LIVE LONG AND PROSPER –
June 17, 2021- For lessons on longevity, you’d be remiss not to at least consider the morning habits of people from the Blue Zones (Ikaria, Greece; Loma Linda, California; Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; and Nicoya, Costa Rica), where residents consistently live to see their 100th birthdays.
Dan Buettner, the author and explorer who’s pioneered research on longevity hotspots, made it his mission to share exactly what people from these regions do throughout their lives that keeps them so healthy.
1. Find your ‘ikigai’
When you wake up in the morning, what gets you out of bed? What’s your drive? Finding whatever that is and embracing it fully is one of the habits embraced by the residents of at least one of the Blue Zones.
2. Don’t skip a healthy breakfast
Unsurprisingly, a healthy diet is an important part of becoming a centenarian. Buettner says that sticking to nutritious eating plans, like a plant-based diet or the Mediterranean diet, can help fuel a long, healthy life. A part of this includes the most important meal of the day: eating breakfast.
3. Enjoy a cup of morning coffee
People who live in each of the five Blue Zones savor their morning cup of joe. “[People in these areas] drink up to two or three cups of black coffee per day,” according to Buettner’s findings. “The American Heart Association found that consuming coffee, both caffeinated and decaf, was associated with a lower risk of total mortality.”
4. Say something nice to the first person you see
Sarah Wilson, an Australian journalist and author of First, We Make The Beast Beautiful: A New Story on Anxiety, once asked Buettner for his own morning routine. In addition to eating a healthy breakfast (full of fruits and grains) and completing 20-minutes of exercise (usually yoga or a bike ride to work), Buettner starts each morning by literally complimenting others. “Say something nice to the first person we meet,” he wrote in an email to Wilson. “A Harvard study shows that behaviors are contagious so if you do it to your neighbor, it’s likely to come back to you.”
