I’ve led a really amazing life.
I just wish I’d known it while it was happening!
Yes, the drama and trauma of my decades of trying to figure it all out caused me to miss a lot of the glory.
Then the reflection and integration that came with achieving 80 changed the game.
(photo with my anam cara (“soul friends”) at my 80th birthday weekend celebration at Braveheart Ranch)
Turning 80 was a WOW. I’ve never felt a number in my bones before (and, believe me, I pay attention to my bones). Typically, we don’t feel different inside as we age — but 80? Something in me had more to say. A whole new freedom showed up. A sense of radical, glorious choice I didn’t allow myself before.
And a loud inner voice declaring, “If not now, WHEN?!” I mean, get a grip, woman. This is your beautifully imperfect, soul-carved life. You’ve been growing into it all along—and it is still calling you forward.
When I was talking to my executor and said, “If I die early…” she looked at me and reminded me, “It’s too late for that.”
For years we’ve heard about lifespan — how long we live — and more recently, healthspan — how well we live during those years. But what if there’s a third span, equally vital, that speaks to the essence of who we are becoming?
I call it SoulSpan™— the dimension of life that honors our deepening, our wisdom, our joy, and the soulful radiance that grows brighter with age, not dimmer.
The word I’m choosing to capture this quality is Vivessence. It’s not just living long, or living well, but living fully — with the soul’s deep knowing that life continues.
In a time when we’re being told to fight aging or reverse it, Vivessence invites us to revere it. To welcome the beauty of becoming, the adventure of embodiment, and the grace of growing into what’s most alive and true.
SoulSpan asks:
– Are we living in a way that uplifts our spirit?
– Are we listening to sources of wisdom beyond our oh-so-busy minds?
– Are we giving voice to what is most alive in us?
– Are we becoming more fully ourselves?
Lifespan gives you years.
Healthspan gives you energy.
SoulSpan gives you meaning.
This is the gift of elderhood at its best: not irrelevance, but irreverent, wise, and gloriously alive.
Vivessence is the quality that marks this kind of elder — one who is lit from within, guided by soul, and still growing toward what’s most alive and true.
My wish for all of us:
May we find a place of belonging,
Where our bodies feel good to live in,
Our minds expand,
And our spirits soar.
This is SoulSpan. This is Vivessence.
And my experience is that you’ll find it — and me in 2026! — at MEA. Adding my wild wisdom to the soulful mix of programming and possibility that heralds the kind of life we recognize as blessed — not just in hindsight, but as we live it.
-Gail
Gail Larsen’s work has been described by Fast Company as “transforming your relationship to your voice via the deepest stirrings of your soul.” She is the author of Transformational Speaking: If You Want to Change the World, Tell a Better Story (Random House and Brilliance Audio) and serves a global audience through both her Online Academy and live immersions in Santa Fe, NM. www.realspeaking.com.© 2025 Gail Larsen