"Drawing on in-depth interviews with older people, Elizabeth MacKinlay, develops an understanding of spirituality that enables the reader to explore the spiritual dimension of ageing and to learn how it contributes to well being and health in later life. This book will be a useful text for students, trainers and academics, policy makers and practitioners in health and social care, as well as religious professionals, in hospital, residential and other caring settings."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Explore the spiritual dimensions of aging through science, theory, and practice! During the later years of life, many people devote energy to a process of spiritual awakening and self-discovery. Yet their family, friends, clergy, and the helping professionals who work with them are not always prepared to understand or deal with the spiritual concerns of their clients. Aging and Spirituality provides a unique, far-reaching overview of this long-neglected field. Divided into four independent but interwoven sections, this landmark book covers the spiritual realm with scientific rigor and deep human understanding. Aging and Spirituality comprehensively surveys the issues of spirituality, from the groundwork of basic definitions to detailed assessments of the role spirituality plays in the lives of the elderly and suggested directions for further research. This book's unique approach combines scholarly research and practical nuts-and-bolts suggestions for service delivery. By drawing from many disciplines and professions, it offers fresh perspectives to even those practitioners already familiar with the most effective spiritual techniques their own field can offer. Aging and Spirituality answers such common questions as: What are the spiritual needs of people later in life? Is there any solid evidence that prayer changes things? How is spirituality related to physical and mental health? Does spirituality matter when people know they are dying? How can we measure spiritual wellness and assess the outcomes of activities intended to enhance it? Will attention to spirituality aggravate or alleviate the losses--of friends, family, health, youth--that so often occur during old age? Aging and Spirituality provides a much-needed resource for health care professionals, clergy, social workers, and counselors working with geriatric clients. By integrating spiritual issues into the theoretical framework of social gerontology, Aging and Spirituality will help you understand the scientific foundations, practical applications, and public policy implications of spirituality for older adults.
Spiritual Growth and Care in the Fourth Age of Life explores the spiritual dimension of ageing and investigates the role of pastoral and spiritual care in helping the frail elderly cope with end-of-life issues. Focusing on the experience of nursing home residents and anecdotes gathered in interviews, MacKinlay sensitively presents the struggles facing older people in need of care, such as loss of independence and privacy. Her findings show that despite ill health, loneliness and depression, older people near the end of their lives find meaning and support in (re)discovering their spirituality, and that this is not just the experience of those in care facilities, but of older people more generally. The book includes a useful chapter on spiritual assessment, providing carers with information on how to recognise the need for care. This book will be of interest to nurses, care workers, pastoral support professionals and anyone else working with older people.
Offers a Buddhist perspective on aging well, with anecdotes of the author's experiences with illness, aging, and transformation, and guided meditations.
Bianchi's wide-ranging book draws together insights from the social sciences, the humanities, and religion to establish a holistic framework for a spirituality of aging. He argues that middle life and late adulthood present opportunities for turning inward for a deeper contemplative life within the context of active, worldly endeavors. This can also augur a reform of social relationships--beyond individual development alone--toward the creation of a more cooperative, just society. In this way, physical decline is countered by a spiritual ascent. He summons aging persons, fortified with universal values and concerns gained from age and experience, to return to the centers of decision making. Throughout, the author ponders such questions as personal power, identity, fear, freedom, contemplation, sexuality, the church, faith, suffering, and hope. In candid interviews, older religious leaders reflect on their early value formation, personal traumas, choice of careers, midlife transitions, experiences of old age, and the prospect of death. In dwelling mainly on human spiritual dilemmas of the aging cycle, Bianchi offers a strong, clear message of hope--one that stands against the tide of our culture which tends to shunt older people to the outer eddies of life's stream. Aging as a Spiritual Journey is immensely valuable to all laypersons and those in the helping professions who are concerned about the quality of the aging process.
“Ancient Wisdom and the Measure of Our Days is a treasure. Brancato provides his readers with the opportunity to reflect on the universal process of aging while in the company of sages from around the world. It is a loving and gentle text that all will find comfort in.” –Melinda Plastas, Ph.D., Bates College “This gem is long overdue and we thank Dr. Brancato for his gift.” —Rabbi Harry Sky, author of My Journey and Give me 2 Minutes of Your Time “The further I ventured into Brancato’s book, the more convinced I became that I will read it over and over again, learning something new each time.” —Kali Lightfoot, Executive Director of the National Resource Center for Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes The longer we live, the more likely we are to experience great losses in life such as the death of a partner, family member or friend, and the inevitable diminishment of our physical and mental functions. Combining 50 years of ongoing study of world religions with his own experiences of aging, Dr. Brancato relates the world views of sages and saints to the realities of change as we age: our shifting personal identities, the quandaries of how to live in unanticipated circumstances, and the incomprehensible nature of the Infinite. This significant, thought-provoking book offers counsel, solace and advice to those facing retirement, aging and loss. It is to be read slowly, reflected upon and read again.
Discover Your Unique Gift "Creative aging is a choice.... If we remember that transition always begins with endings, moves on to a wilderness period of testing and trying, and only then do we reach the beginning of something new, then we can embrace this encore period of life with hope and curiosity, remembering always that it is our true nature to be creative, to be always birthing new ways of sharing our planet together." --from the Epilogue In a practical and useful way, Marjory Zoet Bankson explores the spiritual dimensions of retirement and aging. She offers creative ways for you to share your gifts and experience, particularly when retirement leaves you questioning who you are when you are no longer defined by your career. Drawing on stories of people who have reinvented their lives in their older years, Bankson explores the issues you need to address as you move into this generative period of life: Release Letting go of the vocational identity associated with your career or primary work Resistance Feeling stuck, stagnant, resisting change Reclaiming Drawing energy from the past, discovering unused gifts Revelation Forming a new vision of the future Crossing Point Moving from stagnation to generativity Risk Stepping out into the world with new hope Relating Finding or creating new structures for a new kind of work
What does it mean to grow old? What makes later life meaningful? What gives a frail and isolated or institutionalised older person their sense of wholeness and self? This substantially updated new edition of Elizabeth MacKinlay's seminal text presents the latest theory and research to explore these questions in depth, pointing the way towards new ways of thinking about and engaging with the spirituality of ageing. Encompassing the findings of a new research study on baby boomer spirituality, the book presents a wider and more comprehensive view of ageing and spirituality, concluding that spirituality for the baby boomer generation is every bit as important as for the cohorts before them, but also fundamentally different, with fewer being practicing members of a religious faith. Drawing on in-depth interviews with older people, and containing many new ideas whilst also addressing the foundational theories and questions essential to scholarship in this field, the book also includes a new and timely chapter on the spirituality of older people in our increasingly multicultural and multifaith societies. This clear and practical text presents much-needed guidance for health and social care practitioners, chaplains, clergy and others seeking to identify and support the spiritual needs of older people, as well as students and researchers in related disciplines.
• Award Winner in the Health: Aging/50+ category of the 2021 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest • Award Winner in Non-Fiction: Aging and Gerontology category of the 2021 Best Indie Book Award • Offers shadow-work and many diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, and allow mortality to be a teacher • Reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life • Includes personal interviews with prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Fr. Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof With extended longevity comes the opportunity for extended personal growth and spiritual development. You now have the chance to become an Elder, to leave behind past roles, shift from work in the outer world to inner work with the soul, and become authentically who you are. This book is a guide to help get past the inner obstacles and embrace the hidden spiritual gifts of age. Offering a radical reimagining of age for all generations, psychotherapist and bestselling author Connie Zweig reveals how to use inner work to uncover and explore the unconscious denial and resistance that erupts around key thresholds of later life, attune to your soul’s longing, and emerge renewed as an Elder filled with vitality and purpose. She explores the obstacles encountered in the transition to wise Elder and offers psychological shadow-work and diverse spiritual practices to help you break through denial to awareness, move from self-rejection to self-acceptance, repair the past to be fully present, reclaim your creativity, and allow mortality to be a teacher. Sharing contemplative practices for selfreflection, she also reveals how to discover ways to share your talents and wisdom to become a force for change in the lives of others. Woven throughout with wisdom from prominent Elders, including Ken Wilber, Krishna Das, Father Thomas Keating, Anna Douglas, James Hollis, Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Ashton Applewhite, Roshi Wendy Egyoku Nakao, Roger Walsh, and Stanislav Grof, this book offers tools and guidance to help you let go of past roles, expand your identity, deepen self-knowledge, and move through these life passages to a new stage of awareness, choosing to be fully real, transparent, and free to embrace a fulfilling late life.
Presents the results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life.
