The world’s longest lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors, Okinawans created ”moais”–groups of five friends that committed to each other for life. Research from the Framingham Studies shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. So the social networks of long-lived people have favorably shaped their health behaviors.
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Floss daily to prevent the buildup of gum-disease-causing bacteria, which are increasingly being implicated in heart disease.
Prioritize sleep. Getting too few winks may lower your immunity and invite everything from obesity to accidents. Aim for a minimum of six nightly hours, says Luigi Ferrucci, director of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.
Flex your mental muscle by writing, reading, or playing games, such as crossword puzzles. Despite there being no proven way to cut the chances of Alzheimer’s, some research suggests that keeping the brain active from childhood on may somewhat armor against the disease.
Every good poem begins in language awake to its own connections — language that hears itself and what is around it, sees itself and what is around it, looks back at those who look into its gaze and knows more perhaps even than we do about who are, what we are. ~ Jane Hirshfield
I stood before the bars of Fate
And bowed my head disconsolate;
So high they seemed, so fierce their frown.
I thought no hand could break them down.
Beyond them I could hear the songs
Of valiant men who marched in throngs;
And joyful women, fair and free,
Looked back and waved their hands to me.
I did not cry “Too late! too late!”
Or strive to rise, or rail at Fate,
Or pray to God. My coward heart,
Contented, played its foolish part.
So still I sat, the tireless bee
Sped o’er my head, with scorn for me,
And birds who build their nests in air
Beheld me, as I were not there.
From twig to twig, before my face,
The spiders wove their curious lace,
As they a curtain fine would see
Between the hindering bars and me.
Then, sudden change! I heard the call
Of wind and wave and waterfall;
From heaven above and earth below
A clear command—”ARISE AND GO!”
I upward sprang in all my strength,
And stretched my eager hands at length
To break the bars—no bars were there;
My fingers fell through empty air!
Ellen M.H. Gates
Only love can be divided endlessly and still not diminish. Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Looking for the fountain of youth? Increasingly, experts are telling us that it’s all about lifestyle, the choices you make, and, especially, staying active by engaging in regular physical exercise in your sixties, seventies, eighties, and beyond. . . . Regular exercise may prevent or delay serious health problems . . . It can boost energy and mood, reduce arthritis pain, and help you get a good night’s sleep. And . . . exercise can help you maintain the physical health to continue living independently. ~ Carol Weeg
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“Diet is an equal-opportunity killer. People — independent of age, gender, country of residence and socioeconomic status — to some extent are affected by poor dietary habits,” says study co-author Dr. Ashkan Afshin, an assistant professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “Low intake of healthy foods and high intake of unhealthy foods is the leading cause of mortality, globally and in many countries.” Jamie Ducharme
Time Magazine
“In the wholeheartedness of concentration, world and self begin to cohere. With that state comes an enlarging: of what may be known, what may be felt, what may be done.” ~ Jane Hirshfield
I go to prove my soul!
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive! what time, what circuit first,
I ask not: but unless God send his hail
Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive:
He guides me and the bird. In his good time!
Robert Browning
Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. Alexis Carrel
