Hello and welcome to this short series of affirmations on growing older with confidence,
Wisdom and the belief that you really can fly into the future.
Whether your desire is to reach great and yet unconquered heights,
Or to sit around the cauldron with calmness and acceptance,
Or a bit of both,
Whichever you would value right now.
I'm Dr.
Jan Russell.
I'm a woman in my seventh decade.
I'm a mom,
I'm a gran,
A partner,
A sister,
A teacher,
A learner.
I'm a cancer survivor,
A magician,
A writer,
An artist,
An independent woman.
And I'm really glad to be alive and feel fortunate to have reached this far.
One thing that is absolutely certain is that unless we die,
We will get older.
Now we can approach that truth with fear and trepidation,
Or we can approach it with gratitude and optimism.
Some of our choices will be determined by the experience we have of life to date.
Some of our expectations will be determined by how we respond to the stories from the culture that we live in,
As to how well or badly we are going to age as we get older.
There's a difference between the two.
Getting older is simply the process of our travel through time,
And it is inevitable.
And we've been getting a little older each day from the day we were born.
Aging refers more to how we do that.
How well we adapt our beliefs and behaviours to accommodate that aging process as a natural progression of being alive.
Or whether we regard it as a lesser experience than all that's gone before.
As we move through the years and decades,
There seem to be various stages of change which call us to draw on different aspects of our inner selves.
And we do,
Don't we?
In some cultures,
There's a strange yet far-reaching belief structure that tells us that all of our best times are behind us.
Really?
Now this gives us little incentive or optimism.
If I believe that I can't at least match,
Or potentially even surpass,
The pleasures of previous experience,
The satisfaction of a great mood,
Feel awed by nature and moved by joy,
I would have to wonder what it's all about.
At the other end of the scale,
I used to have my tarot cards read on an annual basis,
I'd have my reading,
And then the reader would finish up by taking my hands in his,
Looking me in the eye and telling me,
The best is yet to come.
And that made me feel good.
So choose the beliefs that serve you well.
The practices in the Rocking the Crone series of affirmations are a series of short,
Upbeatful,
Mindful practices,
Exploring how we can embrace the process of aging well with intention and an openness to receiving all that comes our way in a spirit of vitality and acceptance,
Optimism and realism.
Our thoughts and feelings become powerful when you give them voice,
And voice becomes dynamic when transformed into action.
I've chosen to use affirmations for this series for just this reason.
Choose good thoughts,
Affirm them,
Turn them into beliefs and act on them.
In the process of transformation to an older woman,
And I'm not sure exactly when that transformation was deemed to be,
Though I have ideas,
I've noticed several things which are my truths.
Sometimes I can feel invisible in a new way,
And now I've discovered that this has pros as well as cons.
Some of my capabilities have reduced slightly,
While others have expanded really quite largely.
The more I embrace the changes that have come through menopause and beyond,
The more I'm in touch with wisdom,
Flexibility and appreciation.
I know what's important for me.
I believe that my previous experience gives me a strong platform from which to greet each day and whatever life throws my way.
And I truly do believe that we can be the authors of the next chapter of our own life stories and plan to a greater or lesser extent our getting older journey as we'd like to in thought,
Word and deed.
Now I'm well aware that we're dealt a different hand in life and some journeys seem easier than others.
So let's be clear,
I'm not claiming that everything is magical all of the time.
What I am saying is that with intention towards what can be possible and attention to our values,
Beliefs,
Habits and choices,
There is no reason not to accept and enjoy the process of getting older and to empower ourselves in whichever ways we can.
Over my time I've felt a whole range of responses to the passing of time,
Largely very at ease,
But with occasional extremes of feeling so pleased when somebody thinks me younger than my years,
To absolute horror at an unexpected reflection in an unkind light,
Or the feel of a stiff knee after sitting down for too long.
Now I really love and accept exactly how old I am and all that it brings and I'm grateful for every single day.
As you're here now,
I take that you too have ridden the years so far,
Years which you might have felt blessed or challenged by,
Maybe both,
And so in one way of looking at it,
You might already acknowledge that yours is a story of success.
I hope that gives you some flavour of the kinds of attitudes that we might share in the Rocking the Crone affirmations.
If you have any questions or comments,
Please do leave them in the Insight Timer Classroom and I will respond to them.
So thank you for your engagement and enjoy.
