A dynamic and inspiring exploration of the new science that is redrawing the future for people in their forties, fifties, and sixties for the better—and for good. There’s no such thing as an inevitable midlife crisis, Barbara Bradley Hagerty writes in this provocative, hopeful book. It’s a myth, an illusion. New scientific research explodes the fable that midlife is a time when things start to go downhill for everybody. In fact, midlife can be a great new adventure, when you can embrace fresh possibilities, purposes, and pleasures. In Life Reimagined, Hagerty explains that midlife is about renewal: It’s the time to renegotiate your purpose, refocus your relationships, and transform the way you think about the world and yourself. Drawing from emerging information in neurology, psychology, biology, genetics, and sociology—as well as her own story of midlife transformation—Hagerty redraws the map for people in midlife and plots a new course forward in understanding our health, our relationships, even our futures.
Why Do We Act Like There Is An Age Restriction on Spiritual Growth? For the last several decades, Western churches have focused the bulk of their resources on the early stages of discipleship—children’s Sunday school, youth group, college ministry. While these are all important, we have neglected the spiritual growth of those in the second half of life. In fact, an outside observer might think that after the growth of the college years, the goal is simply to coast through the rest of your Christian life. Michelle Van Loon has a different idea. In Becoming Sage, she challenges those in midlife and beyond to continue pursuing radical spiritual growth, and she’ll help you get started. She explores what the unique challenges of midlife can teach us about Jesus and how to think about everything from church, friends, and family, to money, bodies, and meaning. Don’t settle for a life of coasting. Revitalize your spiritual growth today.
Exploring our full potential is an ongoing process that takes place throughout our entire lives. Yet even though we know this truth deep inside, sometimes we use age or our current responsibilities as an excuse to stay in our comfort zones, even though deep down we’re miserable. By changing our mindset, clarifying our purpose, and focusing on what we can do instead of what we can’t, we can become empowered to courageously move toward our dream life and achieving our potential, one step at a time. ------ In this self-help book about mid-life management, Scott Papek shares his personal and professional experiences and real-life stories to guide mid-lifers through a simple self-discovery process that shares introspective questions, details the four pillars of CARE, and explores mental skill strategies that open the heart and strengthen the mindset to embrace all the possibilities, no matter the age. Through his roadmap, mid-lifers will learn how to be comfortable in the uncomfortable, discover the importance of identifying strengths and core values, set appropriate, realistic goals, incorporate positive self-talk into every action every day, and overcome fear and distractions.
In A Time to Seek, Susan Pohlman invites the reader on a spiritual journey through Florence, Italy, then westward along the coast of the Italian Riviera, and, finally, to Rome. As the journey through Italy unfolds, Pohlman shares how travel moments can be used as opportunities for contemplation and spiritual growth. Various settings stir feelings and issues that speak to the concerns and hidden fears of everyday women providing comfort and assurance to the reader that she is not alone. A climb to the top of the Duomo in Florence inspires a discussion on faith, the expansive view from the Piazza di Michelangelo broadens perspective, helping her daughter settle into an apartment for a semester abroad raises fears about letting go, and trips on the train become metaphors for life's journeys. A return to the beautiful coastal village of Nervi, the setting of her first book, Halfway to Each Other, prompts deeper introspection about love, marriage and the passing of time. And finally, an evening tour of St. Peter's Basilica provides the insight to take all of the trip's lessons and make sense of them in a way that brings peace and a sense of excitement for the next chapter of life.
The bestselling author's inspiring autobiographical account of personal pain, spiritual awakening, and divine grace. "Inspiring. Sue Monk Kidd is a direct literary descendant of Carson McCullers."—Baltimore Sun "Grounded in personal experience and bolstered with classic spiritual disciplines and Scripture, this book offers an alternative to fast-fix spirituality."—Bookstore Journal Blending her own experiences with an intimate grasp of spirituality, Sue Monk Kidd relates the passionate and moving tale of her spiritual crisis, when life seemed to have lost meaning and her longing for a hasty escape from the pain yielded to a discipline of "active waiting." Full of wisdom, poise, and grace, Kidd’s words will encourage us along our spiritual journey, toward becoming who we truly are.
The midlife years are only the beginning - a transformational edit for your very best life. In 2019, Gail McNeill sold her cherished family home and moved to Portugal with just a few boxes of possessions. Soon after, the Covid pandemic enforced her isolation in a remote part of the world and sparked a cascade of introspection that led her to question every facet of her life, struggling to reconcile past choices with present reality. She started a journey of complete reinvention, from which she emerged physically, emotionally and spiritually transformed. Now better known to her hundreds of thousands of followers as @fiftysister, Gail shares her story of midlife metamorphosis to guide you step by step along your own path to reinvention. Showing that it's never too late to transform your life, The Midlife Edit will show you how to build a cocoon nourished by dietary, lifestyle and spiritual insights from which you can emerge transformed and re-energized, to make the absolute most of your middle years. Gail shows you how, by prioritizing self-care for just one year, you can unlock the secrets of health span, building strength and confidence for life, nourishing your body and your mind, and allowing you to enter this unique new phase of your life not diminished, but empowered. Let The Midlife Edit inspire you to invest in yourself, to imagine the life you truly desire - and to be seen, as you never have been before.
Science is factReligion is faithMagic is perceptionKnow these boundaries to discover what lies beyond.What is the Tao? Don't ask. The Tao cannot be described, yet a person will express it simply by being alive. It is possible to list definitions from the dictionary, from various documents. Each definition: a set of words, echoes of reality. A common mistake is to think of the Tao as a state of mind, hence it can be touched through words. Tao is a state of existence and nonexistence, it's mental, spiritual, and physical states all blending together. Living to Tao will never be summarized in the mathematics of word play. Poetry, philosophy, literature all offer only helpful guidance but never the actual Tao. A simple analogy would be swimming under the water. It's possible to read about snorkeling or diving, but until diving under the water, feeling the pressure, experience seeing undersea life, having lungs squeeze outside-in yet feeling inside-out from pushing down as deeply as you can dive, only to resurface to feel a sudden gasp of wet air... all in 60 seconds of a run on sentence: it's an idea approximated by a reader but only grasped by the experiencer. When this last line was read by a friend of mine, she said: but when you snorkel the pressure doesnt feel like that. Surprised, I asked her if she ever dove to about 25 feet while snorkeling, she said no, at which moment we both realized how personal the experience becomes due to differences in the path taken. This example touches why discovering the Tao is a personal living experience.Why learn the Tao? Knowing of the Tao technically should not change anything. But it does, it's the same difference as: knowing yourself really shouldn't change who you are. Yet it does. It's the difference between, being yourself or the reflection in the mirror. When the answer is we are both, more and less..... The Tao is every contradiction, every truth and each of the standard circular Yoda Yoga mystical answer...leaving us with holding flowing water in a single hand. Try to grasp it, and its gone, yet our hands are wet. So accept the fact, we are each a contradiction, this is the truth being described when these mystical answers are bantered about: using one impossible statement to prove another impossible statement. The key for writing and reading this document comes down to a single reason: Words are never about the Tao, words are always about us. Sometimes to understand ourselves, we need to write aloud a personal truth as its human nature and hence the Tao to do so. The point becomes this: the Tao, itself isn't a path -- the path is living. Being human, living includes the experience of expression and introspection through words and speaking out. This is about discovering personal truth and how to flow with oneself. Yet learning is always a process of sharing. Reflections in this document become one possible outline out of many to help myself be... myself, while giving others a chance to comment and add their own personal style to the overall document. This then becomes a circular process between, author, reader and everyone involved to help define and discover a personal Tao.So....Move, tumble, stumble, spin poetry, swirl, dance: all this is about the Tao and us.
Bestselling author of Geography of Bliss returns with this funny, illuminating chronicle of a globe-spanning spiritual quest to find a faith that fits. When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that. Weiner, a longtime "spiritual voyeur" and inveterate traveler, realizes that while he has been privy to a wide range of religious practices, he's never seriously considered these concepts in his own life. Face to face with his own mortality, and spurred on by the question of what spiritual principles to impart to his young daughter, he decides to correct this omission, undertaking a worldwide exploration of religions and hoping to come, if he can, to a personal understanding of the divine. The journey that results is rich in insight, humor, and heart. Willing to do anything to better understand faith, and to find the god or gods that speak to him, he travels to Nepal, where he meditates with Tibetan lamas and a guy named Wayne. He sojourns to Turkey, where he whirls (not so well, as it turns out) with Sufi dervishes. He heads to China, where he attempts to unblock his chi; to Israel, where he studies Kabbalah, sans Madonna; and to Las Vegas, where he has a close encounter with Raelians (followers of the world's largest UFO-based religion). At each stop along the way, Weiner tackles our most pressing spiritual questions: Where do we come from? What happens when we die? How should we live our lives? Where do all the missing socks go? With his trademark wit and warmth, he leaves no stone unturned. At a time when more Americans than ever are choosing a new faith, and when spiritual questions loom large in the modern age, Man Seeks God presents a perspective on religion that is sure to delight, inspire, and entertain.
The fifth edition of this authoritative text continues to provide expert guidance for counseling professionals working with adults who are coping with individual, relationship, and work transitions. Abundantly updated with new literature and resources, the book examines the most pressing life transition issues facing today's adults. It incorporates new and emerging theories and culturally sensitive strategies for counseling diverse clients, along with new case studies providing examples and practical applications. The fifth edition sheds light on the particular challenges of populations who may feel disempowered and marginalized, allowing for a deeper understanding of transition theory. Key themes include enhancing resilience and coping, illuminated by updated literature and discussion of applications of Schlossberg's theory and 4 S model--a model that offers effective techniques to understand and successfully navigate life transitions. Also addressed are the roles of hope, optimism, and mattering. The text deepens the discussion of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and social justice, along with intersectionality regarding multiple identities as diverse individuals and their families navigate life transitions. It also highlights the role of escalating changes in the current global, political and socio-cultural landscape. Purchase includes digital access for use on most mobile devices or computers. New to the Fifth Edition: Focuses on the increasing importance of helping adults navigate transitions Integrates Schlossberg's unique transition model with both classic and emerging theories to guide adults in transition Discusses sociocultural and contextual factors in shaping the coping process Presents culturally sensitive strategies and interventions Emphasizes social justice concerns and advocacy on behalf of underrepresented populations Delivers rich and diverse case studies focused on transition issues Includes updated learning activities and exercises to enhance understanding
