With a longer life expectancy than humans have ever experienced before, retirement today is about much more than money. But a challenge we face during this transition is living in a culture that worships youth and disparages the elder.
That is part of the reason why there has been little guidance for those of us preparing for the next chapter of life. In today’s episode, Connie Zweig, Ph.D., explains why this stage of life is unprecedented in human history — and how we can shift our mindset to reimagine how we want to live.
Connie is a retired therapist and author. Her new book, The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, extends shadow-work into late life and teaches aging as a spiritual practice. She joins me to examine the unconscious into midlife and beyond.
We discussed:
- Why typical coping methods for a midlife crisis don’t apply to retirement
- How the unconscious impacts the way we experience big life transitions
- The importance of ritualizing your retirement as a right of passage
- Why baby boomers are experiencing a new and unknown stage of life
- The effects of internalized ageism that we carry with us through our lifespan
- How to avoid bringing external and internal noise into our relationships.
