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In this Article:

• How does aging lead to spiritual growth?
• What are the 5 key spiritual benefits of aging?
• Why is letting go essential for aging gracefully?
• How can acceptance and humility bring inner peace in later years?
• Discover why aging is a profound teacher and guide.

Why Transform Your Attitude About Aging?

by Carol Orsborn.

The ancient Chinese believed that after 40, you could read a person’s character from the lines on a face. And nothing ages a face faster than worry lines, especially if they are shadowed with dread. Even so, the older we grow, it seems the more there is to be worried about.

Some self-help advice centers on various tools, techniques and psychological tricks to keep you happy. On the most practical level, there are endless ads offering make-up advice for lipstick that won’t feather and eyeliner that won’t smudge.

Trying to Forestall the Effects of Aging?

Stay busy. Travel. Socialize. All of these can be welcome additions to a fully lived life, but the saddest people I know are the ones who try to forestall the effects of aging indefinitely by extending midlife long past its shelf life. According to this approach: You don’t want to age? Just don’t do it. Push yourself even when you’re tired. Continue to work for other people’s approval. Keep your inevitable losses and diminishments a badly kept secret.

The reality is that no one can forestall the truth that aging is hard, and that if you are fortunate enough to live long enough, you are going to experience this first-hand for yourself. And yet, there are some amongst us who are appearing to age more gracefully than others.

There are wise, old women with white hair left to fly haphazardly, seeming to share a rare inside joke with each other. They have stopped asking what they should do and begun starting each day by asking “What interesting things do I want to do?”

There are women who live on their own and seem quite content to do so. You can even see them sitting on park benches feeding birds, and while some might mistake them for bag ladies, they are having the time of their lives.

Having True Joy in Old Life

If you really want to have true joy in old age, you don’t need to stop going to the hairdresser or give up a passion even if society still recognizes it as valuable. But you do have to take a giant leap of faith right off the edge of your dread and into the deep waters of spirituality. This can be easier said than done, as true spirituality requires more of you than you think you have to give. Things like humility, patience, acceptance and gratitude.

The good news is that to obtain a higher state of equanimity in the world is exactly why you became a seeker in the first place. How many yoga classes did you take to strip away your ego? How many meditation retreats to find peace of mind? It wasn’t easy when you were in the heat of your life and career to reap the full benefits from your practices. But aging requires no donation, fee or love offering.

Growing older strips you of your masks and melts away your defenses without your having to do anything but feel. In the end, if you find sufficient faith not to second guess yourself, what will remain is the distilled essence of who you are. And you are dependable, kind and radiantly beautiful. Aging viewed through the soul’s lens is not a slow, sad decline but a spiritual culmination.

The Transformation Begins Now

How is this transformation accomplished? It begins right where you are, more often than not in some degree of dread. Why in terms of your prospect for spiritual development is this good news? Because it means that you are, at the very least, taking mortality seriously.

This confrontation with the archetypal shadows are what shakes you from denial and into a broader and deeper embrace of what it truly means to be human. With the admission of mortality we suddenly see our lives in the context of the preciousness of time, and its attendant-in-waiting: what matters most.

Let Go and Let God

Hard on the heels of expanded vision comes the second great gift of older age: the surrender of the illusion of your personal power. Like addicts hitting bottom, the aged finally have no choice other than to “let go and let God.”

You lay down all your frantic attempts to call the shots and finally there is the time and space for God to intervene in your life: Divine guidance, grace and being beloved unconditionally for no particular reason. As it turns out, all the seeking you’ve been doing all your life: this is what it has all been for.

But wait, there’s more.

Being Loved for Who We Are

Stripped of our egos and old identities, people love us for who we are. The lines between our hearts dissolve and we feel understood and appreciated. And then there’s our own blossoming attributes: gratitude, compassion, generosity.

How many times did you take workshops or buy books on simplifying your life? Aging really does a number on our materialism, and it does it organically. Whether we need to or not, we can’t wait to lay the burden of all our possessions down and start traveling lightly through life. With lowered expectations, acceptance comes easier. And yes, there is even a time on this long, winding road where we have rectified every wrong we could and let go of regret.

Evolving spiritually is not just the solution to the problem of aging, it is, in fact, the meaning and evolutionary purpose of old age. Know this to be true for you, too, and when you look in the mirror you will see how magnificent with age you have become. And it will take your breath away.

5 Benefits of Spiritual Aging

Want to take advantage of the spiritual benefits of aging? It's what happens to you when you age organically, without needing to invest in nary a yoga mat. Aging is the teacher and the only requirement for entry is to grow old.

Here are 5 benefits:

EROSION OF EGO. Why meditate or pray to see the divine being you are behind the masks when aging reminds you every day that you're not who you used to be, guiding you to disidentify with your ego.

SIMPLICITY. Why buy another self-help book on letting go of the clutter in your life when aging strips attachment to your worldly possessions away organically. Beyond addiction to materialism: gratitude for having enough.

RELISHING THE MOMENT. Prerequisite for the advanced course: the slowing down that is a natural part of aging.

ACCEPTANCE AND HUMILITY. Aging is the master at teaching us we are not the ones calling the shots. It takes growing old to finally give up believing that this is your show.

FORGIVENESS. It takes every one of those years to accept your - and the world's - imperfections and limitations and taste the freedom of life on the other side of regret.

Copyright 2024. All Rights Reserved.
Adapted with permission of the publisher
Park Street Press, an imprint of Inner Traditions Intl.

Book by this Author: Spiritual Aging

Spiritual Aging: Weekly Reflections for Embracing Life
by Carol Orsborn Ph.D.

Many of us navigating the years beyond midlife report high levels of self-acceptance, freedom, and joy, but there can also be bouts of second-guessing and regret as well as the occasional longing to be reminded that you’re not in this alone.

Designed to be read weekly in two-year cycles, the 120 timeless readings in this book focus on the issues and concerns that arise among those who view aging as a path to spiritual culmination. Carol Orsborn’s wise and compassionate insights are seasoned by quotes and stories by and about mystics, sages, and old souls from ancient through contemporary times who illuminate the path to living a full life while embracing old age. 

For more info and/or to order this book, click here.  Also available as a Kindle edition and an Audiobook. 

About the Author

More books by this Author.

Article Recap:

Aging is a natural and spiritual process that reveals profound benefits, including the erosion of ego, simplicity, and forgiveness. By embracing aging organically, we learn to let go of materialism, relish the moment, and accept life’s imperfections with humility. This spiritual transformation brings deeper connections, gratitude, and a sense of purpose, highlighting that aging gracefully is about inner growth and embracing the joy of evolving spiritually.

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