Surrender to Ageing and Become Ageless

Jul 30, 2018 | XAging | 0 comments

Snoopy cartoon. He's on roller skates with headphone listening to music.

I celebrated an eighty-eight year old friend’s birthday on Saturday night. Some of you might know this friend: it’s of course Collyn Rivers.

Collyn’s birthday got me thinking about ageing, especially as I’m reading a book called Ageless Soul. The author, Thomas Moore, could be describing Collyn when he says:

We are ageless people participating in a mysterious and wonderful process in which our eternal unchanging selves become more visible over time. Gradually you discover your original self, your own pristine way of being.

To my way of thinking, this sums up the practice of yoga, too. If you stay in the practice over time, you’re not doing yoga so much as letting yoga shape you.

It seems obvious that one of our purposes in life is to age, to develop into who we are in essence. In this case, then, it’s silly to rail against ageing. If we let life shape us, over time our inborn nature is revealed. We become richer, more interesting people, more layered.

It’s totally wasted effort to hold back the march of time or to attempt to vanquish old age. Moore says we need to get down to business and make life worthwhile.

Ageing calls us to be in this world solidly as mature people, able to relate and motivated to make our contributions.

I saw Collyn in action over the weekend, working on his new website. Retirement was never going to be an option for him. If anything, he is more productive as an octogenarian than at any other age. Collyn has written and published countless articles and books.

Collyn was responsible for a couple of my most popular posts on Yoga with Eve Grzybowski. He did a guest blog for me last year. Here’s a link to a film of Collyn doing his yoga practice at The Yoga Shed. I think it proves his prowess as a yogi, as well as a writer/publisher.

Collyn Rivers in Ardha Chandrasana

Collyn Rivers in Ardha Chandrasana

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