A friend of mind, Lilian Exeter was noted as saying:
“I don’t really know what (age) I am! Middle-aged? Old-aged? I’m really nothing of that sort. I feel so young! We are always spiritually our same age; that’s ourselves. Here we are!”
Maybe you can relate. No matter how old we are in years doesn’t it seem we are always the same age?”
There has been much written regarding how we transcend age in consciousness. Perhaps you’ve already read some of it.
Dan Buettner, the founder of Blue Zones and has found five places on Earth where people live the longest, healthiest lives:
- Ikaria, Greece
- Sardinia, Italy
- Okinawa, Japan
- Nicoya, Costa Rica
- Loma Linda, California
His book The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest outlines various characteristics of people living in these areas. He cites how purpose and a sense of community are especially prevalent as well as a sense of ease.
Here are some excerpts:
Blue Zones Purpose
- “Older Okinawans can readily articulate the reason they get up in the morning. Their purpose-imbued lives gives them clear roles of responsibility and feelings of being needed well into their 100s.”
- “In Okinawa, there’s none of this artificial punctuation of life. Instead, the notion of ikigai — ‘the reason for which you wake up in the morning’ — suffuses people’s entire adult lives. It gets centenarians out of bed and out of the easy chair to teach karate, or to guide the village spiritually, or to pass down traditions to children.”
- “The Nicoyans in Costa Rica use the term plan de vida to describe a lifelong sense of purpose.”
- “As Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute on Aging, once told me, being able to define your life meaning adds to your life expectancy.”
You may enjoy this excerpt from the book:
Blue Zones Time
- “Seeking to learn more about the island’s reputation for long-lived residents, I called on Dr. Ilias Leriadis, one of Ikaria’s few physicians, in 2009. On an outdoor patio at his weekend house, he set a table with Kalamata olives, hummus, heavy Ikarian bread and wine. ‘People stay up late here,’ Leriadis said. ‘We wake up late and always take naps. I don’t even open my office until 11 a.m. because no one comes before then.’ He took a sip of his wine. ‘Have you noticed that no one wears a watch here? No clock is working correctly. When you invite someone to lunch, they might come at 10 a.m. or 6 p.m. We simply don’t care about the clock here.”
And you may appreciate these excerpts regarding community:
Blue Zones Community
- “Sardinia’s strong family values help assure that every member of the family is cared for. People who live in strong, healthy families suffer lower rates of depression, suicide, and stress.”
- “Men in this Blue Zone are famous for their sardonic sense of humor. They gather in the street each afternoon to laugh with and at each other. Laughter reduces stress, which can lower one’s risk of cardiovascular disease.”
- “Spend time with like-minded friends. They find well-being by sharing each other’s values and supporting each other’s habits.”
- “Nicoyan centenarians get frequent visits from neighbors. They know how to listen, laugh, and appreciate what they have.”
- “‘We know that people who make it to a hundred tend to be nice,’ he said. ‘They … drink from the fountain of life by being likeable and drawing people to them.’”
Be glad to spend time with you exploring and discovering together what it takes to stay heathy as we age enjoying our lives and sustaining our reason for being.
Thursday is the last day to enroll in the upcoming Conscious Healthy Sessions https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/81475/about
Register here: https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/81475/enroll
For our greater health,
Dr. Steve
