Today’s menu
🍽️ In this week’s issue:
Mindset Action: Taking Care of the Soul - Loneliness & Isolation vs Deep Fulfillment After Retirement
Strength Action: The Only 5 Exercises You Need To Be A Beast Into Your 90s
Ideas & Inspiration: Volunteering for Over 50s - Let the Adventure Begin
Mindset Action
😇🤺 Taking Care of the Soul
‘I worry about loneliness and isolation after retirement.’
A man I respect very much, who has been coming to my Yoga classes intermittently for many years (maybe a decade?), said this to me last week.
He’s 54, three years younger than me.
While I don’t share his fears, I absolutely get it.
When I stopped calling myself a therapist after Covid, it was a wrench.
Part of my identity had been taken from me despite also being a writer, an exercise teacher, and a dad of relatively young kids.
Identity is a hazy concept until someone or something takes it from you.
So what’s at stake here?
Former monk and psychotherapist Thomas Moore defines the soul loosely not as a ‘theological substance’ but as a way of experiencing life through ordinary experience, imagination, and our natural search for meaning.
It’s an elusive creature that shows up in moments of deep feeling, in creative work, in suffering, friendship, and in love.
It’s made up of memories, associations, and habits rather than ectoplasm, neurotransmitters, or astral mist.
And as such, its proper care, maintentnace and happiness aren’t to be found in getting and feeding on more ‘stuff’, chemicals, or entertainment.
It’s all about cultivation, reflection, imagination, and community.
Guess what: the closer you get to retirement, the more you’ll want to think about all this, especially when the prospect of all that free time plus potential loss of identity kicks in.
According to Moore, there is no formula for the soul’s happiness, but if there were, we could put together a list that looks something like this:
Treat painful emotions as signposts, not problems.
Value nasties like depression, obsession, and neurosis, as the soul's powerful way of demanding attention, not nasal hairs to be plucked until they grow back again
Every day life is your wellspring of meaning
The totally ordinary stuff like cooking, homemaking, friendship, and yes, even work, are all opportunities for profound meaning when you take off the blinkers that tell you what you have just isn’t good enough for someone as special as you.
Believe it or not, you are a fucking hero.
If you’re on this earth, you are living a hero’s journey. Embrace that thought and act accordingly. Hero myths are ancient, built into our DNA, and are powerfully transformative when used in the right way.
Beauty feeds the soul.
Whether it’s your local fine art museum or the whack of a bat against a baseball in a boozy, crowd-filled stadium, you need things in your life that give you pleasure just because - no other reason than their simple elegance, beauty, etc.
Love ain’t easy.
As hated YouTuber Logan Paul once said, ‘no one gives a fuck about who you are,’ which means, of course, that the opposite is true. Your family, your kids, your firends and if you’re lucky enough, your spouse all deeply care about you just like you care about them. Remember that just like you, they aren’t perfect, so you need to be here for them when they screw up with your SOUL, ready to go
Spirituality vs. religion
Great if you have both, but if you can only pick one, the choice is obvious. No need for any belief system, but no need to get rid of any you already have. Just bring it with soul, whatever you do in life, and you can’t go wrong.
Phew.
That was a heavy one.
If it all feels too much, just pick one for today. Or even for the next month, and work on that one.
You’ll feel happier all round and so will the people who surround you, just wait and see.
"In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know.
Strength Action
💪🏻🦁 The 5 Exercises You Need To Stay Strong Into Your 90s
This dude is jacked, functionally strong, and hasn’t lifted or been in the gym in over 10 years.
He uses 5 movements only.
Here’s what they are:
15 pull-ups with perfect form. Start with leg assisted. Thenwork up to 5 regular. Then get ot 15. Add weight.
Push-ups with perfect form. Start on inees first at least 20. Then regular until you get to 40 in a row. Then weighted
Overhead press. Simple dumbells over head. Pike pushups are also good for this. 15 clean reps. Standing military first. The one-arm overhead press. 15 reps with 30% body weight.
Squats. Start with 20. Move on to Bulgarian squats.
Romanian deadlifts with dumbbells. Be extra phucking careful. Great for the lower back as long as you do it right. Start weightless on your knees if you have to (see video), then move on to weights.
Remember, you’re over 50. DO THE MODIFICATIONS FIRST AND MOVE SLOWLY. Or get an online coach. Or contact me for safe, targeted Yoga and Pilates coaching.
Inspiration
🤲🏻 Volunteering Abroad isn’t only for your kids
It’s always been a great idea for young people to do some volunteering to broaden their horizons, and for them to gain experience
At 50+, you’ve got a whole lot more to offer than you did at 19, but you’ve still got that fire in your belly to see more of the world, broaden your already vast outlook, and give something back to the world that helped getyou this far.
If you think there’s life in the old dog yet, check out these guys, and maybe you can relive that Peace Corps experience you had in Africa or South America when you were an innocent young buck looking for action and adventure.
🙏🏻 That’s it for this week.
One footnote here. I’ll be offering online classes soon.
If you want core strength + excellent joint & lower back health learned from home without shlepping to the gym or being instructed by someone who’s never had a weight, joint, or lower back issue in their short lives, this is for you.
Links to follow in the coming weeks 🔗🔗
In the meantime, look after your soul and have an awesome rest of the week 💪🏻
Liam KB.