One way to launch yourself on this journey is to examine your own beliefs about aging. Of particular interest is noticing how many of those belief excite you and how many depress you. Adjust your image of old to something that is attractive to you, and begin heading toward that image. You have passed through the first threshold.
After my 60th birthday, I began referring to myself as old. The energy with which my listeners denied this was amazing. Universally the response was, "You're not old." It became obvious to me that old was mostly undesirable to my listeners. I wondered if that was true for me, as well.
I began to make a list of things that contradicted that belief. My experience with old age to date includes:
- More free time
- Less concern about what others think
- More life experience to draw on
- Social security (still looking forward to Medicare)
- Greater ease with stillness and silence
- Becoming more childlike, less inhibited
- Trusting intuition more
- Less energy wasted dodging unwanted sexual advances
