to move on; to attend to something(s) that was being under-nourished,\nand\/or unattended to in my life. Perhaps to prune some activity(s) in the way\nof doing so. This is important to me given the closeness of my horizon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t mean to claim any particular\ncompetence or moral high ground here; but when my vocation includes helping others\nfind their own way to wellness and better aging, and I <em>still<\/em> get stuck, i.e., lose my own spiritual and emotional\nbalance, as I did recently&#8211;then (without embarrassment, I suggest) it can\nhappen to anyone, at any time \u2026 more than once! And it does! More to the point,\nthis commonly happens when, and because, I\/ we aren\u2019t paying attention to\nwhat\u2019s important to us as our life continually unfolds.<br>\n<br>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>So, what is<em> \u201cBetter Aging?\u201d \u2013I<\/em>t\nis simply <em>better than<\/em> <em>usual<\/em> aging. <\/strong>Which we encourage at NEW FUTURES through\nour program of <strong><em>conscious aging as a spiritual\npractice<\/em><\/strong> (CASP), and support with a variety of programs, because it is\na foundational way to nurture and support a practical <strong><em>Everyday Spirituality<\/em>. <\/strong>Onethat nurtures our innate selfhood through\ninsights and practices that result in <strong><em>Better Aging <\/em><\/strong>generally<em>.<\/em> While this is different for each of us,\nthere are some basic patterns, just as all music comes from eight notes and the\nrainbow is comprised of three primary colors. Thus, a significant part of what NEW\nFUTURES does is help people recognize their own patterns, so they can prune and\nshift them in order to develop new ones more \u201crighter\u201d for them, when they are\nready to do so. Which really means, when they are able to let go of some\naspect(s) of their evolved lifestyle\u2014beliefs and behaviours; in order to take\nhold of new ones that contribute to <em>better\n<\/em>aging for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why we at NEW FUTURES offer\ntwo formats where people can talk openly about their aging psycho-emotional and\nspiritual needs. Our small group workshops and retreats offer the benefit of\nhearing others talk about things that touch on their own situation. When one\u2019s\nissues are too deep or complex and\/or personal to share with strangers, we\noffer one to one coaching and spiritual companionship with individuals and\ncouples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out other blog posts on this website for more insight into my practice of my <strong>Everyday Spiritualty<\/strong> in imperfect action. Better still, check out the three events <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/?page_id=290\">here<\/a><\/strong> that we are offering on March 23 and May 11, where you will find people like you talking about issues like yours. Or contact me via <a href=\"mailto:paul@newfutures.ca\">paul@newfutures.ca<\/a> with your questions, or for a free no obligation introductory conversation about your needs now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As always, we invite your feedback\nabout this article, or anything else on this website. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWell-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive,\u201d according to Atul Gawande. &nbsp;\u201cEverything changes, all the time,\u201d according to Buddhist wisdom. This double helix demonstrates better aging as a relationship between our practical everyday spirituality &nbsp;and actively nurturing integrated elements of our well-being in the process of growing older wisely and well. This<a href=\"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/?p=332\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newfutures.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}