The Blue Zones: 9 Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest

by Dan Buettner

9. Centenarians are not usually vegetarians but they follow a vegetarian-based diet, mostly as a result of a dependency on homegrown or locally grown food. In what ways can you gradually adapt a more vegetarian-based diet? What could your local leaders do to help make it a community-wide goal? What do you believe the benefits would be? 10. Centenarians in the Blue Zones lead active lives, yet they never set foot in a gym. What can we learn from their style of activity and how can we apply it to our lives and our community life? What could be the cement to make it stick? 11. People in the Blue Zones seem to exude a sense of sublime serenity, yet their stories tell us that they have not lived stress-free lives. In what ways does the “convenience” of modern lifestyle contribute to our stress? What lessons can we learn from Blue Zones centenarians about how to handle life’s stressors? 12. Sardinia’s Raffaella Monne tells us, “Life is short. Don’t run so fast you miss it.” In what ways are we running too fast? What can we do as individuals and as a community to slow down? 13. We learn that 102-year-old Okinawan Kamada Nakazato spends every afternoon sharing companionship with her moai, a group of lifelong friends. Visualize what this type of ritualized companionship could be like in the United States, and the benefits it would offer. How could your own group be more like a moai? How could you make the concept spread in your own community? 14. Buettner tells us that the weekly 2...