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As I evolve and live A-W-I-L (A Well-Integrated Life), I see my 70s as a NEW adolescence.

The 70s are a period of transition in the 100+ year life. It is a disruptive and uncertain period of change.

This NEW adolescence is the growth spurt from  a life dominated by physical to a predominantly spiritual life.

This is the shift from body to mind, ultimately to individuation, aka self-actualization.

As in our teens, our bodies are changing in ways we don’t fully understand or accept. We learned this is a period of decline and loss. We learned to resist the process, thus the term ANTI-aging. Aging is not to be reversed or resisted any more than maturing in puberty should be resisted or reversed.

We are modeling what we witnessed in previous generations. This is why so many of my peers reject the idea of the 100+ year life.

In my TED X talk, “Stop Trying, Start Living”, I remarked when I asked my peers what they would do differently today if they knew with certainty they would live to 100+? The vast majority SPAT, “I don’t want to live to 100!”. I knew that was a problem I wanted to work on with my platform, Graceing Agefully™.

The image of the diapered, drooling (non-binary) eunuch in a wheelchair, was inevitably followed by the fear of being unable to afford living that long.

All of these thoughts and fears are the bi-product of minds cluttered with the detritus of the past.

On the surface it manifests as hoarding, in the extreme. Most of us in our 70s are not hoarders, but we are overly attached and desperately clinging to youth, whether in memories, in desperate physical pursuit of a youthful, fit body or futile attempts to mutilate our faces with plastic surgery.

In our teens, hormones were wreaking havoc on our impressionable minds while uncontrollably transforming our bodies with breasts and bleeding for girls and irresistible sexual urges for boys (and girls) typically unsatisfied in ways we wanted.

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, when those of us in our 70s were adolescents, there was still a moral hangover from the Victorians which imbued our thoughts with guilt. We learned these changes would lead to trouble if we let them! That’s a well-designed program for future fear of aging. We learned to resist the natural course of aging.

Fast forward to your 70’s. You arrive fully loaded with baggage from youth. Your mind is where the de-cluttering MUST be done first.

Feng Shui approaches this from the outside in. Living A-W-I-L approaches it from the inside out. If we don’t de-clutter our minds, our basements, closets and desks will simply accumulate clutter again.

The NEW adolescence is a period of transition from primarily physical to primarily spiritual. If we don’t let go of our attachment to physical youth, we will see the future through a dark lens of decline and loss. It’s time to clear out limiting beliefs about “getting old” and make space to attract dreams in the second half.  This is the new adolescence.

Life in the second half is a time of opportunity to thrive and self-actualize more than our youth ever was.

Letting go of judgment is paramount in the process.

Here’s a twist, when we judge anything, we plant our flag on high moral ground. There is no such thing.  Do you ever hear yourself saying “I would never do that!”? If so, you have elevated yourself to an artificial level of superiority characteristic of the NEW adolescent (kind of like when you thought you knew more than your parents at 13…).

The hard truth is you are no better than anyone. The good news is no one is better than you either! You are you, unique and perfect in every way. So is the person you just judged, yes, that includes Donald Trump, sorry :-0!!!

If you can embrace this idea, you are on the path to peace and self-actualization in the second half.

If I make it sound easy, it’s not, but it is FREEING. The goal in the second half is to thrive on your terms. The biggest obstacle is YOU.

Forget about fortune, a perfect physical body, a face lifted to the skies, or fame. Inner peace comes to you when you stop judging and comparing yourself to others and see the world through the lens of love.

This is Graceing Agefully™, with LOVE, Jennifer