Tap Your Powers As You Age

Tap Your Powers as You Age

As you age, you can continue to tap your powers by accepting who you are as you are. What you can do is take a moment before jumping into the day to assess your strengths and capabilities. As an elder, you can then use your internal and external assets without adopting limitations by leaping into the abyss of what society says is ‘old’. The number of years you have lived is a number not a condition. It is amazing how often people make assumptions and judgments based on age. Yet some 30 year olds living with certain physical conditions can do far less that some physically fit 80 year olds. It all depends and assumptions are not reliable.

A friend of mine who used to take daily walks until he was 103 demonstrated this well. He smiled when telling me about his encounters with people when on his walks. He told me how returning home one day after a long walk, a nearby neighbor refused to believe that he was 101. The neighbor thought my friend was making up a story as an excuse for his not walking faster. We discussed how by accepting your conditions, you simply get up and ask yourself, can I do this? Based on your assessment, you proceed as you are.

A critical part of accepting who you are is to embrace your wisdom. Prajna, a Sanskrit term for wisdom, references conceptual and nonconceptual wisdom. Elders can use the power of empathy because of their many life experiences. After having been at many meetings or having worked with people in a wide variety of settings, you often just have a feeling when joining a group discussion or activity. When I took my first job as a city manager, an older city manager with decades of experience shared some sage advice. He advised me that in challenging situations it is always beneficial to listen to one’s intuition. He explained that, even though it might be just a feeling, that intuition was a source of information. As he explained, sometimes intuition merely guides you to what you need to investigate. He grinned when he added that investigating without judgments often led him to discover new solutions to problems.

Investigating ways to adapt to conditions as you age is essential. Doing so, you can use aging, regardless of your physical condition, as a strength. My upcoming book, Elderrific shares stories of how elders use superpowers to live and die well. The book includes practices you can use to tap your superpowers.

To hear more about the meaning of elderrific and the superpowers elders use, listen to my radio podcast about how to reclaim your powers. Click the link below to go to the podcast.

Close Up Radio Podcast