It's Never Too Early to Start Good Life Habits
Written by Dan Buettner
It's usually not the young among us who are focused on improving their lifestyle and achieving longevity. Why? Simple: longevity's just not on your mind at a young age.
But our research in the BlueZones has shown that it's never to early to start developing healthy habits that will pay off much later in life.
We used a forensic approach – looking at how BlueZones centenarians lived the first half of their lives. Uniformly we found that the people who survived into their 100's had solidified their lifestyles early on. Take Okinawan women over 70 – the longest-lived population on the planet. After the US Base was established in Okinawa following World War II, the food culture completely changed – from plant based to, quite literally, Spam-based. Today, men under 55 (reared immediately following WWII) have the shortest life expectancy in all of Japan's 43 prefectures while women just 15 years older (reared before WWII) have the highest in the world.
5 Things You Can Do TODAY To Get Happier!
Written by Dan Buettner
Studies show that money can buy happiness, but only until the point where you have enough to cover expenses for food, shelter, health care, and transportation. After that, more money brings diminishing returns. So, where to put your energy and resources if you want to maximize your happiness?- INVEST IN YOUR HEALTH – Health is a prerequisite to happiness. In other words, You can't be happy if you're unhealthy. Eating wisely and moving naturally are the best way to get fit
- CREATE QUALITY FRIENDSHIPS – When it comes to a social network, quality is more important the quantity. Having two good friends who care about you – whether your chips are up or down – is more important than a huge network. We often forget that friends rarely come on their own accord: they require effort, time and nurturing.
- EXPLORE YOUR RELIGION – World surveys show that religious people are more happy than non-religious people. Religious people are more likely to have a strong social network and to be at peace with their lives and mortality. What to do: if you have a religion, make and effort to reconnect with it. If not, visit four new religous communities in the next three months and see if any of them align with your values.
- SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOUR HOBBY – Build a model, knit a sweater, climb a cliff, cook a gourmet meal. The point is to spend time engaged in activities wherein you are optimally challenged, you get immediate feedback, you lose sense of time and you do it because it's intrinsically rewarding. Psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi identifies this state as the state of flow. It is perhaps the best way to achieve authentic sustainable happiness.
- IF YOU'RE UNHAPPY, MOVE – Where you live has a bigger impact on your happiness than your marital status, income, or even education level. If you are not happy where you are, consider moving. World-wide studies show that the happiest places on earth are not tropical islands but place where you feel secure, people around you have the same level of status as you do and it's easy to find a job that is interesting.
The power of positive thinking
Written by Michelle Albert
Like quite a few other Americans, I spent some time over the holidays traveling. At one national hotel chain, I spotted a banana sitting on the top of the clean linens in the cleaning cart. The banana reminded me of a recent study by Harvard psychologists of cleaning personnel in the Boston area. These scientists found that simply by giving the cleaning personnel positive messages about the health benefits of their jobs, the cleaning women (yes, they were all women) lost a few pounds and lowered their blood pressure when compared to a control group that didn’t receive such a positive message. What’s the point? While all these women are engaged in a job with lots of physical activity, the effect seems clear: The way we think of our activities seems to play a role in the benefits we get from them. So the next time you are climbing your stairs with bags of groceries in hand, remind yourself that this is a healthy activity.
How can you encourage positive thinking in your daily environment? Try posting a reminder at the base of the stairs: "Stairs = Exercise = Healthy!"
Feeling stressed?
Written by Michelle Albert
It may not be a bad idea to laugh about it. A recent study showed that laughter may be the best medicine after all. Study subjects at the University of Maryland were shown a segment of a funny movie and part of a stressful movie (if you thought Saving Private Ryan was stressful, you are not alone), in random order of course. This is science after all. The scientists then took more than one hundred blood measurements.
Working from a baseline measurement, the scientists discovered that blood flow increased 22 percent on average when the subjects were laughing but decreased 35 percent during stressful periods. The long and short of the study? People who find it easy to laugh may be accruing benefits for their heart health. So, the next time something seems stressful – take a deep breath and chuckle.
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What is 'Outlook'?
A healthy outlook is an important component of longevity. The Okinawans call it Ikigai, and Nicoyans call it “plan de vida,” but in both cultures the phrase means “why I wake up in the morning.” Read more...
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