Natasha Ginnivan

After pursuing a career in fashion design in my 20s and 30s, I had the good fortune to be able to return to study psychology and aging at university. Little did I know that I would soon stumble across the work of Becca Levy, a renowned Yale Professor and author of Breaking the Age Code (becca-levy.com/the-book/). I had the great honor of being mentored by Becca for part of my PhD project, visiting with her at Yale in 2012.

Transitions are not always easy. Change, whether it be chosen, or thrust upon us, often requires shifting our attitudes and expectations. Culturally, we often see early life transitions - possibly during adolescence or early adulthood - as our most opportune time in life. The world is your oyster, you have your whole life ahead of you!

Breathing new energy into old ego patterns can sometimes ‘ventilate’ habitual entanglements that we have built up over a lifetime. Ventilating these built-up patterns is important for disentangling complex ego defenses that have in fact served us throughout our life, however, without the ability to self-reflect, our own minds can become an obstacle to wisdom and growth.