Aging Naturally

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I consider it important for both doctors and patients to know how to assess spiritual health. Today there is a minor trend in medical education to offer some instruction in this area. More often than not, however, it is offered as an elective, and often it is linked to teaching about death and dying. At its best, it makes medical students aware of this other dimension of human life and gives them tools to help patients know their strengths and weaknesses, whether or not they have life-threatening illnesses.

One way to promote spiritual well-being is through the writing of an ethical will. An ordinary will or last testament mainly concerns the disposition of your material possessions at death. An ethical will has to do with nonmaterial gifts: the values and life lessons that you wish to leave to others.

In many cultures, elders, sages and saints have saved some of their pithiest teachings for students and disciples gathered at their deathbeds. Hindu saints, Zen masters and Jewish rabbis have been particularly good at this sort of thing; many of their final words have been written down for posterity. Jewish ethical wills almost 1,000 years old are preserved, and the practice of writing them appears to go back at least 1,000 years before that.

I can think of no better way to close this article than to recommend that you undertake the composition of an ethical will. No matter how old you are, it will make you take stock of your life experience and distill from it the values and wisdom you have gained. You can then put the document aside, read it over as the years pass and revise it from time to time as you see fit. It can be a wonderful gift to leave to your family at the end of your life, but I think its primary importance is what it can give you in the midst of life.

Aging brings rewards as well as challenges. And to age gracefully requires that we stop denying the fact of aging and learn and practice what we have to do to keep our bodies and minds in good working order through all phases of life. The first step toward aging gracefully is to look at the process squarely and honestly and understand it for what it is. My hope is that I have helped you to do just that.

Dr. Weil is clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona, where he founded and directs the program in integrative medicine, a healing-oriented form of medicine that draws on both conventional and alternative therapies. For more information, visit integrativemedicine.arizona.edu

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