I think that Star Trek has the best greeting phrase ever “Live Long and Prosper”. But what does that really mean? I love to read about how people do it “right”. Recently, National Geographic did a study on the people who lived the longest, and most fufilling lives. Because what good is extending your life by a month if you are tied to tubes, taking pain medications and are in and out of consciousness. Doesn’t sound too prosperous to me…
So what does it take to live a long, fufilling life where people die comfortably in their sleep with their family and friends around them? According to this research from across the world, it takes a variety of things.
Here are a few of the traits that I really thought were worth capturing here:
1) Move naturally. This is different than exercise. It is incorporating physical activity into what you do with your life.
2) Eat in moderation and eat naturally. Do not stuff yourself with food. Eat food that is in your local area. In the Italy (Sardinia) example it was a lot of sheep, Mediterranean plants and red wine. In Japan (Okinawa) it was fish, fermented soy and vegetables. In the California 7th Day Adventists it was a vegetarian diet.
3) Surround yourself with people who love and support you. This one should be easy, but it is increasingly difficult in our detached, technologically driven society. Belonging to a faith or reverence community is very supportive to this. Surrounding yourself by other people who are living in a way that will extend and improve their lives will help yours!
4) Have a purpose to your life. This, again, seems easier said than done. But a purpose can be anything that makes you get up in the morning…preferably something you are looking forward to waking up for.
5. Decompress, daily and weekly. Meditate, pray, and otherwise “downshift” from stress-mode, to peace mode.
These seem like relatively simple things, but in industrialized nations, the number one killers (cancer, heart disease) are usually a reflection of not doing many of these things. Smoking, overeating, lack of movement, high stress for prolonged periods, and social isolation are all killing people 10-20 years earlier than they should be living. And it is also taking with it the good quality of life we are looking for.
Happiness is not found in a bottle or burger or any other consumer item, but in the things we often neglect the most. It is an attitude and lifestyle adjustment. It is when you realize that living long and prospering is about shifting priorities and putting what many people place on the back burner (setting time purposefully for family, friends, movement, cooking and eating good food, and slowing down) to the front.
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