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Why Create Habits for a Long Quality Life?

Longevity wasn’t really a goal of mine until now. Becoming a parent put a value on my life I wasn’t expecting, with a hard stop punctuated at the end. I wanted to create habits for a long quality life. Surprisingly, when you acknowledge you only have a set amount of time to live, you actually appreciate life even more. Every day becomes a gift, and without even knowing it, you’ve stumbled into a gratitude practice. 

Stoicism, an ancient Greek philosophy, has taught lessons in accepting one’s own mortality, and thus living a higher quality life. Marcus Aurelius, a stoic philosopher stated “Let each thing you would do, say or intend be like that of a dying person.” If you were dying, which we all are slowly doing, would you make changes? One easy way to make a change is to start living a healthier lifestyle. Habits for a long quality life can be implemented today.

The Blue Zones of Happiness

I just recently picked up two books titled The Blue Zones. The Blue Zones of Happiness focuses on creating the optimum environment for health, and The Blues Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest interviews and researches people who live in Blue Zones, places where people live a robust and healthy life well into their 90’s. These places include Italy, Japan, Loma Linda, Nicoya Peninsula, California, and Costa Rica. The author, who writes for National Geographic, visits these places, researches their culture, and then provides lessons based on the longest living people. I’ve summarized them for you in this post, but feel free to check out the books or the website. You can even take a longevity quiz here. You might also like how to make your home happier, and your community happier using the lessons from Blue Zones of Happiness.

8 Habits For a Long Quality Life

Move

I used to think exercise had to be painful to be beneficial, with the “no pain, no gain” mentality. This is not the case. In fact, you should find ways you can exercise without even knowing you’re exercising. You actually don’t need a personal trainer. You don’t even need a gym membership, but you do need a bit of motivation just to get the initial habit started.

In The Power of Habit, author Charles Duhigg writes that including a “trigger” may help you create a habit. This trigger might be putting your gym shoes out the night before, or instead of taking a donut break, because you’re brain is tired, actually take a brain break by walking outside. If your trigger happens to be stress, try subbing in a short walk.

Another way to move more is to find exercise that you enjoy. I love walking, biking, swimming, and yoga. These activities I could do every day, no problem. I sometimes like running,  lifting weights, playing soccer, fitness classes or even workout DVD’s, and so I do these every once in a while. Try a new form of exercise and see if you enjoy it. I had forgotten how much I love to swim, especially in a lake. Moving is one of the most important habits for a long quality life. 

Eat Less

I love to eat, and for the most part indulge here and there. However, I don’t like the feeling after Thanksgiving when I’ve eaten all the potatoes, and the green bean casserole, and then helped myself to a large slice of apple pie. That’s not enjoyable. Once a year on Thanksgiving, perhaps that type of indulgence is fine, but not every day. Be mindful of when you are done eating. Also, periods of fasting have actually been found to be beneficial (Stipp). During times of fasting your body doesn’t have to focus on digesting food. You may even think more clearly. 

Consider eating less meat. Scientists “analyzed six different studies of thousands of vegetarians and found that those that restrict meat are associated with living longer” (Buettner 239). Watch a few documentaries about the meat industry, and you may feel differently about getting fast food every day, or buying packaged and processed meat in the grocery store. Even better, watch a hunter, scout, search, harvest, and package an animal, and you’ll grow to appreciate how much effort it takes to consume meat. The convenience we have from the meat industry, isn’t necessary beneficial to our health and goes against habits for a long quality life. 

Even more important for your health than eating less meat, is to avoid processed foods. You are bombarded with food products everywhere. Just look down the cereal aisle in the grocery store. Each box is targeting a child in hopes the child will beg their parent to buy it, eat a bowl, get a sugar rush, and become addicted to it first thing in the morning. Try cutting out a few processed foods a week. You don’t have to be perfect, just eat less. You won’t miss them in the long run.

Drink in Moderation

Specifically, drink red wine. I love having a glass of wine while I cook dinner, or nibble on an appetizer with friends. The best idea is to combine a glass or two with good friends. Could you have a happy hour at your house with your neighbors weekly, and then follow it up with a shared meal? To take advantage of the health benefits, all you need is a “serving or two per day.” Obviously, drinking in excess isn’t the goal. If it does happen, your body will send you a painful reminder the following morning. 🙂 I learned this lesson repeatedly in my 20’s. 🙂

Find Purpose

“Find your purpose” has become a bit of a cliche, but it can actually create a “buffer against stress and help reduce [the] chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s, arthritis, and stroke” (Buettner 245). One of the cultures studied in the book Blue Zones were the Okinawans. They have a word for this idea: ikigai. It “essentially translates to why I wake up in the morning” (Buettner 245). If you’ve ever read the book Flow by Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, you’ve thought about those activities that you feel totally immersed in. These activities can give you purpose. The activities also have to be equally challenging. For example, watching T.V. is an activity, but it’s not equally challenging.

In my life I have found “flow” while teaching, reading, writing, learning a new skill, playing sports, and traveling. Once you identify these “flow” states, you can begin cutting out activities that don’t give you purpose. If you can’t identify “flow” states, start experimenting. This new experience could be one of your habits for a long quality life. 

Rest

For all the technological advances, we should have more time to relax, rest, and just be. However, more than ever we are running even busier schedules. I used to think being busy was a badge of honor. “I’m important, because I have so many obligations.” Nah, turns out being busy just creates a shorter and more stressful life.

Instead, prioritize rest. Rest doesn’t have to be sitting, or sleeping. It can be a walk in nature in the middle of the day, a call to a friend, or actually enjoying eating your lunch. Self-care can be anything that gets your mind to be in the present moment. I’ve found that being in nature jolts me into this zone faster than any other method. Take a break, and get outside to enjoy the beautiful world we live in.

Create Community

Yes, attending religious events actually helps you live longer. One example of this are the 7th day Adventists. They are famous for their longevity because they treat their body like a temple, very little meat and processed foods (MacVean) . On top of that, they also have a strong religious community. Buettner writes that “Studies have shown attending religious services – even as infrequently as once a month – may make a difference in how long a person lives” (251).

If a religious community isn’t for you, try to get involved in a different community organization. If you live in the Portland or Vancouver area, we happen to have robust neighborhood associations, and community development programs. Get involved in the school system, run for school board, teach in your industry, or even just meet your neighbors. These are all ways to create community and build habits for a long quality life. 

Prioritize Family

My husband and I currently find ourselves split between working hard to get out of student loan debt as fast as possible and spending time together as a family. Those are the top priorities. Our time cannot be spent without focus. It is precious. We’ve prioritized making time to enjoy activities together as a family. This seems obvious, but can be forgotten with busy schedules, side-hustles, and hobbies taking up time in the evening or weekends.

Another way to prioritize family is to spend time with extended family. We are lucky to live very close to extended family on my husband’s side. Both sets of grandparents lovingly care and interact with our daughter, and have helped with a variety of childcare needs. Furthermore, she has a gaggle of cousins within a 30 mile radius and doting aunts and uncles as well.

If your extended family lives further away, it can be harder to prioritize. The way our family has prioritized this is by cutting out extraneous travel, and  instead making a priority to visit family and friends each year back in my hometown. We stay for an extended time to make it worth the flight. No it’s not a vacation in Mexico, but this vacation does include childcare, sauna, a cabin, and my mother’s cooking. It’s an all-inclusive Minnesota experience!

Choose the Right Friends

Furthermore, surround yourself with the best possible people you can find. You are the average of all the people you spend your time with. Who do you interact with the most? I have found friendship to be extremely helpful to my own personal well-being, especially during stressful and exhausting states in my life. Finding a great group of friends to help you through parenthood, or starting a new job is a necessity. As you have more demands on your time, it becomes increasingly more difficult to schedule time with friends. I’m so grateful for the girlfriends who insist on hanging out, even when I am exhausted from my tasks of a working mother. Find these friends, and prioritize the relationship. Your longevity depends on it.

Final Words

Make these 8 longevity habits a priority. Unfortunately, some of these habits, earlier in my life, were forgotten. Who needs rest? Why is community important? Less meat, really? Technically, these all should be priorities if you want to have a robust and active life. Even friendship can be what keeps you alive, healthy and vibrant.

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Join the discussion:

What habits for a long quality life do you need to make a top priority? 

Author

-Maria Halcumb
B.A. in Secondary Education, English, and Physical Education
M.A. Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction and Reading Specialist

Sources:

Buettner, Dan. The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer from the People Whove Lived the Longest. National Geographic, 2012.

Buettner, Dan. The Blue Zones of Happiness: a Blueprint for a Better Life. National Geographic, 2017.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper Row, 2009.

Duhigg, Charles. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change It. Random House, 2012.

MacVean, Mary. “Why Loma Linda Residents Live Longer than the Rest of Us: They Treat the Body like a Temple.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2015, www.latimes.com/health/la-he-blue-zone-loma-linda-20150711-story.html#.

Stipp, David. “How Intermittent Fasting Might Help You Live a Longer and Healthier Life.” Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-intermittent-fasting-might-help-you-live-longer-healthier-life/.