Mindful Aging: A Word to the Wise

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing. Thomas H. Huxley

The phrase “with age comes wisdom” would suggest that while mother nature is busy taking things away from us as we grow older, she is at least willing to offer up compensation. However, the fact that many people go from being young and foolish to old and foolish means that wisdom is not something that is given freely, like grey hairs and wrinkles, but requires some action on our part.

Wisdom, as most people think about it, is simply the accumulation of life experiences. To have lived a long life is to have gathered a lot of information about life. This information, the theory goes, gives us a leg up on those who have not been around as long. So simply having an earlier birth date can elevate one to the status of “wise one.”

The origin of the word wise, however, does not mean to know but to see, or “to see the path.” This implies that wisdom is not just experience but experience plus learning. Touching a hot stove is an experience; not touching it again is a wise thing to do. Extend this example across a lifetime and you can see why we often continue to get burned by the same things over and over again; we just never learn. This is one of the core differences between mindful and mindless aging. When we are mindful we learn from every happening in our life because we have been fully present and aware, we see clearly. We know that the hot stove will burn us every time we touch it and do not play the game that maybe we can outsmart the stove or forget that hot stoves hurt.

Another aspect of mindful aging that contributes to wisdom involves breaking out of habitual thinking patterns and seeing the world with new eyes. Through mindfulness, we can turn the saying “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” on its head by teaching old tricks to new dogs. Becoming a witness to life reconnects us with something very ancient that paradoxically lets us experience life anew.

If you have forgotten how to do this simply observe young children at play. Watch as their total absorption in the moment reveals new worlds to them. Mindfulness returns us to this state and puts the growth back into growing old. It imparts its wisdom through the gentle path of allowing things to be as they are. A word to the wise, this path still comes with wrinkles and grey hair.