When I turned sixty I was a successful educator, having been a classroom teacher, an executive teacher, an education consultant, the principal of a large primary school in Sydney, and at this point in time a lecturer at University. There wasn’t anything left for me to ‘achieve’ – to gain identification and recognition from, to prove that I was a ‘success-in-life.’ I had reached, in the eyes of society, the top of the tree! ​

I never really enjoyed the taste of alcohol, any alcohol. However, when I reached the age of eighteen and had left school it seemed that everyone did drink alcohol so I went along with everyone else. When I was growing up there were no other drugs, only alcohol. Women were definitely frowned upon if they behaved in an inebriated fashion, but young men were forgiven for bad behaviour! ​

Many of the writers for the ‘Joy of Ageing, Esoterically’ had been raised in the era when it was generally considered that people, especially women should put others first and that to care for oneself was selfish and actively discouraged. Hence, when it was first suggested that self-care was an important element in ageing joyously, they had some difficulty accepting that it was okay to self-care, let alone to love self!

Part one of this article described how many of the writers for the book, ‘The Joy of Ageing, Esoterically’, came to a point in their lives where they became aware that the way they were living was in total disregard for their body. As shared in part 1, all writers made the choice to be more self-caring and loving with their bodies – to be open to looking at the way they were living and willing to give new things a go to learn more about what worked for them and what didn’t. But how did they actually go about making changes? Where to start?