Vorwort

• 
Jean Shinoda Bolen is a globally renowned medical doctor, psychiatrist, and a Jungian analyst.

• She averages thirty events per year both in person and virtual, and has spoken all over the world, including at UN Women’s Summits.


• Her books have sold well over a million copies. 


• She runs with a powerful pack of women including Gloria Steinem. Her contributions to feminism over the decades is remarkable and continues on to this day. 


  Autorentext

  Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD, is a psychiatrist, Jungian analyst, Diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, former professor of psychiatry, and an internationally known author and speaker. She is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a recipient of the Institute for Health and Healing's Pioneers in Art, Science, and the Soul of Healing Award.

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology presented her the Demeter Award for her lifetime achievement in women's spirituality.

Dr. Bolen has authored over ten books with over a hundred foreign editions. Her book inspired The Millionth Circle Initiative (www.millonthcircle.org) and led to her involvement at the UN.

She currently maintains a private practice in Mill Valley, California.

Klappentext

In Crones Don't Whine, embrace the power of the crone years and unlock personal growth as you age gracefully. In other works like Goddesses in Everywoman and Goddesses in Older Women, bestselling author Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., inspired a generation of women to realize their potential and value. Hundreds of thousands of copies later, she still has a profound effect on the lives of women.

Zusammenfassung

Discover the Power of Crone Wisdom in this Wonderful Gift for Women

“Skip the midlife crisis and embrace the joys of aging with this “lighthearted manual on how to become a juicy and wise old woman”. —Isabelle Allende, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

#1 Bestseller in Adulthood & Aging and Mysticism

In Crones Don't Whine, embrace the power of the crone years and unlock personal growth as you age gracefully. In other works like Goddesses in Everywoman and Goddesses in Older Women, bestselling author Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., inspired a generation of women to realize their potential and value. Hundreds of thousands of copies later, she still has a profound effect on the lives of women.

Discover the transformative power of embracing your crone years. Celebrated by renowned figures like Isabel Allende, Gloria Steinem, and Alice Walker, acclaimed author Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. presents thirteen essential qualities to nurture personal growth during what could be your most empowering stage of life. Embrace the wisdom and vitality that await you and celebrate the divine feminine within.

Forget about getting old and start embracing the beauty of aging gracefully. Through thirteen lighthearted yet thought-provoking essays and practical exercises (plus a new introduction for this updated edition), Dr. Bolen invites you to listen to your inner wisdom, reinvent yourself, and savor the goodness life has to offer. Join the ranks of wise women who have embraced their crone years and realized their true potential. Your journey towards personal growth and self-discovery begins here.

Inside, you'll find:

• Thirteen essential qualities to cultivate personal growth during your crone years
• Thought-provoking essays and practical exercises
• A lighthearted yet profound exploration of the transformative phase of a woman's life

If you’re a fan of Dr. Bolen, or have liked books like Women Rowing North, Wild Mercy, or Goddesses Never Age, order a copy of Crones Don’t Whine! 


Leseprobe

A New Perspective on the “Crone” Word

THERE IS A MEDIEVAL SOUND to the word “crone”and a mischievous note to the suggestion that a woman would aspire to be one. It's not what any of us aspired to be in our youth, but that was when an older woman never told her true age, and before women came into their own as people in their own right or lived as long as we now do. We of the Women's Movement generation or its subsequent beneficiaries continue to have opportunities that never existed for all the generations (as far back as the ancient Greeks) that preceded us. We have been reinventing ourselves at each stage of life. I am proposing that it is time to reclaim and redefine “crone” from the word pile of disparaging names to call older women, and to make becoming a “crone” a crowning inner achievement of the third phase of life.

To be a crone is about inner development, not outer appearance. A crone is a woman who has wisdom, compassion, humor, courage, and vitality. She has a sense of truly being herself, can express what she knows and feels, and take action when need be. She does not avert her eyes or numb her mind from reality. She can see the flaws and imperfections in herself and others, but the light in which she sees is not harsh and judgmental. She has learned to trust herself to know what she knows.

These crone qualities are not acquired overnight. One does not become a full-fledged crone automatically following menopause, any more than growing older and wiser go hand in hand. There are decades that follow menopause in which to grow psychologically and spiritually.

Crones don't whine is a fundamental characterization. It's a basic “rule” that describes conduct unbecoming of a crone. Whining is an attitude that blocks spiritual and psychological development. Whining makes genuine communication impossible and extorts what then cannot be freely given. To catch oneself whining is an “aha!” moment. This insight can be the beginning of wisdom for a whiner who has the ability to observe herself and wants to change.

While an ordinary mirror reflects surface appearances, descriptive words can be mirrors in which we see intangible qualities having to do with soul. Each of the thirteen chapters that follow in the next section focuses on such qualities, specifically those that are characteristic of juicy, wise women. It is in cultivating these qualities that the third phase of life becomes a culmination time for inner beauty and wisdom. It is the perspective that makes the prime years of this phase of life an especially rich time to enjoy who we are, what we have, and what we are doing. It is a time when wisdom calls upon us to use our time, energy, and vitality well. It is an opportunity to have more chances, experience shifts in roles, and develop talents and interests. This may be a time to play and express affection, or a time for creativity or sensuality, or a time for meditation or therapy, or a time for family or a time when family recedes, or a time to make a difference in the world.

Crones can make a difference. What you say and do can change a dysfunctional family pattern. Your mentoring can support and make it possible for another to grow and blossom. You can be a healing influence for good. You can have a ripple effect throughout generations to come or through institutions and communities. With vision and intention, and in numbers and influence, crones together can change the world.

While this was written with women in the prime post menopausal years of life in mind, if you glean something from reading this earlier in life, so much the better! So listen up, precrones! Also, while men are handicapped by socialization and physiology, exceptional men can be crones.

It's a wise woman who reads the thirteen qualities and is amused to realize that she can see herself and the idea of being a crone, or becoming one…