The bestselling author of Work as a Spiritual Practice presents a user’s life guide to aging well and making every year fulfilling and transformative.

Everything changes. For Buddhist priest and meditation teacher Lewis Richmond, this fundamental Buddhist tenet is the basis for a new inner road map that emerges in the later years, charting an understanding that can bring new possibilities, fresh beginnings, and a wealth of appreciation and gratitude for the life journey itself.

In Aging as a Spiritual Practice, Richmond acknowledges the fear, anger, and sorrow many people experience when they must confront the indignities of their aging bodies and the unknowns associated with mortality. This wise, compassionate book guides readers through the key stages of aging, such as when “lightning strikes”–the moment we wake up to our aging–as well as the processes of adapting to change, letting go of who we were, embracing who we are, and appreciating our unique life chapters. Unlike many philosophical works on aging, however, this one incorporates illuminating facts from scientific researchers, doctors, and psychologists, as well as contemplative practices and guided meditations on aging’s various challenges and rewards. The tandem of maintaining a healthy body and healthy relationships, infused with an active spiritual life, is explored in rejuvenating detail.

Breath by breath, moment by moment, Richmond’s teachings inspire limitless opportunities for a joy that transcends age.

Tools and anecdotes to reframe aging from the bestselling author of Work as a Spiritual Practice and Aging as a Spiritual Practice.

Aging is not just a process, but a journey: a decades-long adventure of new opportunities and surprises. And while loss, tragedy, and decline are inevitably part and parcel of getting older, so too are joys, gifts, and new discoveries. For men in particular, the decline in virility and power that accompanies age is a tough pill to swallow: when these fall away, what remains? And without them, what does it mean to be a man?

As life unfolds, a man’s identity is renewed, reviewed, and negotiated: the markers that make him himself at 20 won’t be the same at 35, 50, or 70. This book shows readers how to turn toward these changes, to come into their own as older men by reframing the losses of age as strengths and opportunities for growth.

Drawing from interviews and personal anecdotes, each chapter includes a contemplative practice called Deep Mind Reflection to help readers navigate aging and topics like divorce and single living; illness, death, and emotions; relating to partners; health, denial, and substance abuse; retirement and encore careers; and reframing a masculine identity once predicated on strength and virility. For every challenge or difficulty men face as they age, there are positive outcomes and fresh possibilities. This book encompasses the totality: fears and aspirations, new careers and next steps, and spiritual preparation for the final decades of life.