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CONSCIOUSNESS AND UNCONSCIOUSNESS REGARDING WOMEN AND AGING Phoebe Girard, Director Women to Women Project Santa Fe, New Mexico What is consciousness? Consciousness is the state when we are connected to the greatest number of aspects of our human makeup. We seek to become continually aware of these many different parts of our self. In our lifetime, we strive for wholeness, an integration of body, mind and spirit. More than likely, we will not reach that wholeness during this lifetime, but as with many human other endeavors, it is our goal. What is unconsciousness? Unconsciousness is the opposite. Namely, we are unaware of many aspects of our self. Because of this lack of awareness, or lack of being in touch with the many parts of ourselves we “react” to the world. Unconsciousness is a defended position or a position of fear. Defenses protect us from knowledge of ourselves. What does conscious aging look like? Conscious aging seeks ways to enter the later phase of life in an aware and intentional way. It acknowledges that there is something to be learned, something to be gained, and does not “react” with an anti-aging response (fight) or with a defeated response which denies aging (flight). A conscious approach neither over values growing older , nor undervalues it. Instead, a person seeking conscious aging tries to remain open to this life experience, and to seek a deepening spirit and the most authentic, truthful and harmonious sense of self. Who seeks conscious aging? Certainly people who have been life long seekers will more than likely continue their search into old age. And sometimes, the willingness to look past middle age, toward old age, can start a process of searching and spiritual deepening which moves someone towards consciousness. Others may be thrust into this process through crisis, loss, diminishment which often accompany midlife and the later years. What are the reasons to seek consciousness? If we continue to be unconscious in our private individual lives, we perpetuate the existing belief system about women, women’s bodies, aging, and the place of women. As each woman seeks to become personally more conscious, we heal our individual selves AND we heal our culture. “We cannot hope to reclaim our bodily wisdom and inherent ability to create health without first understanding the influence of our society on how we think about and care for our bodies.” Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom, Christiane Northrup MD p 3. “Remaining unconscious about our acculturated habits taken
an enormous emotional and physical toll on our bodies and spirits. These habits
keep us from being connected with our inner guidance and our emotions. This
disconnection, in turn, keeps us in a state of pain that increases the longer we
deny it. It takes a lot of energy to stay out of touch with this pain and we
often turn to acculturated habits, such as addictive substances, to keep us from
confronting that unhappiness and pain.” As we seek to heal our own bodies, minds and spirits we are potentially healing the culture, the world that we live in and moving to a higher quality of life for all human beings. Striving towards our own higher consciousness and joining with other women in that effort is important work.
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