Conscious Leadership, Conscious Living, and now Conscious Aging embrace my professional and personal journey over the past quarter of a century. Revising my conscious living manifesto recently reminded me of the importance of living our values. A major milestone for me was learning about the seven levels of conscious leadership from Richard Barrett, founder of the Barrett Values Centre. Awareness of the values and beliefs that drive our behavior can help increase our consciousness of what we do and why we do it at whatever stage of life we find ourselves.
Aging is inevitable. As Thich Nhat Hanh said, “I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.” But we can consciously choose how we grow old. Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi offered a new vision of growing older in his book, From Aging to Sage-ing, where he describes sage-ing as “a process that enables older people to become spiritually radiant, physically vital, and socially responsible elders.” Sage-ing is a choice that supports our journey to conscious elderhood.
In his book, Conscious Living, Conscious Aging, Ron Pevny writes: “Conscious elderhood sees the elder years as the time when legacy can come to true fruition — when the positive personal qualities developed over decades can reach their fullest expression and when a treasure trove of life experience can be converted into the wisdom that only the passage of many years combined with inner awareness can bring.” Conscious eldering is about integrating conscious living, conscious aging, and conscious leadership into the journey towards growing older.
You may not be able to escape growing older, but you can age more consciously, becoming a wise elder and inspirational sage. If you are seeking help to lead, live, or age more consciously, explore my revised website where you will find new insights, resources, videos, and more.
