Here is a survey about YOUR future when you get older: How do you see the second half of life?
Please go to https://de.surveymonkey.com/r/8NZQ3XV
OUR FIRST COMMUNITY LIVE CONVERSATION – about AGEING
Hear our presentation at the INTEGRAL EUROPEAN CONFERENCE in Hungary,
May 6th, 2016
We were pleased and grateful to witness a lively interest in the topic.
You are invited to join the discussion by filling in the survey above and by joining our Facebook Group http://bit.ly/integralageing
Hear our pre-conference talk about what we will be talking about on May 6th, 2016 in Siofok/Hungary.
Ulrike Hofmann-Schüll: Älter werden
SEASON 6 EPISODE 3
September 2019
Ich werde gerne älter – mit Ulrike Hofmann Schüll
HEIDI´S INTRO
Ich werde gerne älter?
Als Kinder wollten wir immer so schnell wie möglich älter werden. Das Gute schien immer in der Zukunft zu liegen: “wenn ich groß bin, dann…”. Für die meisten Menschen ändert sich das,
wenn sie 30 werden, spätestens dann mit 40. Dann beginnen sie, sich Fragen zu stellen über den Sinn dessen, was sie gerade tun, ob sie nicht lieber doch etwas anderes hätten tun sollen, wie si die Zeit besser nutzen könnten usw. Denn die Zeit scheint sich zu verändern. Plötzlich ist sie nicht mehr unbegrenzt, und manchmal beschleicht uns schon da die Ahnung, das wir vielleicht nicht ewig so weiterleben könnten wie bisher. “Midlifecrisis” wird das genannt, wie eine Krankheit, die schon wieder vorüber gehen wird.
Aber von da möchten die meisten Menschen nicht mehr älter werden. Wir Frauen beginnen die Haare zu färben und die Kosmetikindustrie zu fördern, weil uns versprochen wird, dass wir keine Falten im Gesicht bekommen, wenn wir nur genug von all den Cremchens kaufen. Jung bleiben um jeden Presi, oder zumindest jung aussehen – und das ist ja nicht unbedingt dasselbe.
Ulrike Hofman-Schöll, der Gast im Interview dieser Woche hat beides verwirklicht: sie sieht jung aus und sie ist es auch, trotz ihres Geburtsdatums. Sie wollte immer älter werden, als Kind, in der Mitte des Lebens und jetzt. Oder man kann auch sagen, dass sie die Gaben des Älterwerdens in jedem Alter geschätzt hat und noch schätzt. Sie hatte ihr Leben lang einen offenen und kreativen Mind, sie konnte Körper, Geist und Seele gut in Verbindung halten und sie ist beständig neugierig darauf, was Ihr das Leben sonst noch bringen wird.
Ulrike ist eine gute Inspiration für alle, die dem Älterwerden und dem Alter eher skeptisch gegenüber stehen. In unserem Gespräch erzählt sie, wie sie immer neue Begabungen und Fähigkeiten entdeckt und ausgebaut hat, wie auch ihr “Rezept”, dem Älterwerden furchtlos in die Augen zu blicken. Viel Spass beim Zuhören.
ÜBER ULRIKE HOFMANN-SCHÜLL
Ulrike war bereits in der Wisdom Factory vertreten mit einem Gespräch auf Englisch, über das Leben als kreativem Prozess. Besuche diese Seite, um mehr von über sie und ihre Arbeit zu erfahren.
AUTHOR RESOURCES
Ulrike’s Webseite www.tiger-gold.de
Structures for the third half of life in the US with Bonnie Vallette
SEASON 6 EPISODE
September 11th 2019
Structures for the third half of life in the US with Bonnie Vallette
HEIDI´S INTRO
When we are young, we are not very interested in thinking about old age and how we will be able to live then. We postpone the topic until we are getting nearer and nearer and the thoughts appear: what can I do when…? Who will take care of me, if I can’t do anymore xyz? And when we enter into retirement, we are confronted with the reality that the money we get as a pension probably won’t take us very far.
Unless we had a really good job and paid a lot into the pension fonds, we will realise that it is difficult to keep up the usual life style. Old people living near poverty has become almost normal in the last few decades, and it will get even more “normal” for future generations who live in total insecurity regarding jobs and social security already. Who will take care fo the old people who have no family able to take care for them?
The question is answered differently in the different countries of the world. The lack of funding seems to be an all pervasive phenomenon. Old people are no investment, in a capitalist society they are worthless and left to the compassion of private people and, yes, the churches. Thanks God we haven’t demolished them yet, totally, by means of the increasing atheism in the world. They have an important function and we better recognise that in time!
Our guest this week, Bonnie Vallette, got interested in the topic eldercare long before she reached the interested age herself. She is very active in trying to create a better situation for the older population, at least in her community. In our conversation she explains how the systems work in the US, especially in her area, and what she is doing and initiating to better the life of those who, at the end of their life times, are unable to fight for themselves. If you have questions how you can collaborate, or just, where to go when you have specific problems, do contact Bonnie:email: BMLVallette@netscape.net Phone: 1.614.226.7247.
ABOUT BONNIE VALLETTE
Bonnie Vallette is a generalist, weaver, and networker. She brings people and ideas together in new ways – using concepts like disagreeing in love and polarity management, in community building and igniting culture change, and by utilizing skills learned in Eldercare (Person-Centered, Hospice, and Trauma-Informed Care) and the Authentic Relating and Integral movements, all to help facilitate and deepen difficult discussions with an eye toward win-win resolutions. Discovering Spiral Dynamics gave her a map to hold diverse interests and lean into her gifts in new ways. Underpinning all Bonnie’s efforts are a lust for life-long learning, body- and breath-work, and daily meditation.
Bonnie has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from The Ohio State University. She has worked in retail, business banking, as a church administrator, nonprofit fund development, and in Eldercare. Bonnie received her Level One SDi certification from Don Beck in Texas (Spring 2018), and Level Two SDi certification from Rica Viljoen in South Africa (Summer 2019).
Heidi and Mark with Ashton Applewhite, leading activist against ageism
Heidi in conversation with Rica Viljoen
Ann Roberts – an inquiry into elderhood
SEASON 6 EPISODE 1
September 4th 2019
Active Wisdom: An inquiry into elderhood
WITH ANN ROBERTS
After retirement – Ann calls it “refirement” – she went back to University. For her Masters in Applied Social Science she interviewed grandparents about the flow of love across the generations. The insight and learning she gained has led her to be actively engaged in an inquiry, with others, into Elderhood.
ACTIVE WISDOM is the term that applies to her work which aims to create a community of people who are curious about their Elderhood and wish to inquire this new stage in their lives.
HEIDI´S INTRO
We are kicking off season 6 of CONSCIOUS AGEING with Ann Roberts who already, 2 years ago, had inspired us with her life story and her work in ACTIVE WISDOM. Yes, once upon a time, old people were considered and appreciated for the wisdom they had gathered through their long life time. Today, their wisdom seems to be somehow unacknowledged or rejected by a hyper active youth culture. Young is good, old is bad. So instead of learning from other peoples’ experience and instead of learning from history, the wheel gets invented anew again and again and the same mistakes are made over and over.
If elders have no natural place of respect and appreciation in our societies, what to do? Our generation of Babyboomers is experienced in having new ideas and of not accepting societal norms which would put them into the corner of drawing back and be silent. If nobody asks us for our wisdom, we need to step up ourselves and offer it in an appropriate way. As elders, we can use this position to wisely offer our knowledge to the younger generations to give them the trusted help they may need to get oriented in a confusing world. Listening to them and gently guiding them would be the future task of elders who have developed themselves into mature human beings.
This time we are talking about her project of creating a network of people to inquire into elderhood. She starts with a couple of colleagues and offers a 3 months course, a place where people meet live on video and explore together important questions about elderhood. It is not about giving advice or selling solutions. It is about digging deep into the challenges and possibilities which arise when getting older.
ABOUT ANN ROBERTS
ABOUT ANN ROBERTS
After a 30 years career in organisational, team and personal development Ann ‘retired’ from Police Scotland in 2015 from her role as a Leadership Development Consultant.
As she prepared to leave, she realised there was more she wanted to achieve, and so the following September she undertook a Masters in Applied Social Research. She enjoyed the experience, particularly being with young people who helped her find her way in 21st Century academia.
At that time, Ann and her husband had three frail parents in their 90’s, adult children in their 20’s/30’s as well as a growing number of grandchildren. It was challenging time for Ann as she experienced the stretch that many of the baby boomer generation have in supporting different generation at the same time as well as her studies.
Ann’s research led her to the work of Mary Catherine Bateson who proposed a new stage in Erik Erikson’s adult psychosocial development model that she called “Active Wisdom”. This new stage sits between the Erikson’s original mid-life time of Generativity and that of Old Age. This new stage arises due to the healthy longevity that many of Ann’s generation now enjoy.
Mary Catherine describes the “virtue” of Active Wisdom as being about sharing insight gained from rich life experience, combined with new levels of experimenting, travel, study, and a refreshed interest in giving back to others. The “vulnerability” of this stage can be an attendant loss of identity that leads us to withdraw rather than whole-heartedly engage with new possibilities.
Finding this research was pivotal in helping Ann to understand this stage in her life and led to her passion to explore this concept in a new on-line programme called Active Wisdom: An Inquiry into Elderhood. Information on this new program can be found at http://bit.ly/AW4HOME
CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW FOR THE BOOKS RECOMMENDED BY Ann Roberts
Counscious Ageing and the IEC Conference in Hungary
BLOG – CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTER
Conscious Ageing and the IEC Conference in Hungary
HEIDI & MARK AT THE IEC CONFERENCE
It is today that the Integral European Conference (IEC) ends in Siofok at Lake Balaton in Hungary, and tomorrow the “Magical Tour” through Hungary starts which brings people to exquisite selected places and experiences in that country for three days.
It is a wonderful experience, the conference itself and the tour. People who meet there are different, the contents are different, the atmosphere is different than on every other conference or group event I have ever been so far. Mark and I went to Hungary every time since 2014, to be there and to bring our contributions.
In the last conference Mark (and I) spoke about “CONSCIOUS AGEING”.
WHAT WE DID AFTER THE LAST CONFERENCE
After the conference we started our broadcast series CONSCIOUS AGEING. We organized about 40 conversations about “Conscious Ageing” from many perspectives and, this time in Hungary we wanted to talk to you about this initiative, about who the participants were, what topics came up and how, overall, it went. We also wanted to extend the invitation to you to be our guest in the next season of broadcasts, planned for autumn 2018.
After 4+ weeks of hoping that we would be able to come to the conference, we decide that we cannot participate due to Mark’s state of health. The initial weakness and coughing has revealed itself as metastasising lung cancer.
We are now called to walk our talk, to make treasure of what we learned from our guests and to face the challenge in a conscious and 2nd tier way. So far we are good and we pray that we won’t lose our humour and love even if things proceed in a way which puts an end to our relationship as human beings on earth.
We would like to ask you to include us in your meditations and prayers and, if you see a possibility, to come and see us in Paradiso Integrale in Italy, live or via internet to stay in contact and exchange “knowledge, experience and wisdom” – the slogan of our Wisdom Factory events.
OUR GREETINGS TO HUNGARY FOR 2018
OUR TALK IN HUNGARY IN 2016
VISIT OUR OTHER WEBPAGES
Facilitating the growth of young leaders with Fred Jones
Fred Jones
When people get older they often feel distant to the younger generations and at the same time they perceive themselves as not really belonging to the “world” anymore, especially when they are retired and lack life purpose. Well, we know from psychology that our beliefs are constructed by ourselves – and therefore we can also change them and are not their helpless victim.
So, let’s try: You feel not connected to young people and you don’t have a compelling life purpose? Why not combining the two things for the benefit of everyone?
Fred Jones gives a perfect example of how you can do it: First get yourself together and become confident of your abilities – which you certainly have gathered during a long life time. And then educate yourself to speak and inspire with what you say. And when you are good in doing that get some young people together, your grand children, their friends, whoever you can reach and PLAY with them really useful role plays where they can practice their speaking skills, their ability to listen and give constructive feedback and finally to lead themselves their groups.
I hope you will get inspired by the conversation we had with Fred Jones to create something alike in your surrounding!
Unmasking Internalised Ageism with Susan Farling
An interesting conversation with Susan Farling about our tendency to see everything through the filter of age.
It is surprising how much we have internalised AGEISM, the discrimination by age, towards people of all ages. In the episode we talk especially about the older years of life and how older people themselves reinforce the stereotypes.
Please find the detailed list of topics we talked about here: https://thewisdomfactory.net/susan-farling/
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