Report on the Modern Elder Academy by Angela Galloway.
Midlife is a time when we’re often hit by successive (and sometimes overlapping) ‘waves of transition’ across multiple areas of our lives that can leave us feeling as though we’ve been knocked for six. Careers come to an end, relationships hit rocky ground, children leave the nest, parents require support and health concerns arise. In order to emerge out the other side and step into a second act filled with purpose and possibility, we need to learn to navigate these transitions successfully.
Until recently, we were all expected to just figure this out for ourselves (without missing a beat … or god forbid looking untethered). But the cavalry have arrived in the shape of the Modern Elder Academy (MEA), the world’s first midlife wisdom school, who have developed an online course to help navigate midlife’s most common transitions with confidence and a fresh perspective.
MEA is the brainchild of New York Times best-selling author and hospitality maverick Chip Conley, who founded the second largest chain of boutique hotels in the USA and then went on to help the founders of Airbnb (then a small tech start-up) disrupt the hospitality industry to create the world’s most valuable hospitality brand. His book Wisdom@Work, The Making of a Modern Elder, became the inspiration for founding the Modern Elder Academy. The first MEA campus opened in Baja, Mexico in 2018. Since then over 1,500 people from 25 countries, have undertaken MEA’s range of programmes in Baja and online.
The objective of Modern Elder Academy is to inspire and empower people in midlife and beyond and disrupt society’s out-dated attitudes towards aging. Because here’s the thing … we’re living 30 years longer than a century ago. Today, at age 50 we’re only half-way through our adult lives and yet as a society, we’re still being held back by the antiquated belief that the best is behind us. The time has come to ‘consciously uncouple’ our chronological age from antiquated images of what certain ages ‘should’ look like and be open to adopting a more modern approach to ageing. This includes accepting that midlife is full of transitions … and getting more adept at navigating them!
Until recently, MEA workshops were only available in North America, but thanks to a team of enthusiastic Australian alumni, they have now arrived down under, branded as MEAx. The first MEAx workshop is the popular 8-week online course Navigating Midlife Transitions, commencing on 3 October 2021. It will help you to become a skilled transitionist, because as Chip Conley says; “Life is no longer a one tank journey. MEA is an important pit stop, where you cultivate and harvest your wisdom, refuel your confidence levels and create a life that is as deep and meaningful as it is long.”
MEAx are running free one-hour online info sessions.
To book a spot got to https://meax.com.au/meax-connex/ or to find out more about their online course go to https://meax.com.au/mea-online/
