Journal of Psychology. Do we know how to grow old?

Yeah, it's time for a common saying "it's better to be healthy and rich than poor and sick" to add "it's better to be young, healthy and rich than the old, poor and sick." And in our culture there is a very persistent belief that if in youth there is an opportunity to avoid illness and poverty, then the strongest characteristics of old age are precisely "poverty and disease". And poverty as "my pension is not enough", and the impoverishment of real contact with the World. But in fact, with this and the forces for this very contact in comparison with youth is not so much. As if Time already so persistently suggests to you: "Enough already to feed yourself external. And in general already enough to eat. What can you give to the world? It is to give from the depths of his Soul? "

We seem to be so dispersed in our "deeds", in our greed "devourers of life in all its manifestations," that we are really scared to switch to "internal sources of nutrition". And these "internal sources" are "recharged" gradually and all life. The fact that we read, the one we think about. What you can comprehend in your "active" experience. And this is exactly what no one else can take from us. "Prikoplennoe good" in the form of apartments - cars - savings can take. Already in our country this has always been easy .... And a lot of our energy at all times goes to the anxiety of "saving". But here is a robbery of our wisdom to rob - no. Well, only if we are deprived of the ability to feel, think and remember. And this is worse than death in my opinion. "Vegetable" condition. Although in vegetables - in real, onions - potatoes - carrots - very much even a lot of energy and taste, and they are very nutritious.

And blessed is the one whose impoverishment by external "energy resources" -all sort of "collectives-single-labor-impulse", "we have what kind of feathers, what tails we have!" Is gradually replenished year after year with energies of calm contemplation, selective communication, inner light of spiritual maturity. In all epics, Wisdom is the privilege of the old and the old. Not all of course. Alas, not all. Many of them become completely at a loss to old age and try to "feed" themselves with regrets over the lost. Yes, there are losses - and parents were buried, and peers leave, and health becomes in many ways fragile and little - reliable, hence many things become difficult - feasible. Yes it is. But really nothing in return ?!

First about the disease. Of course, any matter is subject to the influence of time. With "inanimate" matter, the influence of time is linear. Cracks, chips, bald spots, here "broke", there "salted." And then all the once happy eye and the ass - for example, the beloved grandmother's chair - in the trash. Although if this is real furniture, then you can also pull, replace the upholstery - and it will be like a new one. If the truth is from the Tree and with love it was once done. But sooner or later all the same - in the trash.

The living matter experiences time in a different way. She has a "happy time", a time working for maturation and flourishing. When energy comes every day, the world expands, dreams seem to be about to begin, now they are turning into opportunities .... And because many of the real dreams are transformed. You develop, you "bear fruit." Who are deeds and ideas, who are children, who are simply good deeds for Others. But after a certain stage, time begins to inexorably work for wilting and decay. It is the material disintegration - the one that can be touched - to touch - to "take to the tooth." Maybe that's why we - people - need faith in the existence of more subtle plans - the Spirit, the Soul, the Collective Intelligence. The fact that in theory, with time, everything should develop and develop - grow up, be wise, remaining "imperishable" for centuries ...

Yes, the forty-year-old body is different from the twenty-year-old. And the face and even more so. First of all, the expression of the eyes. They are forty or already quite tired, or, conversely, even more alive and curious.

The pursuit of "eternal youth" reminds me of the call to all to become "eternally green". But the evergreen leaf is a needle. Yes, at first so soft. And then everything is sharper and harder ... And then, even after three - five - ten years - still yellowed and fragile, crumbling from any touch. But the real leaf - in the spring it is green, dense, juicy - it is so beautiful in the fall, so brightly "flashes" with a golden-yellow scale. Yes, when a cold gust of wind shakes, tears it from a tree, it falls and quickly fades. But even in his wilting, he continues to feed the tree that gave him birth. That it gave birth to new juicy and young leaves. Which again will nourish it with the light of the Sun and shelter from the weather.

When we vehemently refuse to accept the natural course of our time - with all our might being invested in the image of our "eternal youth", we prevent the maturation of our soul. Yes, body health is a very, very important part of spiritual life. But the "facade measures," which often rapes and unnaturally invigorates our swimming body along the river of Time, deprive us of the joys of "harvesting" the harvest of a completely different kind than of "interested views" and "who is the prettiest in the yard?" external image is the main thing in our personality? After all, our personality is much more, deeper and more versatile than the "mask of eternal youth" ... Let's grow old with dignity! With awareness of the fruits of their maturity, with respect to the passage of time and the opportunity to grieve the loss of youth without hysteria and denying the irreversibility of change ...

Author - Irina Lopatuhina

Psychologist, Gestalt therapist

Website: lopatuhina.ru