It was a long recovery process that fortunately did not require surgery but took all my energy, thus my website fell into oblivion.  Couldn’t walk, stand or sit. Was totally dependent upon others for all my basic needs. It gave me a preview of how health challenges in the aging years can bring loss of independence, fear, depression and feelings of helplessness. Over a lengthy period of time and with all kinds of therapy and spiritual work, my back injury did heal but I was faced with accepting the fact that I now have a “vulnerability” which will probably be with me the rest of my life.

When I listen to its guidance about posture while standing, sitting, working,  lifting, the balance between exercise and rest, moving and stretching,  I do fine - able to resume all my previous activities except running, so I hike instead.   This past fall I was able to put on a forty pound backback and lead my yearly vision quest group into the Sierra, listening all the way to the guidance I was getting from my back on how to make it work. When I don’t listen to the guidance my back gives me, when I don’t heed its advice and try to push forward, I  get the direct consequence of  pain. I learned from pain that I  needed  to reframe my “vulnerability” from that of an enemy attacking me to  instead seeing it as  an ally, a helper, working to bring me into greater awareness of how I physically move in the world. This attitudinal shift helps me go forward with my life with a positive energy instead of feeling sorry for myself, angry at my fate,  and frustrated that I’m  damaged goods.  

The year of healing was a journey of exploration and soul searching.  At the very beginning of the journey, lying on a hospital bed in the emergency room in agony, I heard a soft inner voice - “There is a wisdom within you that knows how to heal.  There is a wisdom available to you that knows how to heal. Your job is to listen to it, learn from it.  Let go of schedules and surrender to the process.  It will take the time it takes but if you work with it, you will be well again.”  It worked!   I am back, my back is back, and so is the website with the arrival of this writing.

I believe that the injury and healing process was a gift of grace that took me into deeper understanding of the challenges of aging and how to work with them in a skillful way that brings practical results, like pain relief and peace of mind.  I found out what works and what doesn’t.

You can read the whole account of my healing journey by emailing me:  tom@anewvisionofaging.com and requesting the article I wrote describing in detail the teachings that came through the experience.

I am excited to bring the fruits of the learning into my New Vision of Aging work. In addition to lectures and workshops on the Five Developmental Steps to Conscious Aging, I now offer a new workshop - “Hardiness Factor Training for Emotional Resilience in Times of Challenge, Crisis and Change”.  This training can be offered in a variety of formats - day long, half day, evenings and weekends which allow for greater depth and more intensive information.  Participants learn the three key attitudinal attributes of building a hardy, stress-resilient mind-set along with practical behavioral skills and tools to use in daily life.   Equipped with the right understanding and a well-stocked tool kit, one can  look forward to creating responses to the very real challenges of aging, including our vulnerabilities and losses, that grow us into our fullest potentials for creative expression, for meaningful contributions to society and towards the loving beings that constitute the essence of who we are and our purpose in being here. 

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about my work and/or to explore how I might be of service to you or your organization helping to empower us all in using the natural process of aging to enrich our lives and make it the most fruitful and meaningful time of all.

Thank you.

Yours’ for Conscious Aging - Dr. Tom Pinkson  

PS - My next public presentation will be May 6th at the Jewish Family and Children’s Service Center in San Rafael, CA speaking on “HOW TO WORK WITH THE CHALLENGES OF AGING TO GROW US TO OUR FULLEST POTENTIAL.”   

Will we do it consciously, skillfully and with positive results that enables us to reap the rich potentials of our aging? Or will we do it unconsciously, unskillfully, conditioned as we are by our society with negative attitudes about aging and older people?

Will we be passive victims to the very real challenges of aging, or will we know how to meet them with knowledge and tools whereby to use them for our own deepest growth and sense of well being?

I am a sixty three year old Ph.D. psychologist in private practice as a Life Enrichment Coach, a Clinical Consultant to the Center for Attitudinal Healing in Sausalito, CA, an author, public speaker, workshop leader, grandfather of three and married to my wife Andrea, a pediatric nurse, for 40 years.

Through my personal experience of aging as well as through my clinical work over the years, I have developed a program called A NEW VISION OF AGING, which is based on addressing five development tasks with which to step into an empowered relationship with ones’ aging process.

The intention of this blog is to address various topics about aging giving participants opportunity to dialogue with me and with one another so that we can tap our collective wisdom in a fruitful manner that benefits us all. Some of the many categories I will address are – what is conscious aging? How do I do it? What are the benefits of conscious aging?

Mind/body/spirit wellness, spiritual enrichment, creativity enhancement, finding and living your life purpose and legacy, challenges of aging, tools and skills with which to meet these challenges in a growthfull manner, relationships/intimacy and sexuality, latest research on neuro-plasticty and how to exercise the brain to help it grow in its memory power and cognitive functioning, social and environmental activism, physical activity and adventure, befriending your mortality, and living life fully, joyfully and meaningfully through the stages of aging right on up to completion.

I think the ideal person most likely to be interested in my conscious aging work fits into the category of “cultural creatives”, between the age of 50 through early 80’s, with a college education, are middle class or above, live throughout the United States but probably closer to metropolitan areas.

They are independent thinkers, seek deeper meaning in their lives, and want to have fun, be physically fit and active, adventurous, travel, grow to fulfill their potentials. They are spiritually oriented but not involved in mainstream religions. They are concerned about social and environmental challenges and want to do something to contribute to a better world.