Other Workshops: The 3rd Life Age

Other Workshops AU
 

Possible Themes – Workshop on Demand or Location and Dates to be Announced
The 3rd Life Age – Gifts and Challenges
Exploring Biographical, Social, and Spiritual Implications of Growing Older
Quite often the aging of our population is seen as a burden. But what are the gifts?
What is the meaning of reaching an average of 84 years in first world countries?

Over the last ten years I have been with friends in re-tirement age. I also accompanied my parents, who had their 60th wedding anniversary in February 2015, on their journey of letting go of our family house and mov-ing into a unit, which allows for autonomous living and different levels of care if necessary.

In her book “Freedom in the Third Life Age” the anthro-posophical medical doctor Gudrun Burkhart quotes Pe-ter Laslett, who developed the term Third Age. He states: “The leisure of the ‘third age’ is in no way aris-tocratic or elitist. It belongs to every individual, … To be free of compulsory labour, and the direction of other people; to live at ease while doing what you choose to do; to develop yourself; to realize yourself, …” Instead of using the term Old Age he diversifies: “After a ‘first age’ of youth, dependency, education and maturation, a ‘second age’ of maturity, earning and responsibility, there now arrives a ‘third age’ of personal achievement and fulfilment – the crown of individual life, … [followed] by a ‘fourth age’ of dependency and decrepitude.”

The workshop gives the opportunity to use the partici-pant’s life stories and life experience to explore the in-terconnections of the life phase from 43 to 63 with the phase from 64 to 84. Biographical mirroring techniques and creative methods will be applied to envisage the emerging future in our own biography. At the same time, we will be exploring interconnections between earlier and later life phases and the meaning of longevi-ty. In general Life Story Workshops aim to connect the workshop theme with examples from our life. Please be prepared to share parts of your life story in a small group of 3 to 5 people. Please bring CVs you have written; they are helpful as a database for you to use during the Workshop.