Why I Don’t Believe I’m Too Young to Guide Conversations About Conscious Aging
"I'm only 62."
I've caught myself saying those words more than once since starting this work. Honestly, it's a strange sentence to hear come out of my own mouth. At this stage of life, I didn't expect to be "too young" for much of anything anymore. Shoppers Drug Mart Seniors' Day, maybe, depending on which location you ask at, but not this.
As someone who offers workshops on conscious aging, I understand why people might wonder whether I should be older. In my seventies or eighties, with more years behind me. I've wondered it myself.
Then I remember what conscious aging is actually about. It isn't about reaching a particular age before you're qualified to reflect on life's deeper questions. It's about engaging with the aging process intentionally, wherever you happen to be on the journey. At 62, I have over six decades of lived experience.
I've been part of a blended family, loved and lost pets, changed careers, navigated loss, questioned my identity, discovered new purpose, and learned that growth doesn't stop just because the calendar keeps turning. In many ways, my own aging has become my greatest teacher.
Sage-ing
Several years ago I discovered the work of Sage-ing International and found a community that saw aging not as decline, but as an opportunity for continued growth, purpose, and wisdom.
Completing the Certified Sage-ing Leader (CSL) program deepened my understanding of conscious aging and gave language to something I'd already begun to experience personally: that our later years can become one of the richest seasons of life when we approach them with intention.
I've been a practicing psychotherapist for 25 years, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) is one of the modalities I've integrated into my work. It was actually while completing my Sage-ing certification that I saw how useful IFS could be here. How naturally parts work could support the deeper questions conscious aging asks us to sit with. I've completed Levels 1 and 2 IFS training, and I bring IFS-informed parts work into my workshops because I've found it to be a compassionate, accessible way of understanding ourselves.
As we age, many of our inner parts become more visible: a part that worries about becoming irrelevant, a part grieving the roles that once defined us, a part anxious about health or the future, another longing for creativity, freedom, or adventure. And beneath all of them is the calm, compassionate Self that's always been there, capable of leading with curiosity and wisdom rather than fear.
For me, the intersection of conscious aging and IFS-informed parts work feels natural.
Conscious aging invites us to harvest the wisdom of our lives. Parts work helps us understand the inner voices that can either support that process or quietly block it. Together, they create space for more self-compassion, healing, and purpose.
Do I have all the answers? Not even close. I don't stand in front of a room because I've mastered aging, I stand there because I'm living it. Every birthday, every transition, every unexpected challenge teaches me something new.
I continue to ask the same questions I invite others to explore: Who am I becoming? What am I ready to let go of? What wisdom is emerging from the life I've already lived? How do I want to spend the years ahead?
I don't see myself as an expert standing at the finish line. I see myself as a fellow traveller who's spent years studying the map while still walking the path. Maybe that's exactly who we need more of right now. People willing to say, come alongside me, let's explore this together.
Because conscious aging was never about arriving somewhere called wisdom. It's about becoming more awake to our lives, more compassionate toward ourselves, and more intentional about the legacy we're creating every single day.
At 62, I have enough life behind me to recognize the value of this work, and I hope enough life ahead of me to keep discovering what conscious aging truly means. The truth is, I'm still becoming. Maybe that's the best qualification of all.
If you’re asking some of these questions too, I invite you to explore a Befriend Aging workshop. They are a place to reflect on the experience of growing older with curiosity, compassion and others who are walking the path alongside you.