Start Date: November 4, 2024
Duration: 4 weeks. Take this four-week course at your convenience according to your schedule. There will be two Zoom ‘meet & greets’ to discuss the course material and your journey with the course.
Price: $40
Zoom dates:
Friday November 15, 2024 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time
Friday November 29, 2024 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time
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Registration: Now Open!
Course Description
We all have a Sage within, waiting to be awakened
Aging wisely - Beginning with the 20th Century, people approaching elderhood could expect to live another 20 or 30 years. However, the worldwide impact of the Coronavirus, has presented us all with new constraints, increased isolation, and amplified fears. Ironically, the bright side is that this pandemic has shed light on how important it is to find our purpose and plan for the future with clarity. Now, more than ever, comes the question, "How do you want to live these years?"
Sage-ing® (also known as Spiritual Eldering or Conscious Aging) offers a new and viable approach to growing older. It is a model for aging more deliberately, more joyfully, and more compassionately.
Oftentimes our culture presents a view of aging that marginalizes us as individuals and wise elders. We’re pressured to disguise the visible signs of aging, to accept age-ist euphemisms in place of respectful terms for elders, and to retreat to the edges of life to make room for younger people. But these behaviors diminish the wisdom and power we have spent a lifetime accumulating. And now, this marginalization may be manifesting itself even more dramatically – in our physical isolation.
Sage-ing provides skills, philosophies, perspectives and tools to improve the latter part of our lives - not by trying to pretend that we are not growing older, but by using strength, minds and power in numbers. We are charged with recognizing the value we offer, while adapting in practical, positive ways to the changes and challenges in our lives.
Growing Whole, Not Old
During this workshop you will be introduced to Sage-ing concepts including life review, forgiveness, and issues surrounding our mortality. We will explore the impact of our beliefs about aging and the role of spiritual development and active self-healing. Finally, participants will begin the development of their own personalized Sage-ing plans that will be personally fulfilling and also beneficial to others.
Our materials serve to enhance spiritual maturity for persons regardless of their faith or personal beliefs and practices.
Some testimonials:
Getting a framework for thinking about my journey into older adulthood. Really enjoyed sharing the journey and hearing the comments from other participants!
Class had excellent pacing and prompting. I appreciated the encouragement to go slowly and absorb and contemplate before moving on.
All the exercises that forced me to be honest with myself and answer questions that I might not usually ask myself.
I will continue using the class templates as guides to do this work as more time presents more in depth experiences.
I enjoyed and benefited from the group discussions with the moderator.
Beginning to explore my thoughts, feelings and beliefs about this stage of my life in a structured way gave me hope that our elder years are worthwhile in an ageist society.
Course Method of Delivery
The content is uploaded to the class once a week and you can access it anytime, any day at your convenience. The course is self-directed. Students can post comments and engage in ‘discussions’ on the discussion board which will be accessible and active for the whole month. The two scheduled Zoom sessions are optional.
Course Outline
WEEK #1: Setting the Stage to go from Age-ing to Sage-ing
- Introduction to Class
- Methods Used
- Class Intentions
- Introduction to & Historical context of Sage-ing®
- Revolutionary Approach
- Steps to Becoming Whole - Core Topics
- Aging as an opportunity for personal growth
WEEK #2: New Models of Aging: Who Am I as an Older Person?
- Images of Aging – the need for a paradigm shift
- Box of the Unlived Life
- Rethinking the Bucket List
- What does Spirit mean?
- Finding Wholeness & Balance
- How to become a Sage
WEEK #3: Harvesting our Life’s wisdom: Looking at the Past with what I know “NOW”
- Why do we Harvest?
- Socialized Meditation
- Severe Teachers
- What is Truth? What is Forgiveness?
- Letting go and healing past hurts
- Forgiveness: The precious gift we give to ourselves
- ‘For-I-Give’
WEEK #4: Facing our Mortality: Creating Peace of Mind and Our Legacy
- The Mentor and healer only you can be
- Death as a Teacher
- Five Wishes
- No time for modesty – Owning your strengths and skills
- Sharing your Gifts with the World
- Leaving a Legacy - Develop and Share your Personal Plan
- Building community
- Qualities of a Sage in Service
About your Facilitator
Deborah Briggs' certification as a Sage-ing Leader is a culmination of a 30+ year career of helping others discover, celebrate and utilize their unique gifts.
It was through the experience of losing many loved friends and family members at very young ages that forced Deborah to consider the finite nature of life and how to live it going forward – with the process and practice of Sage-ing.
Her Sage-ing skills are rooted by her MA in organizational psychology from Columbia University and the study and practice of spiritual, physical and intellectual approaches to aging with joy, compassion and meaning. She has created numerous NYC based businesses and nonprofits in Los Angeles and Florida – all focusing on helping people find their power and best selves and putting their wisdom into action.
Through interactive and engaging workshops and small groups, Deborah guides participants to create meaning in their lives today and be energized in the next stage of life.
If you are interested in challenging aging stereotypes, harvesting the wisdom of your life and consciously creating the legacy you want to leave to your children, grandchildren and communities you can contact Deborah at: 917.701.7013 or email.
