When I was growing up the concept of Ageing Joyfully hadn’t made its way to my parents or their social circles. Life had been hard for their generation. My parents grew up during The Great Depression and consequently were just the right age to be fully engaged in the awful experience of World War 2. |
Even after The War ended, there was a difficult adjustment period of men returning home, broken and scarred for life, the lack of jobs, lack of money and all the women getting pregnant.
They had been to hell and back so … no, Ageing Joyfully was the furthest thing from their mind. They were in survival mode, even if they were fortunate enough for life to eventually become less stressful and more financially secure. They were programmed to think of life as hard work. Perhaps to help them bear this, they began to think of Hard Work as noble.
And now here we are, the result of all those post war pregnancies, The Baby Boomers.
Are we still living an inherited struggle from our parent’s position of poverty and school of hard knocks? Or have we paved a new path for ourselves?
We were born under a constellation of great change, a time of liberation, a time of experimentation, a time of evolving consciousness.
From Australia to Zimbabwe, there was a lot going on for humanity no matter if you lived in a big city or a small country town. Over time it didn’t matter, well, not quite as much, if you were white or black, rich or poor. We were all born at the Dawn of the Age of Aquarius. We were constellated to live differently from the generations before us.
No matter what kind of a life you’ve lived, chances are you have made mistakes. It is the nature of growing up, messing up, finding your way, maturing and hopefully not repeating the same mistakes. Naturally, some of us have made bigger mistakes than others. However, the size of the mistakes does not necessarily equate to the amount of time we spend regretting the things we didn’t get right.
Many of us learned to deal with those mistakes by ‘beating ourselves up’ – a continuous stream of internal negative chatter constantly telling ourselves that we are not good, not good enough anyway, that we are not worthy, not worthy of love. Regret is a heavy burden to bear and it doesn’t absolve us of whatever mistake(s) we’ve made. It’s sort of like guilt, quite useless in terms of a cure to what ails us.
The trick to Ageing Joyfully is to have No Regrets.
So, there it is. I’ve jumped right to the remedy that I’ve found. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t sorry. It doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t do it differently if you had to do it over again. It just means that you look back on your glorious life from an observation point. You know you were an innocent child who came to life through these parents at the Dawn of Aquarius. You did the best you could at the time with the information you had. You made mistakes. Have No Regrets.
There is a lot of hype nowadays about saying "Yes". Just say "Yes" to what life presents. Not so much about taking a risk but more about being willing to follow the guidance of your inner heart. If your inner heart is saying "Yes, go ahead it will be alright," then go for it. Do it even if it doesn’t make perfect sense in a logical, play-it-safe way. Don’t let imaginary boundaries keep you small.
As you learn to say "Yes" to what lays in front of you, it will become easier to say ‘Yes’ to what lays behind you. Not, ‘Yes that was a good thing’. But, ‘Yes that happened’.
When you look at life from an observation point, you can see with clarity the lesson that was wrapped up in the mistake.
In some cases, you can even, eventually, stretch to being grateful for a thing that seemed like a Big Mistake at the time.
Learning to say "Yes, this happened" is the foundation for being able to look back on your life with No Regrets and then one day you wake up and realise that you are Ageing Joyfully.
Gayle C, Australia
For further reading you may also like:
http://www.unimedliving.com/self-care/self-care-tips/oops-embracing-our-mistakes-is-self-care.html
They had been to hell and back so … no, Ageing Joyfully was the furthest thing from their mind. They were in survival mode, even if they were fortunate enough for life to eventually become less stressful and more financially secure. They were programmed to think of life as hard work. Perhaps to help them bear this, they began to think of Hard Work as noble.
And now here we are, the result of all those post war pregnancies, The Baby Boomers.
Are we still living an inherited struggle from our parent’s position of poverty and school of hard knocks? Or have we paved a new path for ourselves?
We were born under a constellation of great change, a time of liberation, a time of experimentation, a time of evolving consciousness.
From Australia to Zimbabwe, there was a lot going on for humanity no matter if you lived in a big city or a small country town. Over time it didn’t matter, well, not quite as much, if you were white or black, rich or poor. We were all born at the Dawn of the Age of Aquarius. We were constellated to live differently from the generations before us.
No matter what kind of a life you’ve lived, chances are you have made mistakes. It is the nature of growing up, messing up, finding your way, maturing and hopefully not repeating the same mistakes. Naturally, some of us have made bigger mistakes than others. However, the size of the mistakes does not necessarily equate to the amount of time we spend regretting the things we didn’t get right.
Many of us learned to deal with those mistakes by ‘beating ourselves up’ – a continuous stream of internal negative chatter constantly telling ourselves that we are not good, not good enough anyway, that we are not worthy, not worthy of love. Regret is a heavy burden to bear and it doesn’t absolve us of whatever mistake(s) we’ve made. It’s sort of like guilt, quite useless in terms of a cure to what ails us.
The trick to Ageing Joyfully is to have No Regrets.
So, there it is. I’ve jumped right to the remedy that I’ve found. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t sorry. It doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t do it differently if you had to do it over again. It just means that you look back on your glorious life from an observation point. You know you were an innocent child who came to life through these parents at the Dawn of Aquarius. You did the best you could at the time with the information you had. You made mistakes. Have No Regrets.
There is a lot of hype nowadays about saying "Yes". Just say "Yes" to what life presents. Not so much about taking a risk but more about being willing to follow the guidance of your inner heart. If your inner heart is saying "Yes, go ahead it will be alright," then go for it. Do it even if it doesn’t make perfect sense in a logical, play-it-safe way. Don’t let imaginary boundaries keep you small.
As you learn to say "Yes" to what lays in front of you, it will become easier to say ‘Yes’ to what lays behind you. Not, ‘Yes that was a good thing’. But, ‘Yes that happened’.
When you look at life from an observation point, you can see with clarity the lesson that was wrapped up in the mistake.
In some cases, you can even, eventually, stretch to being grateful for a thing that seemed like a Big Mistake at the time.
Learning to say "Yes, this happened" is the foundation for being able to look back on your life with No Regrets and then one day you wake up and realise that you are Ageing Joyfully.
Gayle C, Australia
For further reading you may also like:
http://www.unimedliving.com/self-care/self-care-tips/oops-embracing-our-mistakes-is-self-care.html