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

by Dan Buettner

LESSON FIVE: PURPOSE NOW Take time to see the big picture

Okinawans call it ikigai, and Nicoyans call it plan de vida, but in both cultures the phrase essentially translates to “why I wake up in the morning.” The...

Okinawans may act as a buffer against stress and help reduce their chances of suffering from Alzheimer’s ...

A sense of purpose may come from something as simple as seeing that children or grandchildren grow up well. Purpose can come from a job or a hobby, especially if you can immerse yourself completely in it. Claremont University psychologist Dr. Mihály Csíkszentmihályi best describes this feeling in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He defines flow as a Zen-like state of total oneness with the activity at hand in which you feel fully immersed in what you’re doing. It’s characterized by a sense of freedom, enjoyment, fulfillment, and skill, and while you’re in it, temporal concerns (time, food, ego/self, etc.) are typically ignored. If you can identify the activity that gives you this sense of flow and make it the focus of your job or hobby, it can also become your sense of purpose.

A new activity can give you purpose as well. Learning a musical

instrument or a new language gives you a double bonus, since both have been shown to help keep your brain sharper longer. “Exercising your brain is important,” says Dr. Thomas Perls of Boston University Medical School. “Doing things that are novel and complex. Once you get good at them, and they are no longer novel, then you move on to something else. So you’re kind of doing strength training for the brain, and that has been shown to de...

LESSON FIVE ST...

To realize your purpose, try the following tips. Craft a personal mission statement. If you don’t have a sense of purpose, how do you find it? Articulating your personal mission statement can be a good start. Begin by answering this question in a single, memorable sentence: Why do you get up in the morning? Consider what you’re passionate about, how you enjoy using your talents, and what is truly important to you. Find a partner. Find someone to whom you can communicate your life purpose, along with a plan for realizing it. It can be a friend, a family member, a spouse, a colleague—as long as it’s someone who can help you honestly assess your plan and your successes. Learn something ...

Take time to relie...

The result seems to be a greater sense of well-being. But how does slowing down help you live longer? The answer may have something to do with chronic inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s reaction to stress. That stress can come in the form of an injury, an infection, or anxiety. Small amounts of stress can be good—for fighting off disease, helping us heal, or preparing us for a traumatic event. But when we chronically trigger inflammation, our bodies can turn on themselves. Italian endocrinologist Dr. Claudio Franceschi has developed a widely accepted theory on the relationship between chronic inflammation and aging. Over time, he believes, the negative effects of inflammation build up to create conditions in the body that may promote age-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Slowing life’s pace may help keep the chronic inflammation in check, and theoretically, the related disease at bay.

The day we met, Raffaella sat peeling an apple as I peppered her with dozens of questions about her diet, level of physical exercise, the relationship to her family, and so forth. Her answers were laconic and unrevealing. Finally, exasperated, I asked her if after 107 years she had any advice for younger people. She looked up at me, eyes flashing. “Yes,” she shot back. “Life is short. Don’t run so fast you miss it.”

Few cultural institutions exist to encourage us to slow down, unwind,

and de-stress. Finding time for our spiritual side can create a space to slow down, and practices like yoga and meditation can also give the mind a respite. Steve Hagen, who was ordained in the Soto Zen school of Buddhism and who wrote Buddhism, Plain and Simple, regards meditation as a cornerstone of slowing down. “Meditation provides us a mechanism to step out of the self-focus and find true freedom.”

Regular meditation can allow us to slow down our minds, ridding them of the incessant chatter in our heads. It focuses concentration and allows us to see...

we imagine it to be. It sets up our day and helps u...

rushing, worrying, and the urgency we give to so many things in our lives really aren’t so important. With that realization, all other strategies for slowing down come much easier. LESSON SIX STRATEGIES Use these tips to find a quiet space to slow down in your Blue Zone. Reduce the noise. Minimizing time spent with television, radio, and the Internet can help reduce the amount of aural clutter in your life. Rid your home of as many TVs and radios as possible, or limit them to just one room. Most electronic entertainment just feeds mind chatter and works counter to the notion of slowing down. Be early. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early to every appointment. This one practice minimizes the stress that arises from traffic, getting lost, or underestimating travel time. It allows you to slow down and focus before a meeting or event. Meditate. Create a space in your home that is quiet, not too hot and not too cold, not too dark and not too light. Furnish the space with a meditation cushion or chair. Establish ...

Participate in a spiritual community Healthy centenarians everywhere have faith. The Sardinians and Nicoyans are mostly Catholic. Okinawans have a blended religion that stresses ancestor worship. Loma Linda centenarians are Seventh-day Adventists. Ikarians have traditionally been Greek Orthodox. All belong to strong religious communities. The simple act of worship is one of those subtly powerful habits that seems to improve you...

In his book Diet, Life Expectancy and Chronic Disease: Studies of Seventh-day Adventists and Other Vegetarians, Dr. Gary Fraser cited several reasons to support this claim. People who attend church are less likely to engage in harmful behaviors and more likely to take on healthful behaviors.

LESSON SEVEN STRATEGIES To strengthen the spiritual dimension of your Blue Zone, try these tactics. Be more involved. If you already belong to a religious community, take a more active role in the organization. The longevity-enhancing effect may be a function of how you attend rather than the fact that you just attend. Getting involved in activities like singing in the choir or volunteering might enhance well-being and possibly reduce mortality. Explore a new tradition. If you don’t have a particular religious faith, commit to trying a new faith community. If you don’t subscribe to any specific denomination, or if you haven’t found a positive religious experience, you may want to explore a belief that is not based on strict dogma. Unitarian Universalism, for example, is open to anyone who believes in the inherent worth and dignity of every person and in the acceptance and encouragement of each individual’s own spiritual journey. Buddhism is another tradition to consider if you are looking for a religious community. There is also the American Ethical Union, which describes itself as a “humanistic religious and educational movement.” The Union was inspired by the ideal that the supreme aim in life is to create a more humane society. Members join together in ethical societies to assist one another in developing

moral ideas. Just go. Schedule an hour a week for the next eight weeks to attend religious services. Don’t think about it. Just go, and do so with an open mind. Studies show that people who get involved with the service (singing hymns, participating in prayers or liturgy, volunteering) may find their well-being enhanced.

LESSON EIGHT: LOVED ONES FIRST Make fam...

America is trending in the opposite direction. In many busy families

with working parents and active kids, family time can become rare as everyone’s schedules become more and more packed with things to do. Shared meals and activities can drop off the daily routine, making time together difficult to come by. How do you buck the trend? Gail Hartman, a licensed psychologist, believes the key is for all generations of a family to make of point of spending time together. “Successful families make a point of eating at least one meal a day together, taking annual vacations, and spending family time. Everything does not need to stop. Kids can be doing homework, and parents can be preparing dinner, but the point is that there is a ‘we-ness’ to the family.”

LESSON EIGHT STRATEGIES These tips can help you create your family’s Blue Zone. Get closer. Consider living in a smaller house to create an environment of togetherness. A large, spread-out house makes it easier for family members to segment themselves from the group. It’s easier for families to bond and spend time together in a smaller home. If you live in a large home, establish one room where family members gather daily. Establish rituals. Children thrive on rituals; they enjoy repetition. Make one family meal a day sacred. Establish a tradition for a family vacation. Have dinner with Grandma every Tuesday night. Make a point to purposefully celebrate holidays. Create a family shrine. In Okinawan homes, the ancestor shrine is always displayed in the best room in the house. It showcases pictures of deceased loved ones and their important possessions. It serves as a constant reminder that we’re not islands in times but connected to something bigger. We can pick a wall to display pictures of our parents and children, or take annual family pictures and display them in progression. Put family first.

Invest time and energy in your children, your spouse, and your parents. Play with your children, nurture your marriage, and honor your parents.

LESSON NINE: RIGHT TRIBE Be surrounded by those wh...

v...

Social connectedness is ingrained into the world’s Blue Zones. Okinawans have moais, groups of people who stick together their whole lives. Originally created out of financial necessity, moais have endured as mutual support networks. Similarly, Sardinians finish their day in the local bar where they meet with friends. The annual grape harvest and village festivals require the whole community to pitch in.

“I think a superior social support network is one of the reasons that women live longer than men,” says Dr. Robert Butler. “They have better and stronger systems of support than men, they’re much more engaged with and helpful to each other, more willing and able to express feelings, including grief and anger, and other aspects of intimacy.” LESSON NINE STRATEGIES Try these tips to build up the inner circle of your Blue Zone. Identify your inner circle. Know the people who reinforce the right habits, people who understand or live by Blue Zone secrets. Go through your address book or your contact list of friends. Think about which ones support healthy habits and challenge you mentally, and which ones you can truly rely on in case of need. Put a big “BZ” by their names. Ideally, family members are the first names on that list. Be likable. Of the centenarians interviewed, there wasn’t a grump in the bunch. Dr. Nobuyoshi Hirose, one of Japan’s preeminent longevity experts, had a similar observation. Some people are born popular, and people are naturally drawn to them. Likable old people are more likely to have a social network, frequent visitors, and de facto caregivers. They seem to experience less stress and live purposeful lives. Create time together. Spend at least 30 minutes a day with members of your inner circle. Establish a regular time to meet or share a meal together. Take a daily walk. Building a strong friendship requires some effort, but it is an investment that ca...

To me, they offered a lesson about decline. I know that our bones will soften and our arteries will harden. Our hearing will dull and our vision will fade. We’ll slow down. And, finally, our bodies will fail altogether, and we’ll die. How this decline unfolds is up to us. The calculus of aging offers us two options: We can live a shorter life with more years of disability, or we can live the longest possible life with the fewest bad years. As my centenarian friends showed me, the choice is largely up to us.

Reflecting on the Lessons DAN BUETTNER’S QUEST to discover the secrets of longevity does not end with his journey into the Blue Zones. His goal is to take the learnings from the world’s longest-lived people and spread them within U.S. borders by helping people create their own personal Blue Zones. To this end, Buettner is currently leading two pilot Blue Zones programs—in coastal southern California and the state of Iowa. What can you do to create your own personal Blue Zone? This discussion guide can be your pilot. 1. Buettner tells us that one of the remarkable things about the centenarians he met on his amazing journey was how extraordinarily ordinary these people were. What struck you the most about these people? What parts of their lives do you find most remarkable and worth emulating? 2. Buettner cautions that if you live the average U.S. lifestyle, you may never reach your potential maximum life span and you could be shortening your life by as much as a decade. Think about your own lifestyle practices that you would like to change. Write them down and compare them among yourselves. What concerns do you share? What good practices can replace bad habits? How could you help one another make them happen? 3. Blue Zone centenarians have somehow managed to avoid the chronic diseases—heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes—that kill the majority of people in industrialized countries around the world and especially in the United States. What are they doing right th...

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 moa...

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BOOKS Corder, Roger. The Red Wine Diet. Avery, 2007. Csíkszentmihályi, Mihály. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. Basic Books, 1997. Fraser, Gary E. Diet, Life Expectancy, and Chronic Disease: Studies of Seventh-day Adventists and Other Vegetarians. Oxford University Press, 2003. Koenig, Harold. Is Religion Good for Your Health? The Effects of Religion on Physical and Mental Health. The Haworth Pastoral Press, 1997. Lawrence, D. H. Sea and Sardinia. New edition. Penguin, 1999. Pratt, Steven, M.D. and Kathy Matthews. SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life. Harper, 2004. Robbins, John. Healthy at 100. Random House, 2006. Wagner, Philip. Nicoya: A Cultural Geography. University of California Press, 1958. Wansink, Brian. Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Bantam Books, 2006. Weil, Andrew. Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being. Knopf, 2005. Willcox, Bradley J., D. Craig Willcox, and Makoto Suzuki. The Okinawa Program: How the World’s Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health—and How You Can Too. Clarkson Potter, 2001. Willcox, Bradley J., D. Craig Willcox, and Makoto Suzuki. The Okinawa Diet Plan: Get Leaner, Live Longer, and Never Feel Hungry. Three Rivers Press, 2005.