Super Ager. Elise Marie Collins

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СКАЧАТЬ air element of older adulthood. The Vata time of life is all about wisdom, seeing the big picture, and connectedness. Intuitively, Chip aligned with the Ayurveda model of aging. He transitioned gracefully because he realized Airbnb did not need a second CEO going around spouting Baby-Boomer / Brick-and-Mortar wisdom to a bunch of people who wanted to reinvent hospitality. “I realized quickly I need to listen, with empathy and no ego and very little judgment.” Going from center stage to coaching from the sidelines was not easy. It was the perfect movement from fire to air, from ego to wisdom. Chip Conley spent four years with Airbnb, helping them to grow exponentially. He has stayed on as an advisor to Airbnb because the company told him, “We can’t exactly explain what you do for us, but your intangible value is critical to the company.” This intangible value is exactly what describes the air element or Vata stage of life. It’s all around, intangible, yet essential to life.

      Become a Modern Elder

      In the words of Chip Conley, a self-proclaimed “Modern Elder,” there are a growing number of older adults who feel irrelevant. How do we create an intergenerational bridge? He likens the “Modern Elder,’ someone who is someone who both serves and learns, is mentor and an intern and student and sage all at the same time. He thinks it is necessary for Boomers because we are going to live at least another ten years longer than our parents. We can create a way to learn from each other and connect generations. This wise advice comes from someone who has embraced the Vata stage of life.

      Ayurveda Stages of Life

      While science has no definitive model to explain aging or even why we age. There are a few animals, bacteria and plants that don’t actually don’t age. For thousands of years Ayurveda described life in three stages. From birth to puberty, the earth or Kapha stage of life: During this stage, children do a lot of growing. They are alive and full of earth. It is a time of attachment and love, nourishment. This is also why older generations and young children complement each other in balance. Babies are pure love and develop rapidly. Earth represents love and steadiness. Children teach us about nature and love as part of the earth element. Puberty to about age fifty is the Pitta or fire stage of life. In this stage of life, there is fire, ego, separation, sharpness. It is also a time of moving forward and accomplishment. The Pitta stage can transform. Teenage rebellion is a good example of the fire element. Watch out he/she is on fire, I would say of my own teenagers when they were in a particularly angry or righteous state. Professional sports and competition is the realm of fire. Fire, when out of balance destroys. Out of balance fire can also manifest as criticism directed at the self or others. Vata or air/ether stage of life is age fifty and up. These are the wisdom years of air. When we are high in the air, we can see the big picture. Air is inspiring and dominates the heart center. As the number of humans who are living in the Vata stage of life increases on the planet, I believe they will bring a much-needed breath of fresh “air.” For the next few decades as the number of people over sixty-five doubles and the number of centenarians increases eight fold, the world will transform with more people in this inspirational heartfelt time of life. People who are in balance in the air stage of life offer considerable wisdom. People who are out of balance in the air stage of life become out of touch and disconnected

      Keep Your Fire Burning

      Critical to Super Aging is finding one’s purpose or reinventing one’s purpose. A purpose not driven by ego, but by a deep desire. When you are younger, you have more of the fire element. Our drives and ambitions can have more of a fiery quality and when fire is out of balance, a person can be egoic and obnoxious. When you reach middle age, you must adjust, but not abandon your ambition and deep desires. Often purpose transforms to a desire to serve. Purpose becomes humbler and may be better described as contribution.

      Chip Conley found his purpose in listening to and helping digital natives embrace emotional intelligence and leadership as they disrupted the hospitality industry. All generations gained wisdom and transferred information. When you find your purpose, you thrive in your able to meet adversity and face the challenges in your life, and especially those of aging. A purpose as we age is our passion and fire, it burns brightly and with strength. It helps to point us in the right direction to create a legacy, have better relationships or pursue a new vocation as an artist. Later in this chapter I will offer several styles of therapy or exploratory work that will be perfect for finding your passion and purpose.

      Finding your purpose or reinventing your purpose is the at the heart aging in a healthy way. When you know your why, you can build a healthy life to support your why. Other words that may describe your purpose or your why could be contribution or service. If purpose sounds to lofty or goal oriented. Maybe asking the question, how can I serve the world right now in my life? Your answer may be different than it was ten or twenty or even thirty years ago. Don’t be afraid to keep it simple. A grandfather named Tsegai told me that he drove Lyft for four to five hours a day to save money to give to his grandsons, ages seven and ten. He had retired from driving big rigs and running his own trucking business. He loved driving and he knew that his health depended on keeping busy. He set a goal to save a set amount for his grandsons. When he hits his mark, he told me he would like to serve young children in his community. He plans to volunteer to read and tutor elementary school children. He realized the importance of having goals and visions for his “retirement” years.

      Your contribution or purpose may be to enjoy stimulating and wise conversations with friends and family. You may not be giving a TED Talk, but I know that if you have a purpose to have wise conversations, there will be a ripple effect. You will be gaining the health benefits of living your purpose and your purpose will in turn benefit the world. Your stimulating and inspiring conversations, if this is your purpose can embolden others young and old to come into their own powerful purpose.

      Numerous studies have demonstrated that having a strong life purpose may help you dodge many debilitating conditions associated with aging. A 2017 study found that having a clear purpose had strong physiological effects on your health. In one study, people who reported having a purpose slept better and had less diagnosable sleep issues. Another study found a connection between those who reported feeling purposeful to having a faster gait and stronger grip strength. A study of older adults at Northwestern University defined purpose as, “having aspirations and goals for the future and feeling that experience in life are meaningful.” People who reported having purpose have less sleep issues according to the study published in the July 2017 Sleep Science and Practice Journal. And subjects in this study were over 50 percent African American, a group that is often left out of research data yet suffer on average more sleep disturbances and a shorter life expectancy than white counterparts in the United States. The study found a link between purpose and better sleep over a long period of time. “Helping people cultivate a purpose in life could be an effective drug-free strategy to improve sleep quality, particularly for a population that is facing more insomnia” said the study’s senior author, Jason Ong, professor of Neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Purpose in life is something that can be cultivated and enhanced through mindfulness therapies,” he added.

      Finding a sense of purpose can add years to your life, according to a study at Canada’s Carleton University. The researchers sorted through a long-term study of six thousand individuals over a fourteen-year period, looking to see if having a direction in life at any age affected longevity. The study concluded that greater purpose in life conferred benefits across lifespan and this was consistent even when other beneficial psychological traits were teased out (“correlation was not causation”). “These findings suggest that there’s something unique about finding a purpose that seems to be leading to greater longevity,” said lead researcher Patrick Hill. When you feel a desire to contribute to the world and have a personal connection to the value of that contribution to the world, you have a powerful health protector, one that is perhaps more potent than many pills.

      Ikigai: Your Reason for Living

      The Japanese word ikigai can be translated in many ways. One simplified meaning can be “reason for living.” For some this word may have СКАЧАТЬ