For those of us committed to aging consciously, the pandemic has had an unanticipated consequence. Many of us were already well beyond the first half of life tasks of adult development, digging deep to hit the bedrock of our own authenticity. Even so, along the way, it is easy to get stalled, triggered and often when you least expect it, to progress to the next stage of psycho-spiritual growth.
Somewhere towards the end of the second month of quarantine, I experienced such a quickening. In fact, as I talk to my friends and peers, I’m far from alone. The pandemic has put our beliefs about legacy, meaning and mortality to the test and pushed many of us forward to a new, improved relationship with powerlessness.
In my case, this was less a leap and more a lurch. But suddenly one day, on a longer than usual walk, the entire trajectory of the arc of life from birth to death, and the exact locale upon which I was situated, became transparent to me. This was a merger of my doctoral work in the area of life stage theory with a pandemic-powered entanglement with mystical experience manifesting as 30 stages of psycho-spiritual development, which I rushed home to capture.
Shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity to broach this new understanding in an interview titled “Growing Older, Wiser and Fiercer in the Age of Coronavirus” which will air June 18 at 3 p.m. central as part of Shift Network’s free online summit: “Renewal and Resilience in Your Third Act.” (See below for the program and registration details.)
But I am especially gratified that Shift Network asked me to capture and share my new model of psycho-spiritual development in the form of an eBook titled Best. Life. Possible.: What’s on the Next Page of Your Book of Life? to be included in their optional upgrade offering, side by side with Ram Dass’ four-module course: “Aging Into Awakening”,among others.
I’m delighted to give you a first look at my new work below, and look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Fiercely Yours,
Carol Orsborn
BEST. LIFE. POSSIBLE.
What’s on the Next Page of Your Book of Life?
Life consists of 30 psycho-spiritual developmental stages that inexorably lead you to wholeness. Experienced as a journey, both the beginning and the ending points are determined and inevitable, providing the potential for meaning and hope regardless of your special set of challenges. That said, everything in between will be unique to you, reflecting both individual circumstances and the choices you make.
Stages 1-10: Attempts to Heal Catastrophic Separation through the Creation of Masks
The initiation of your journey begins at your expulsion from merger with the divine through birth, accompanied by an initiatory trial of pain and suffering, Seeking to regain what you’ve lost, you will thereafter be pushed from behind by the profoundly unbearable misunderstanding that there is something fundamentally wrong about you that caused the separation. This will be your unconsciously-held secret, hidden behind a façade of increasingly sophisticated masks meant to ensure survival. However, the very masks that provide the most complete cover are at the same time the most likely to create side-effects that cause even more separation and loneliness.
Stages 11-23: Recognition and Attempts at Rectification of Unintended Consequences
Psycho-spiritual progress unfolds when the pain of the mask grows greater than its usefulness. In these maturing stages, you begin an extended period of discarding masks while making amends to others and forgiving yourself for your unintended consequences. Eventually, there may come a time when you have rectified every conscious wrong you have inflicted on self or other, and yet the gap of separation remains.
Stages 24-25: Surrendering to Powerlessness and First Taste of Equanimity
The culminating phases of your journey initiate when you are out of tricks and give up. At this point, you realize that the premise of your essential wrongness was a fundamental misunderstanding and therefore even if gaps remain, there is and has never been a need for forgiveness of your essence. You are, in fact, fundamentally good.
Stages 26-30: Drawn Forward to the Healing of Separation: Merger with Divine
Gradually, you become aware of an inversion of compulsions. The force that has propelled you forward from birth finally loses its grip on you. In its place, you sense an unconditionally loving force reaching out from the future and inexorably drawing you into itself. As you close in, you come to realize that whatever the story of your individual journey, all along, you had always already been living your Best. Life. Possible. Your journey culminates with re-merger with the Divine decades to spare before one’s physical death or, at the very least, in sync with your last breath . But however long or short your journey, the number of setbacks and breakthroughs along the way, there will, at last, be an arrival.
| RSVP for Resilience & Renewal at No Charge HERE Contact Dr. Carol Orsborn at corsborn@aol.com |
__________________________________
Feel free to share this providing proper credit to Carol Orsborn
and a link to CarolOrsborn.com.
