GLOBAL

The dawn of Conscious-Aging is a rather new concept that has developed in parallel to the longevity revolution of the last century. The fruits of gathering wisdom in the second half of life is still unknown for most people, it requires a movement of purpose, connection and transformation.

Leading this movement is an organization I admire, have studied with and am continuing to collaborate and grow with- Sage-ing® International. Sage-ing International is a conscious aging nonprofit dedicated to transforming the current limited view of “age-ing” to a more expansive view of aging as a time for “sage-ing,” promoting life-long learning, building communities of conscious elders, encouraging social activism and service and the leaving of spiritual legacies. Sage-ing International founder and guiding spirit, Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi, offered a new way of seeing one's second half of life, based on an integration of a wide range of tools and practices emanating from wisdom traditions of various cultures and views of life.

His epic book “From Age-ing to Sage-ing” is a "must" read for all those whose heart, soul and body seek the harvesting of wisdom of aging in life.

Logotherapy is a philosophy of living developed by Prof. Viktor Frankl as early as the 1930’s in Austria, which spoke of our greatest motivation in life- the “Will to Meaning.” Amidst the suffering and losses he endured in the concentration camps of the Holocaust, amidst the most extreme conditions imaginable, Frankl validated logotherapy and quoted Nietzsche:  "He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How." Frankl believed that suffering, in and of itself, is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it.

Logotherapy believes in the uniqueness of every person, each of us is irreplaceable, every moment and every situation are meaningful to us, in a way that is unique to us only. Our freedom elicits our responsibility- i.e., our ability to respond. We as individuals have the ability to transcend ourselves, by focusing on the meaningful tasks before us, or the needs of another person.

I believe that our world sorely needs both these messages: the need for us to evolve to becoming “elders” in our older years and to do this by cultivating meaning in our lives, for our own benefit and for the world around us.

It is my hope to be able to contribute to a global network that can promote this spirit and action wherever it is needed throughout our world.