About aging…

In recent times I have had very significant conversations with friends, family members, work partners about aging… as I approach 60 years and having people dear in this track has taken me to this place, recognizing what really matters in mine Life and how I want to live my last years as a healthy, independent and autonomous woman.

At the same time I appreciate these moments of reflection and exchanges, I also perceive anxiety, fear and an impulse to dodge or escape this theme. However, my practice as Act therapist allows me to understand that this is neither useful nor functional, that I need to talk and approach these feelings, as beautiful passengers of my current journey. According to Ana Claudia Quintana Arantes “We need to be able to talk about what scares us and what death means to us. This will make us people prepared to listen. ”

This week I read this post on Ana Claudia's Instagram (@anaclauquintanaarantes) and inspired me to write about this subject:

“Aging is how to learn to dance a new song every day. It's not a dance you already know, it's not that step you repeat with your eyes closed. It is a changing melody that invites you to start over, to adapt, to listen to what your body and soul are asking. With each dawn, life gives us a new chance to adjust the compass, to find a new rhythm. The aging process is not a straight line, but a journey that requires us to start over. What worked yesterday may not work today. What the body accepted yesterday may need more care and attention today. This dance requires patience and kindness with ourselves. Starting over is not weakness, but a demonstration of strength and wisdom. Every day we are called to listen carefully to what our body tells us, what our lives shows us, and what our emotion asks us. And in this daily start, we find the opportunity to live more lightly, adapting the step, but never stopping the dance. May we, with each new day, welcome this opportunity to start over, to move on with more awareness, more affection for ourselves. And that, in this process, we can find that aging is, in fact, learning to dance life in a new way, every day. ”

This dimension of living the now, which “it worked yesterday may not work today”, should be our daily practice, not only in old age. Living in mindfulness can be very liberating, but I admit that as you approach finitude it has had a greater weight for me, as time seems to have a new meaning. Today I am in a hurry to live in fullness, as if I could not lose any details, no feeling, no longer hugs, no smell of the person I love the most in the world, living every minute as if it were the last gives us this possibility of being whole In here-and-agora, because yes, we are not sure what tomorrow will be like… I wish I had this conscience years ago, so I share this subject here today. Perhaps for some sound like a depressive, but for me it is a breath of life, a share, almost as a warning or a request, enjoy with all the intensity of every important minute of your life, do not take long to understand who or what is important to you. Live in the fullness of your feelings, your 5 senses, your breath, for breathing symbolizes being alive, asking the question, "What is the most important thing I can do today?" Replace "I have to do" with "I choose to do". Make your daily choice about the time you want and how to invest in now and yours from now on.