Here’s a twist for you.

We are getting tired of promoting “successful aging” and no longer want to buy into the social construct that defines aging and being old as a problem to avoid.

We don’t know about you, but we are getting old… and loving it. But not because we are staying young, or not facing losses. We love it not despite of the challenges, but because of them. We love it because we are growing and changing. We love it because there is an opportunity to create yet another purposeful stage of life.

And that’s what twisting the plot is all about.

On this week’s podcast we talk with Dr. Tracey Gendron. Dr. Gendron is the Chair of the department of Gerontology at Virginia Commonwealth University and the author of Ageism Unmasked: Exploring Age Bias and How to End It. She expounds the many reasons why ageism matters to all of us. She shares how the “biomedicalization” of aging has turned it into a disease, and something we need to fight.

But what if we could conceptualize aging in a different way? What if aging, and even death, were embraced as a shared experience, instead of an individual failing? What if becoming old, was a transcendent experience that we all look forward to?

Hard to imagine? Before you dismiss it, listen as Dr. Gendron proposes Elderhood as the antidote to the ageist roadblocks to becoming:

Anti-ageism through elderhood shifts our focus from who we were to who we are in the present and who we want to become in the future. Regardless of physical ability, cognitive function, socioeconomic class, level of dependency, or a myriad of personal identifiers, we are all still becoming.

Elderhood is proposed as a stage in life that brings maturity, purpose and wisdom. Gerontologist Lars Tornstom even suggests that aging can bring a developmental shift in perspective that is more cosmic and transcendent.

We want some of that.

Dr. Gendron asks us, “How do you feel about yourselves as aging beings?

Thankfully, she is helping us figure this out.

Do you move through life on a nourishing path, or do you find yourself fighting your way along a thorny harsh path?

After years of thorns, Nadya Trytan now chooses a nourishing path.

She’d love to help you find yours.

Nadya uses a technique called guided visualization to help you relax, imagine, listen to yourself and make discoveries that connect you with your own innate wisdom. Her online program, Nourishing Path Project, offers imaginary paths for us to learn and grow by.

On this Twisting the Plot Podcast, Nadya takes us through a relaxing body scan and an experiential and imaginary voyage.

Enjoy.

Nadya Trytan, MA, RDT-BCT is the Founder of the Drama Therapy Center in Minneapolis, a place that values life-long learning and healing through connection to our deepest wisdom and creativity. Her professional services include: therapy and coaching for individuals & families; team building facilitation for organizations; and consultation & teaching for drama therapy clinicians and students. Nadya recently launched her Nourishing Path Project, a series of guided, creative meditative journeys (over zoom) to help one practice finding and walking their unique path through life.

For more info about The Nourishing Path, check out dramatherapycenter.com. Nadya is on the faculty at Midwest Drama Therapy Institute, she is past-President of the North American Drama Therapy Association and past-Chair of the National Coalition of Creative Arts Therapies Associations. She can be contacted at: nadya@dramatherapycenter.com

Sitting myself down and writing Margaret from the heart became a story about me too. Why me? Leave me out of this, I thought. But no, it was not to be. I was not allowed to write her story without writing my own because I had unburied two women. 

– From The Light Above by Maria Dintino

Even though she discovered a dog-eared, post-it-filled copy of Women in the Nineteenth Century on her bookshelf, Maria Dintino hadn’t remembered much about Margaret Fuller from graduate school. She was certainly captured by Margaret’s New England peers Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson. But Margaret, the nineteenth century transcendentalist, women’s rights advocate and journalist, claimed Maria’s attention decades after graduate school.

Now, Margaret has all of her attention in the form of Maria’s new memoir, The Light Above.

It’s a powerful meeting of the souls, Margaret and Maria.  Their stories, lived centuries apart, collide and are shared through the heart and voice of Maria. Margaret’s story ends in tragedy, but Maria’s retelling offers redemption. In return, Maria finds a life guide, a role model, and a companion for life.

In our podcast, Maria tells us why Margaret Fuller is relevant today.  We also learn how writing this book has changed Maria’s life. 

It is awesome to realize how much we can learn about ourselves via the lived experience of another. We are, after all, bound to one another through history. But what a gift of transformation is the literary imagination. 

Get The Light Above on Amazon

Abbe Greenberg and Maggie Sarachek have been friends since college. Throughout this time, they shared many things, even anxiety. For years they supported each other, through phobias, panic attacks and catastrophizing mindsets. As time went on, it became clear that they weren’t alone. In fact, they found that many women wanted to talk about anxiety, its perils, nuances, and the many ways to cope. So they decided to start a sisterhood, an anxiety sisterhood. 

In 2017 they launched their online community which now includes more than 200,000 people worldwide. Together, Abbe and Maggie (or Abs and Mags) host a monthly podcast (The Spin Cycle) facilitate workshops and retreats and give talks about everything related to anxiety. Their blog is award winning and they recently they published The Anxiety Sisters’ Survival Guide. The book is filled with helpful information, we highly recommend it.

We loved this conversation with Abs and Mags. Somehow, they make anxiety fun, while also taking it very seriously. They speak about complex scientific findings using language that is accessible, not triggering or pathologizing. They even offer some helpful tips and advice for all.

Let’s face it, anxiety is a plot twist all its own. It takes a sisterhood to get us through.

Join us.

Check out anxietysisters.com

Join the Anxiety Sisters on Facebook

In her early twenties, Maureen Carey was called to the religious life. Her interest in the anti-war movement and civil disobedience led her to the sisterhood and years of service to others. During this time she also got her Ph.D. in social work, taught at Molloy College, and co-authored books.

Twenty-five years later, Dr. Carey twisted her plot and left the religious life. More recently, she retired from teaching. She’s had a new calling, art as a means for spiritual contemplation.

Maureen has developed a method for using watercolors, journaling, doodling and reflection as a means for spiritual growth.

Join us as Maureen shares her story. How does a woman in the 1970’s decide to join the religious life?  What makes her decide to change paths after 25 years? How is doodling a channel to the soul?

We loved this conversation and the holy doodle.

Maureen E. Carey, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita of Social Work at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY and a practicing artist. She had taught undergraduate social work courses at Molloy College and has led many Artful Meditation Workshops both at the college and with other professional groups on Long Island.She developed a method of artful journaling using liquid watercolors, doodling and reflection for those seeking to create a pathway for their own spiritual growth. Maureen co-authored a book: The Artful Journal: A Spiritual Quest (2002) describing this artful journal method, and in another published book: Silent Presence: A Companion Through the Journey of Grief (2007).

In addition, Maureen’s work has been in various exhibits on Long Island. She has also done commissioned work for several colleges and local groups. She maintains an art studio in Southold, New York and continues to give Artful Contemplative Workshops on the North Fork of Long Island.

Her work can be viewed on her website at maureencareyartist.com

A little improv…

What is creativity? Go. (frozen pause) Ummm. It’s green? Yes, and…It crawls. Yes, and… it morphs like a caterpillar into a butterfly. Yes, and… it can be venomous, like a snake.

On this week’s podcast, guest Nina Hart challenges our notions about what is art and who gets to do it. She tells us about her journey to heal what she calls her “heartbroken artist.” Nina shares how she finally freed herself from criticism, judgment and creative blocks that silenced and shamed her. She offers all of us a portal into our own spontaneous impulses, our sparks of creativity.

Nina teaches us what she calls “writing from the top of your head.” She introduces us to a writing prompt she calls “small and crappy,” a medicine for the perfectionism that inhibits us.

She also challenges each of you to participate in a small and crappy writing exercise. Give it a try and send us your results. We will make art of it.

Everything, including aging, is art, according to Nina Hart.

And there’s a plot twist we could all use.

Take a listen.

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Check out Nina Hart’s website writingfromthetopofyourhead.com

Nina Hart is a writer, performer, and creativity coach trained in the Kaizen-Muse method. She is also a certified Gateless Method writing teacher – “a method of teaching the art and craft of writing using creative brain science, ancient non-dual teachings and highly-effective craft tools…allowing writers to access the creative genius inside.” Her first collection of surreal short fictions called “Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere” was selected as a Short Stories category finalist in Foreword Reviews’ IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. She is the founder of a unique method of teaching writing called “Writing from the Top of your Head,” which combines group Creativity Coaching with creative writing. Her workshops have also been inspired by the work of Paulo Freire and his philosophy of education for liberation, and the work of Brene Brown. Nina was an original member of the experimental dance troupe Contraband, in San Francisco and, playing a purple electric bass, has recorded and performed with numerous bands.

It often feels like time is a conveyer belt, ushering us forward year after year. It moves faster and faster, sometimes at a pace that makes it hard to glance back and savor what’s been. Sometimes a lifetime moves too quickly for us to be intentional about where we are going. 

We just keep moving.

On this week’s Twisting the Plot Podcast, Hannah and Cecilia take a pause and consider time from a different direction, vertically instead of horizontally. In this way, time becomes more than a runaway train. Time, and our lives, can be a multi-layered, generational weave of the past, present and future.

Twisting time gives life texture. 

We hope you take a listen and share your thoughts with us.