Healthy at 100

How awesome is that? The Abkhasians don’t even have a phrase for “old people.” Love it.

(Kinda reminds me of how the Tibetans don’t even have a word for “guilty.” The closest they have, according to Geshe Michael Roach in The Diamond Cutter (see Notes), is “intelligent regret that decides to do things differently.” :)

Back to the idea of honoring “Long-Living People”!

Researchers have discovered a common theme of enormous respect for the aged among the longest lived cultures. Unfortunately, in our youth obsessed world, old age is associated with frailty and senility rather than wisdom and insight.

For example, how wacky is this?? “In countless ways, the dominant Western culture teaches us to value younger people and devalue older ones. How often do we notice when movie roles that should be played by mature actresses are played instead by hot young babes? In the 2005 film Alexander, for example, the mother of Alexander the Great (played by Colin Farrell) is portrayed by Angelina Jolie, who in fact is all of eleven months older than Colin Farrell.”

If we want to be healthy at 100, it’s clear we’ve gotta reconstruct our view of what it means to be “long-lived,” eh?!

Hah. Smiling as I think about the fact that we all have two doctors—our right and left legs. :)

We’ve talked about the power of exercise a number of times throughout these Notes (and in Optimal Living 101) and I’m going to keep on coming back to it. Because we KNOW, scientifically and beyond a shadow of a doubt, just how important exercise is to our well-being.

In fact, Tal Ben-Shahar actually says NOT exercising is like taking a depressant. Which makes me wonder how it’s ethically possible for a licensed therapist to prescribe a medication without prescribing exercise first. But we’ll save that for another discussion. :)

For now, KNOW (please please please!) that if you or someone you love is feeling the funk, exercise is one of the most important things you/they can do.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, the renowned Positive Psychology researcher tells us this in her *awesome* book The How of Happiness (see Notes): “An impressive study of physical activity was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1999. The researchers recruited men and women fifty years old and over, all of them suffering from clinical depression, and divided them randomly into three groups. The first group was assigned to four months of aerobic exercise, the second group to four months of antidepressant medication (Zoloft), and the third group to both. The assigned exercise involved three supervised forty-five-minute sessions per week of cycling or walking/jogging at moderate to high intensity. Remarkably, by the end of the four-month intervention period, all three groups had experienced their depressions lift and reported fewer dysfunctional attitudes and increased happiness and self-esteem. Aerobic exercise was just as effective at treating depression as was Zoloft, or as a combination of exercise and Zoloft. Yet exercise is a lot less expensive, usually with no side effects apart from soreness. Perhaps even more remarkably, six months later, participants who had “remitted” (recovered) from their depressions were less likely to relapse if they had been in the exercise group (six months ago!) than if they had been in the medication group.”

She follows that up with this: “No one in our society needs to be told that exercise is good for us. Whether you are overweight or have a chronic illness or are a slim couch potato, you’ve probably heard or read this dictum countless times throughout your life. But has anyone told you—indeed, guaranteed you—that regular physical activity will make you happier? I swear by it.”

Here’s to getting our two doctors to work!! :)

And… How about a little more mojo on this?

To answer Robbins’ rhetorical question, if there was a pill that would do everything he just described, we’d ALL take it. And it would be a trillion dollar product.

Tragically, because exercise isn’t quite as easy as popping a pill and marketing it isn’t anywhere near as lucrative, too few of us exercise consistently enough.

But not us lovers of wisdom. :)

Seriously though.

I’m focusing on exercise because it’s THAT important. If you or someone you love is feeling all craptastic, EXERCISE. EXERCISE. EXERCISE.

You simply couldn’t pay me enough to NOT exercise. No way. I know what I’m like when I don’t move consistently and trust me, it’s not pretty. :)

Gah. It’s almost hard to believe that ads for Dr Pepper, McDonald’s and Oreos could be within 10 feet of a book in your family doctor’s friendly health guide, eh?

Who would think THAT was cool?

We’ll save a longer rant for another important, longer chat on the Politics of Food (Note on that coming soon!). For now, back to the regularly scheduled programming. :)

Joshua Rosenthal puts it well in his great book Integrative Nutrition (see Notes) where he says: “In spite of the enormous amount of confusing and contradictory information that regularly floods the world of nutrition, the basics are simple. Most people would be much better off consuming less meat, milk, sugar, chemicalized, artificial junk food, alcohol, caffeine and tobacco and increasing their consumption of water, whole grains and vegetables, especially dark leafy greens.”

In short: If we want to live longer healthier lives, nutrition-wise we’ve gotta get rid of the refined/processed foods and sugars, drastically reduce or eliminate the animal products and eat a lot more green veggies. And, obviously, quit smoking and drinking so much caffeine and reduce the alcohol consumption if you’re going gonzo on that stuff.

It’s not that complicated, eh? As always, it’s just a matter of actually DOING what we know to be best for us. I believe they call that “Simple but not easy.” Here’s to rockin’ it! :)

Hah. Well, that’s one way to put it, eh? :)

Joshua Rosenthal echoes this wisdom as well in Integrative Nutrition (again, check out the Notes). He talks about the fact that when he used to work at a natural foods store he’d often see all these people shopping for uber-healthy food while looking super melancholy and unhealthy. Then he’d go across the street to the movie theatre and see people munching on popcorn but laughing and looking super alive.

Influenced by this and all kinds of other data, he created a cool new food pyramid where he emphasizes what he calls “Primary Foods” and says this: “Primary food is more than what is on your plate. Healthy relationships, regular physical activity, a fulfilling career and a spiritual practice can fill your soul and satisfy your hunger for life. When primary food is balanced and satiating, your life feeds you, making what you eat secondary.”

So, here’s to filling up on our primary foods and loving our lives as we get the cholesterol and abs rockin’ as well. :)

Love. That.

Michael Beckwith puts it this way in his great book Spiritual Liberation (see Notes): “One of the ways we hijack our capacity to experience a state of beholding is that we become swept up in what I call the ‘tyranny of trends.’ The tyranny of trends allows for the lowest common denominator to set the standard of success, and of course, ‘coolness.’ Very often, trends convince individuals what their life’s purpose should be. The tyranny of trends is blasted out at us from television, radio, newspapers, tabloids, computers, and even our dentist’s waiting room, attempting to convince us that we must smell a certain way, wear a certain label, weigh a specific weight, have whiter teeth, drive a certain car, make a certain income, and so on, before we can consider that we’ve made it.”

Here’s to breaking out of the tyranny of the trends and becoming everyday revolutionaries living our highest truths!

Too often we think that we somehow lost the genetic lottery and/or just get bad luck as a culture to see so many people we love dying of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

But that’s simply not true.

If we took responsibility for our lives and made better choices about the foods we eat, the way we move our bodies and the way we approach our relationships and challenges, we could eliminate a HUGE percentage of the diseases that plague our society.

Wow. That’s from the chapter entitled “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” Needless to say, the answer to that question is: A LOT.

So… How can you be more loving today? (And tomorrow? And… :)

BEAUTIFUL!

So many great teachers advise us to honor the fact that we will, one day, die. Yep. Hate to be the one to break the news to you, but it’s true. We’re all gonna die. :)

Robbins also points out that the longest lived people are FULLY ENGAGED with life. So, with that awareness and respect for the brevity of the blessing that is our life, I echo Mary Oliver and ask you: What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?!

Robbins concludes the book with a mini-chapter called “Steps You Can Take” where he quickly highlights a practical list of inspiring stuff to remember on our quest for healthy, happy lives. Those poetic words above are the very last words of the book. Which is quite fitting because we scientifically know that gratitude is the #1 happiness practice out there.

As Sonja Lyubomirsky tells us: “People who are consistently grateful have been found to be relatively happier, more energetic, and more hopeful and to report experiencing more frequent positive emotions. They also tend to be more helpful and empathic, more spiritual and religious, more forgiving, and less materialistic than others who are less predisposed to gratefulness. Furthermore, the more a person is inclined to gratitude, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, anxious, lonely, envious, or neurotic.”

So, let’s flex our gratitude muscles with a little more reflection… For what are you grateful?

Amen.