The Energy of You Volume XXI Issue #32

​
Hi Reader,

I leaned in to blow out the pink, blue, and yellow candles spread out on the cake in a six three formation, too many to have the actual number of candles on the cake. Celebrating another trip around the sun always has me ponder a bit on what’s coming and what’s passed.

When I turned sixty I started thinking of the decades as levels in a game. Last year was level 6.2, and it was a challenging one and I’m planning on level 6.3 to be a little less intense. While there are some things I have absolutely no control over(yeah it rubs me the wrong way too sometimes 😉) there are plenty of things that I can influence.

Noticing pockets of joy, leaving a little extra white space in my days, and lingering over my coffee in the morning all set the tone for my day to be a little more spacious.​

I've learned that how I experience my days has as much to do with how I move through them as it does with what's on my calendar.

Birthdays also have a way of making me look at the bigger picture. At sixty-three, conversations about retirement seem to be popping up with increasing regularity, and I've discovered that I have a rather complicated relationship with the whole idea.

The word comes from the French retirer, to withdraw. Historically it described a retreat or withdrawal, from battle or from society.

That's something I have zero interest in signing up for. I love living fully engaged. (I'll pass on the hustle culture, though.)

For many people, leaving a job that consumed far more of their time and energy than they'd have liked sounds wonderful. Even when retirement is something we've looked forward to for years, it can bring its own challenges. What happens when a large part of our identity, something that has shaped our schedules, relationships, and sense of purpose for decades, suddenly disappears?

Western culture isn't especially kind to aging. It tends to prefer that people of a certain age quietly slip into the background, especially women. There’s often an unspoken expectation that as we get older, we should quietly move into the background and make room for the next generation. Yet many of us are entering this season of life with an abundance of experience, wisdom, curiosity, and a desire to remain actively involved in the world around us.

Other places see it differently. This summer I chatted with a gentleman from the Netherlands who was excited to be starting a reduced work schedule. Many Dutch workplaces offer older employees the chance to work one less day a week while keeping most of their pay and their full pension contributions.

Rather than suddenly stopping work altogether, he was looking forward to having more time for other interests while continuing to contribute his knowledge and experience.

The gradual transition held an appeal to me, the opportunity to experiment with a different rhythm of life while maintaining the parts of work that still felt meaningful.

It also made me wonder why we so often think of retirement as a single event rather than an evolving process.

​
​

In Spain, the word for retirement is jubilación. It comes from the Latin jubilare, to shout with joy.

Imagine that. A word that greets this new season as a celebration. A time to step back from economic labor and turn toward the pursuits that feed your soul.

Which brings me back to retirement. It's such a personal thing. For some, a shorter workweek is ideal. Others are eager to leave their careers entirely, while some are interested in starting a new business, volunteering, traveling, or finally making time for hobbies that have been waiting patiently on the sidelines. And there's an economic piece to the puzzle that varies greatly from person to person.

This season asks for some pondering. The questions rarely have easy answers, and they need space to process and test out.

But I think the larger question extends well beyond retirement.

How do we want to live as we move through the different seasons of our lives?

It's a question that deserves more than a quick answer, particularly for women who have spent decades balancing careers, families, responsibilities, and the needs of everyone around them.

​
​

It requires, dare I say it, a stretch of time to let yourself get bored. In the space of that boredom, the answers tend to arrive more authentically.

Who am I without the job title?
​ What do I want?
​ How do I want to spend my time?
​ What will my income and lifestyle look like?
​ What does retirement mean to me?

I don't have all the answers yet.

I don’t know the answers to these questions fully yet. But I do know I’m not looking to withdraw from society (well maybe on particularly hellish days I do, but that's temporary). I know that the work I do in my business feeds my soul and I want to keep doing it. How that’s structured is not fully clear yet.

New hobbies, activities, and adventures will continue to pull me in and they’ll likely change over time. I don’t need to know the when and how.

I do know my mindset will play a big role, and the research agrees. Dr. Becca Levy at Yale found that people with positive beliefs about aging lived an average of 7.5 years longer than those with negative ones.

That's where conscious living comes into the picture for me. It's the practice of paying attention to what matters, noticing how our mind, body, and energy respond to the choices we're making, and allowing that awareness to influence how we spend our days.

Sometimes that means making a significant change. More often, it happens in the ordinary choices we make every day, whether that's creating a little breathing room in our schedules, pursuing something that sparks our curiosity, or recognizing when an old way of doing things no longer serves us.

​
​

As I begin level 6.3, I'm less concerned with having a detailed plan for the next decade and more interested in creating a life that feels meaningful, spacious, and fully my own.

Which brings me back to retirement. I still have a fair bit of friction with the word, and I'm actively searching for a better one.

Does retirement resonate with you, or does it feel like an outdated description of this season of life? Perhaps you've already found a word that better captures the possibilities of these years.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, and especially your suggestions for a new term.

​
Be Inspired,

Cathy

​
​

PS.If you like this newsletter and want to support it, there are 3 Ways! PICK ONE right now before you forget🌺

1. If this note made you think, or gave you a little exhale, please forward it to a friend. We’re not meant to do this chapter alone. If this was forwarded to you, subscribe right here​
2. Hit reply and say hello.
3. If you’re curious about how energy and mind-body awareness can support this season of change, the ReWrite Your Aging Script Learning Lab can help find it here​