On Saturday 9 November 2024, the San Diego Vedanta Monastery held a retreat on the topic of Aging Gracefully and Happily. The retreat featured featured four panelists speaking on different aspects of support, for those aging and their caregivers. Topics included Spiritual, Legal, Physical and Emotional perspectives of aging. The speakers were:
- Swami Satyamayananda, President, Vedanta Society of Western Washington
- Sheila Patel, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Chopra Global Carlsbad, California
- Anthony Kornarens, J.D. Vice-President, Vedanta Society of Southern California
- Rev. Natasha Eckholm, Staff Minister, Om Center for Spiritual Living, La Mesa, CA and Palliative Care Chaplin, UCSD Health
Below are some resources from the retreat:
Swami Satyamayananda – Aging Gracefully and Happily Video
To access this video on the San Diego Vedanta Monastery’s YouTube Page click the link below:
Aging Gracefully and Happily
Swami Satyamayananda Presentation
Shiela Patel Presentation
Natasha Eckholm Presentation
Anthony Kornarens Presentation
SCHEDULE
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2024 | Time: 9:15 AM to 1:00 PM Pacific Time (US)
Live in person at The San Diego Vedanta Monastery
Zoom: Aging Gracefully and Happily Zoom Broadcast
Session 1: 9:15AM – 11:15AM including 30 min Q&A
Session 2: 11:30AM – 1:15PM including 30 min Q&A
9:15AM: Opening Prayer and Introduction – Swami Harinamananda
- Purpose of this panel discussion
- How will/can the participant benefit
- Expected take-aways
9:30AM: Spiritual Perspectives – Swami Satyamayananda
- Viewing death spiritually by drawing from scriptures, religious beliefs and philosophy
- Role of spiritual practices and rituals, spiritual teachers, family and friends
10:00AM: Legal Perspectives – Anthony Kornarens J.D.
- End of Life Planning: Legal considerations, estate planning
- End of Life Planning: Financial considerations, asset distribution, planning of last rites
10:30AM – 11:15AM: Spiritual & Legal – Swami Satyamayananda & Anthony Kornarens
11:15AM: 11:30AM: BREAK
Session 2: 11:30AM – 1:15PM including 30 min Q&A
11:30AM – 12:00PM: Physical Perspectives – Dr. Sheila Patel M.D.
Dr. Patel will be discussing the medical perspective on aging from both a Western medicine and Ayurvedic perspective. Aging is a natural process and doesn’t have to mean debility. We can create a lifestyle that keeps us as healthy and vital as we age while also honoring the natural seasons of life.
12:00PM – 12:30PM: Emotional Perspectives – Rev Natasha Eckholm
- How to accept changing role in family and society
- How to let go of autonomy
- How to deal with fear and anxiety related to aging and death
12:30PM – 1:15PM: Q&A Physical & Emotional – Dr. Sheila Patel & Rev Natasha Eckholm
1:15PM: Closing Prayer
Speakers
Swami Satyamayananda
President and Minister-in-charge,
Vedanta Society of Western Washington.
Swami Satyamayananda became President and Minister-in-charge of the Vedanta Society of Western Washington in 2023, after serving as Assistant Minister there in 2022. Previously, he was Assistant Minister at the Vedanta Society of Southern California from 2018 to 2021.
Swami Satyamayananda became a member of the Ramakrishna Order at Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata in 1988. An initiated disciple of Swami Bhuteshananda (the twelfth president of the Order), he served in various capacities at Advaita Ashrama. In 2008, he joined the Probationers’ Training Centre, Belur Math, as an Acharya (teacher).
In 2010, the Swami was posted to Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, to serve as editor of Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India, an English-language magazine of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896. He was appointed as the Secretary of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Kanpur in 2014.
Sheila Patel, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Chopra Global Carlsbad, California
Dr. Sheila Patel is a board-certified family physician who earned her M.D. at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. For more than a decade, she practiced full-spectrum family medicine from prenatal care and deliveries, to ER coverage and primary care for all ages.
She is currently Medical Director of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California, where she offers integrative medical consultations that combine the best in conventional Western medicine with the wisdom of Ayurveda. She is also a practicing physician at an outpatient family medicine practice in San Diego County, where she is passionate about bringing holistic healing concepts into the Western medical system.
Anthony Kornarens, J.D.
Vice-President, Vedanta Society of Southern California.
Anthony Kornarens is general counsel and first vice-president of the Vedanta Society of Southern California. Anthony has counseled many clients on end-of-life matters and brings a spiritual, compassionate and practical perspective to planning for the end of life and embracing the opportunities that leaving the body provides. He has extensive experience counseling clients on how to embrace and to grow from their life experiences.
Reverend Natasha Eckholm
Staff Minister, Om Center for Spiritual Living, La Mesa, CA
Palliative Care Chaplin, UCSD Health
Religious Science is a metaphysical spiritual philosophy and denomination with roots in the 19th century that, along with Unity and Divine Science, is considered to be part of the New Thought movement.
Reverend Eckholm also serves as an interfaith Palliative Care Chaplain at UC San Diego Health, where she works with seriously ill patients and their families as they navigate their journeys through illness and life.
Reverend Eckholm looks forward to sharing her observations about aging gracefully drawn from her experiences in ministry and chaplaincy, along with her own lived experience.