Welcome to The Gist. It's safe to say that without a crystal ball, none of us know for sure how long our lives will be. Hence the expression, life is short, because in many ways it is indeed quite fleeting. Yet for some, life can also be long. Could we all embrace the secrets of people in the world who have lived the longest and healthiest lives? Maybe some of us dread living until a 100, because we imagine ourselves to be frail, bed ridden or not in control of our faculties.
But what if we could lead active lives into our triple digits, full of warmth, connection, laughter and best of all, a sharp mind. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Well, that's exactly what many of the centenarians in the so called 'Blue Zones' are doing. These zones are areas of the world that seem to consistently have the highest concentration of people living into their nineties or past one hundred.
Dan Buettner, an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and National Geographic Fellow, has written extensively on this topic. He has worked with medical researchers, anthropologists, demographers and epidemiologists to identify five regions in the world that have people with outstanding longevity - Barbagia, a mountain highland of inner Sardinia, Ikaria, an Aegean Island in Greece, Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, Okinawa, Japan and Loma Linda, California. In his numerous books and on his Blue Zones website, Dan outlines the main findings from research conducted on people living in these regions.
Certainly, these people have won the genetic lottery to be able to live so many decades with good health. But combined with genes, they also have remarkably common lifestyle habits despite living in very different parts of the world. Here are five key habits that stood out for me from Dan's work:
1. 80 % Rule with Food - Learning to stop short of being completely full gives Blue Zoners a much higher chance of maintaining a healthy weight and staving off all sorts of chronic physical problems such as diabetes and arthritis. They also eat little to no processed foods, choosing fresh whole foods instead. And the majority of Blue Zone diets are plant-based with meats and fish forming an occasional part of a meal, generally on special occasions.
2. Moving naturally - Blue zoners don't hit the gym and train for ultramarathons. Instead, they lead very active lives filled with daily activities such as gardening, housework, walking to run errands and carrying groceries up and down stairs.
3. Having Purpose - Living life with a sense of purpose leads to a positive mindset. And gets people excited to wake up in the morning to engage in the unfolding of each day. Blue zoners continue to find life meaningful in big and small ways, which keeps them going day after day.
4. Downshifting - Blue zoners enjoy life! They have learned to recognize when they are feeling tired, unwell or overwhelmed and choose activities to de-stress on a regular basis. Be it through post-meal walks, enjoying the company of loved ones, or relaxing through meditation.
5. Belonging - People in these zones feel very content with their lives due in large part to their sense of connection and belonging. They tend to be immersed in a very supportive, positive family or community structure, what Buettner calls their 'right tribe'. They also put their loved ones first, making close intimate relationships a priority in their lives.
So, while we can never predict how long we will be here, by following some of these healthy habits that people in Blue Zones around the world seem to share, we can feel good about having done all we can to live a long, healthy and wonderfully content life. We will close off on that positive note hoping that all of us get to put some of these ideas into pr
