THE PHYSICS OF ELDERING
THE PHYSICS OF ELDERING
Physics
1. the science that deals with matter, energy, motion, and force.
2. the physical processes and phenomena of a particular system.
3. the physical properties and composition of something.
4. the scientific study of forces such as heat, light, sound, pressure, gravity, and electricity and how they affect objects.
5. the existential Contemporary Elder model applied to human beings as the basis of their thinking and behavior in aging.
Imagine your being is the fulcrum. A fulcrum is a support about which a lever pivots. The lever, in this model, is how you think and act in your life – life as lived.
The weight or force on the lever's opposite sides determines the lever's position. The lever can move in all directions – North, South, East, West, and up or down.
In our Western culture, most people concentrate exclusively on the Outer Horizon. This emphasis is often carried throughout life. However, when attention only remains on the Outer Horizon, it becomes problematic when sustained beyond late middle age and into late age.
Getting the balance between the Outer Horizon and the Inner Horizon is a difficult challenge for the middle and late-aged. Since birth, Westerners have been indoctrinated and propagandized to unceasingly plow straight ahead toward the Outer Horizon.
Reaching the shores of the Outer Horizon turns into an all-encompassing unquestioned intention. Getting to these shores of the Outer Horizon becomes the premier driving force, shaping who you are and how you relate to others.
Until late middle age, material goals persistently charge you toward the Outer Horizon—career, money, stature, ego-validation. The unquestioned and unexamined belief is when you finally reach these shores, serenity, comfort, recreation, and freedom would be waiting for you.
But now, in late middle age, just coming onshore of the Outer Horizon, you realize it will never give you what you thought it would. At that moment the myth has been pierced. The illusion discredited. The expectation dashed. The long-held belief debunked.
The signs had been everywhere, but you failed to pay attention. That feeling of finding work repetitive with some drama in between, requiring more and more of your energy. Seeing that the quality of your life was not really improved; in fact, it had gotten somewhat stale, a tinge more oppressive and dispiriting.
You also notice, but won’t admit, it’s been a ‘drip by drip’ experience with your decreasing physical and mental capacities. Effort increasing. Focus decreasing. Energy diminishing. Satisfaction slowly evaporating. Self-worth diminishing.
You’ve not paid attention to those blinking indicators on your dashboard as you stubbornly head toward the Outer Horizon. Your engine light has been flashing. Words now appear on the dash. Add weight to the Inner Horizon box on the other end of the lever. It’s also telling you to eliminate some achievement weights from the Outer Horizon box.
If left unchanged, the likelihood of the dial going into the red will go up significantly.
Time to stop at the right mechanic shop and start uploading self-understanding, self-knowledge, and higher wisdom into your Inner Horizon. Time to fill the Inner Horizon's Box with consciousness-raising weights.
Nevertheless, most will fail to redirect themselves to that Inner Horizon so as to get equal weight on the level. Instead, they’ll keep adding weight to the Outward Horizon box, which is already pretty full. In many ways, it has become an addiction, a compulsion, a dependency. As with all addictions, this addiction has serious consequences.
That's the science. That's not the problem. The problem is that late-agers feel they have to keep on performing to be valuable. And they won't admit they are getting too old to perform—a classic vicious cycle.
One wonderful gift of being an elder, you know it’s all a performance. Elders know the difference between being the audience and being the actor. Elders appreciate the performance, but they know the difference between playing Hamlet and being Hamlet.
For an elder, the Inner horizon delivers much greater satisfaction, peace, and joy than the Outer Horizon. Self-knowledge is now far more rewarding than business knowledge. Core values have a more profound and sacred meaning. The past, your identity, your image, your whole ‘schmear’ leaves you alone.
Elders realize that being in life from a much larger and more profound inner perspective is far more entertaining than any performance. They know it is the ultimate Divine Comedy. As an elder, you finally discover you're the best show in town.
Elders spend their time on this end of the level because it’s got the most ROI for them as they age.
THE CONTEMPORARY ELDER MAY RETREAT
The Contemporary Elder Retreat is open for enrollment. Unfortunately, we have only 15 seats available. Room and board availability at Red Mountain Resort is limited due to demand.
Room and board are fully covered in your tuition at this four-star resort.
All classroom materials, park entrance fees, and yoga gear are covered by your tuition.
The tuition is $5,500 per person. A $1,000 deposit is required.
The curriculum includes pre and post-monthly group conference calls, individual 30-minute calls, pre-program homework – TED videos and the like, and one audiobook a month.
If you want to understand aging at an entirely different level, learn what's next post-career, and be with people in the same boat as you in their aging and issues, if you feel that elder is a path for you, please consider our May retreat.
If you're eligible, we promise that by the end of the retreat, you will be an elder and operate as an elder in your life. www.requestingwisdom.com/retreat
Stephen is one of my most valuable teachers. This is higher wisdom speaking.
