It’s Not 42

Welcome to the Being Well inSuffolk newsletter

View this email in your browser

Volume 10 - Issue 5 - Feb 2021

Dear <<First Name>>,

Welcome to the February newsletter from BWIS.

This month we ask what’s it all about then… life, work, and everything.

Best wishes from Steve, Sue, Charlie, Martin, Phil.

If you received this newsletter from a friend and would like to receive future editions, click here.

In This Issue
It's Not 42
News and Events
Inspiring Quotes
And Finally...

It's Not 42

The way we find meaning and purpose in life is often deeply connected to what we do for a living. So what happens when we stop doing whatever it is we do? In western cultures the convention is that retirement happens when you reach a certain age, largely defined and changed by the prevailing government.

So – even if it’s far off for you – have you thought about the best time to retire? When you are fed up with working so hard? When you feel out of place in the workplace? When you can’t seem to function like you used to, and just want to sit in the garden and relax?

Specialists like psychologists and neuroscientists are challenging this convention, saying that in fact the best time to retire is - never. Laura Carstensen argues that we arrange our careers entirely wrongly for the rhythm of our lives, by forcing people to cram together their most productive professional years and the raising of small children, then leaving people with too little to do in their later years.

Other cultures do not share our concept of retirement. The Japanese, world leaders in the art of the long and happy life, do not even have an equivalent for our word ‘retire’. Why, they ask, would you suddenly stop doing what you are good at, leaving yourself short of purpose and meaning in your life? (A response of ‘because I hate my job’ begs the question ‘so why have you chosen to spend your time doing something you hate?’. But that’s for another day).

For the Japanese it is usual to have a second and third source of income and activity, so that when one of them completes, you continue with the others. Thus people carry on doing the things they love, creating beauty, building community, helping others… into their 80s, 90s, and even well into their 100s, because it would not occur to them to stop.

They are also inspired by the concept of ikigai (life’s purpose, or raison d'être), expressing the idea that our unique talent is our reason for being here and for getting up in the morning.

If you want to know more about these ideas, do join us at February Life Lounge. As ever, your feedback is welcomed.

And, as your new year gets into its stride, have you considered how coaching skills would enhance your life? Come and find out more on Sat 20 Feb (see below).

News and Events

LIFE LOUNGE
This month is about how we find Meaning & Purpose in our lives. Thurs Feb 11^th at 7.00pm online. Book your place here for just £5.

COACHING SKILLS Training
Small Steps to BIG Changes - Explore the power of coaching. The next course begins in April 2021. Click here for information or to book your place. Free taster for everyone interested in coaching on Sat Feb 20^th at 10.00am.

Mindfulness
How to be here: What to do now? A monthly mindfulness 'free for all' online drop-in group. Practising together to develop the qualities of being and doing that optimise the experience and outcomes of this new era.

Inspiring Quotes

“Essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for." - Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Viktor Frankl

“He who has a Why to live can bear almost any How.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

“Ikigai can be described as an intersection between 4 different elements: what you're passionate about, where your skills lie, how you can earn a living, and what the world needs.”

“Give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other."
- The Serenity Prayer (Reinhold Niebuhr)

And Finally ...

This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.

John O’Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher

Please pass on this newsletter to others who may be interested. Let us know if you'd like to be added to the mailing list or want your name to be removed.