Inner Work of Age

Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired psychotherapist, former executive editor at Jeremy P. Tarcher Publishing, former columnist for Esquire magazine, and contributor to the LA Times. Known as the Shadow Expert, she is the coauthor of Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow and author of Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality and a novel, A Moth to the Flame: The Life of the Sufi Poet Rumi. She lives in California.

“As Connie Zweig points out in her deep and comprehensive book, it isn’t easy to age well when a human life is seen as a problem to be solved. In this time of rapid change, we need more of an inner experience. This valuable book will help you sort out what is important in life from what is a distraction. Getting old is a challenge, but it can be a joy.”

• FOREWORD Meeting the Shadow of Age by Harry R. Moody, Ph.D. PROLOGUE A Letter to My Fellow Travelers in Late Life INTRODUCTION Age Is Our Curriculum PART 1 The Divine Messengers 1 Aging from the Inside Out The Buddha’s Divine MessengersRites of Passage What Is “Old?” Telling the Whole Truth When Do We Become “Old”? Aging as Fate2 The Three Portals of Age Shadow Awareness: Portal to Depth Pure Awareness: Portal to Silent Vastness An Interview with Rabbi Rami Shapiro An Interview with Kirtan Chant Leader Krishna Das Mortality Awareness: Portal to Presence 3 Meeting Ageism from the Inside Out and the Outside In Meeting Your Inner Ageist: From the Inside OutThe Dramatic Consequences of the Inner Ageist Meeting the Collective Shadow of Ageism: From the Outside InAn Interview with Ageism Crusader Ashton Applewhite 4 Retirement as a Divine Messenger To Retire or Not to Retire? Retirement from the Outside InRetirement as Reinvention: Encore CareersShadow-Work for Retirement: From the Inside OutRetirement from Clinical Practice: My Story as a Helping Professional Retirement as Spiritual Practice: From Role to Soul5 Life-Changing Illness as a Divine MessengerFrom Terrible Wound to Sacred WoundClosing the Mind/Body SplitIllness of the Body: Cancer as an Answer Shadow-Work for Illness: From the Inside Out Caregiving from the Inside OutIllness of the Mind: Depression or Disillusionment Illness of the Brain: Memory Loss as Epidemic Delaying Memory Loss and Enhancing PlasticityAn Interview with Buddhist Psychologist Rick HansonIllness as Spiritual Practice: From Role to Soul PART 2 Life Review and Life Repair6 A Review of Your Lived and Unlived LifePhysician Rachel Naomi Remen on Seeing Her Life with New Eyes The Ego’s Life Review: What Was Expressed The Shadow’s Life Review: What Was RepressedAn Interview with Father Thomas Keating, Founder of Centering Prayer7 Emotional and Creative Repair to Release the Past and Live in the Present Emotional Repair: Reinventing Relationships from Role to SoulAn Interview with Jungian Analyst James HollisAn Interview with Psychiatrist Roger WalshLost Creativity Found: The Gold in the Dark Side 8 Spiritual Repair to Reimagine Our Beliefs and Reclaim Our Practices Shadow-Work for Spiritual Disillusionment Spiritual Work: Reclaiming Our Practices PART 3 From Hero to Elder 9 Elder with a Thousand Faces What Is an Elder? Becoming an Elder: A Rite of PassageAn Interview with Ron Pevny, Founder of the Center for Conscious ElderingLetting Go: Inner Work for Resistant Heroes Meeting the Inner Elder: An Initiation New Beginnings: Reimagining the Elder from the Inside Out An Interview with Mythologist and Storyteller Michael MeadeAn Interview with Poet, Novelist, Activist Deena Metzger An Interview with Jungian Analyst Lionel Corbett Honoring One of My Elders: Jungian Analyst Marion Woodman 10 Elder Wisdom and the Call to Age into Awakening The Final Divine Messenger: The Monk’s Call to Awaken Awakening into Higher Stages of Awareness What Is Wisdom? Transmitting Wisdom to Future Generations An Interview with Integral Philosopher Ken WilberAn Interview with Mystic Robert Atchley An Interview with Buddhist Teacher Anna Douglas 11 Elder Activism and the Call to Serve Something Larger than Ourselves The Call to Sacred Service and Elder Activism The Shadow Side of Service Heeding the Call or Denying the Call: Inner Work for Resistant EldersAn Interview with John Sorensen, Founder of Elders Action Network An Interview with Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Former Abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles Conscious Grandparenting: Caring for the Souls of Our Young OnesClimate Change: Collective Mortality AwarenessPART 4 Life Completion 12 Moving toward a Completed Life An Interview with Altered States Pioneer Stanislav Grof An Interview with Transpersonal Psychologist Frances Vaughan 13 Reimagining Death as the Last RiteThe Shadow Knows: Its Secret Preparation for the End An Interview with Spiritual Teacher Mirabai Bush, Coauthor with Ram Dass EPILOGUE A Legacy Letter to the Grandchildren Acknowledgments APPENDIX AShadow-Work Handbook for Aging Consciously Bibliography Index