I am living in a time of wonders.

Beliefs about the limits of human potential are changing. Fifty years ago when I was a young man I doubt if I would have had the ability to write this book. I could not have worked out for myself the miracle of what it is to be human, the unlimited nature of our gifts, the power that is within each of us to take control of our lives, our health, the rate at which we age, indeed the extent to which we engage with the ageing process.
I have never written a book. Do not profess to holding any credentials that merit my recognition as a writer, and I am certainly not an academic, but I do believe I have information that is worth sharing. I have changed my life, improved my health, and dramatically altered my expectations as to how I will live out the rest of my existence, by creation and performance of a simple Ritual.
It is a fact that each one of us has a hand to play in how old we become. Not in our chronological age, but in how we present, how aged we seem, in the ability and faculty we retain and in our continuing ‘youthfulness’ and the extent of our decrepitude.
It is time to change perspective, to recognise that each and every one of us is involved and participant in the process of our ageing. We are not merely observers. Ageing is not some inexorable and dominant force upon our life. We age ourselves, just as we choose a car, or choose a house, we choose if we are to age or to remain vital and in good health.
The purpose of this book is to introduce you to a ritual. My Ritual. My invented regime that is a mental, spiritual and therapeutic workout performed every day.
The Ritual I have created, heals, rejuvenates, maintains and changes, everything. Not only our mindset, although that will be the first thing to alter, but our being, how we present, the energy we have, how we appear, the state we are in.
ORIGINS OF THE RITUAL

A Companion to Chivalry