Entering the Grove of Elders

“Your face is marked with lines of life, put there by love and laughter, suffering and tears.

It’s beautiful”

- Lynsay Sands

                     

I am entering another phase of my life; one in which I am embodying my life’s work more fully, putting words to my healing modality, and inviting others to experience what I have spent a lifetime creating.

In the book, Nature and the Human Soul, this phase is called The Grove of Elders. It is the phase of life in which we shift our focus and attention from doing more to being more; from innovating something new to stewarding our work in such a way that we care for the community and the Earth.

It took me a whole year to wrap my mind around my turning sixty and what that would mean. To some sixty sounds old. To others sixty sounds young.

To me, it is an exciting and potent phase of life in which I can embody my strengths, share my wisdom, and share my life’s work with others while I still have enough stamina and energy to fulfill my dreams and visions of saging rather than aging.

In The Grove of Elders, I am finding that I no longer want to work so hard trying to convince others of the importance of health in body, mind, and soul. I now want to focus on individuals who want to learn my work, be mentored, and become healthy and vital and whole human beings.

As a healer, I know we are all works of art in process and I am passionate about working with people who are actively engaged in creating a work of art out of their lives. I want to do less work for more outcomes. I want to teach more, train more, facilitate more, counsel others, and do less of the harder physical day to day, one on one, work that I enjoyed doing for years.

My body no longer can easily withstand the long physical hours of my daily Chiropractic work alone.  I still have good vision and good enough hearing, and good enough reflexes, but I can no longer run or jog for long. The days of doing anything physical for long hours are gone. I find that I enjoy more fully sitting on my front porch feeling the air, watching the leaves and trees and flowers and bees and birds. I like taking more leisurely walks alone and with my dogs. My physical exertions are there, but different also. I like watching good runners, and the beautiful physiques of the young.

I am learning to enjoy my older physique and to enjoy a good hike, a good 5 mile bike ride instead of a 20 mile bike ride. I can use my body; just differently and more wisely. Accepting this is one of the ways in which I nurture my body and soul as I ‘sage gracefully.’

I have entered a new phase of my personal and professional life and am excited to share my programs with you from the vantage point of an elder. Some of those programs include:

• Body Presencing Health and Weight Loss Program
• Mentoring Programs for Youth
• Mentoring Programs for the Elderly
• Mentoring Programs for Pregnant Women
• My new Body Presencing Practitioner Program where I teach, train, and certify individuals to do my life’s work
• Teaching classes on Forgiveness and on Beyond Technique
• Creating new Body Presencing Utube videos

If you would like to learn more about these new programs or my experience entering into The Grove of Elders, I am available to discuss these things by email, gail@bodypresencing.com or by phone (314-995-9755) or Skype (at gail.cloud).

Recommended Resources:

To learn more about The Grove of Elders and the soul-centric model of human development check out Bill Plotkin’s book Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World.