This essay was written for MindBodyGreen.com and retitled How To Live A Long, Healthy & Happy Life.
When I share health guidance, I assume everyone wants to live as long and pain-free as possible. If comfortable longevity is our common goal, then making lifestyle adjustments now to increase this chance later makes good sense.
Yet we still do things that sabotage our longevity, like drinking too much alcohol, eating a Western diet, smoking and not exercising, so it occurred to me that maybe not everyone wants to live a long, healthy life. I started thinking deeply about why I believe happy, healthy longevity is a sound and noble pursuit. I hope to convince you to make changes today so that you will be around as long as possible for your benefit and enjoyment as well as that of others.
Why? Because We Can
Baring accidental deaths, we know the leading causes of demise are largely preventable. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the top 10 causes of death are:
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases (COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis)
- Accidents (unintentional injuries, including those that happen in hospitals)
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases)
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Diabetes
- Influenza and pneumonia
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis (kidney disease)
- Intentional self-harm (suicide)
Science has demonstrated that these chronic diseases are largely preventable, some even reversible. With this knowledge, anyone wishing to live a long life can. Physicians like Dr. Joel Kahn and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn have written about how to prevent heart disease. Dr. Neal Barnard teaches diabetics how to reverse the condition, while Dr. T. Colin Campbell has done extensive research on turning on and off cancer genes.
The Alzheimer’s Association has reported that “several conditions known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease — such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol — also increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Some autopsy studies show that as many as 80% of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease also have cardiovascular disease.”
Following known protocols to prevent heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer also serve well to prevent other lifestyle diseases and common physical complaints of old age.
Why? Because The World Needs Your Wisdom & Artistry
The accumulation of your knowledge is precious. Perhaps you’ve considerable spiritual, career, or avocational information and skill. Sharing and teaching others, younger or older, in person or online, need never stop.
Your community — neighborhood, town, church, virtual — is enhanced when you volunteer at a nonprofit organization, sing in a choir, or teach others how to speak a foreign language, set up a small business, or write a novel.
Active and engaged seniors are the bedrock of any community. They are wise, value service over recognition, understand life’s challenges, and have time-sensitive perspective on life. Those who remain positive into old age possess keys to happiness that can benefit everyone.
Now is the time to plan and prepare for a physically and financially independent second half of life. It is a false assumption to believe that everyone who grows old will become decrepit and dependent on another for care. We can study the Blue Zones to see how seniors continue to work, enjoy life, and contribute purposefully until death.
Why? Because You Get More Time to Get It Right
The top five regrets of the dying are:
- Not having lived an authentic life being uniquely oneself
- Putting in too many long, hard hours at unfulfilling work
- Not having had the courage to express personal feelings to others
- Losing touch with friends
- Not having allowed oneself to be happier
What lights you up? What gives your life a feeling of purpose? With whom do you enjoy spending time? What do you want others to know about you and from you?
Living longer gives us more time to craft a life that will let us die without regret. Now is the time to develop clarity and put into action habits, boundaries, skills, goals and devotion toward a life well lived.
Why? Because You Get To Spend More Time With The People You Love
Our partners, children, grandchildren, pets and friends are irreplaceable joys. Why would we not want to share more time with them? With a passionate mindset and well-managed health, life can be a grand party that you never want to end. Why leave before you have to, especially when you love and are loved?
Why?
Because when you’re 79, I bet you’ll wish for many more good years. The time to prepare for this is now. Aim for a long, healthy life by heeding the guidance of doctors and wellness practitioners who live their longevity message and teach others how to do the same. The information is there. All you have to do is use it, starting today.
Graphic by MBG Creative
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I was wondering. What would you say to encourage people who haven’t been fortunate enough to find a loving partner, get married,have children etc. and who live with terrible loneliness every single day? The kind that no amount of charitable work will ever alleviate. Not everyone gets to experience the irreplaceable joys you write about in their lifetime, the playing field has never been equal. To me, it’s understandable that a person in this position might want to die younger, especially if their situation is unlikely to change.
You make an excellent point that living longer gives people time to correct their mistakes, and it’s true a person may have great value to others through service. But how much helping others helps the hurting person, I don’t know. What if the only effective method of pain management for him or her IS an earlier death?
Hi Brooke, Your comment saddens me terribly because it pains me to think that someone could be so down about their life and prospects. Even when I was troubled, depressed, and more pessimistic than I am now, I was able to sense that I had value even if my family, friends, and my own self didn’t treat me as though I did. I remember lying on a futon curled in a fetal ball when I was in my late teens and I felt that there was little to nothing for which to live. I went deeply inward and saw a tiny little light like a pilot light. I somehow knew it was my spirit and it was something special and worth protecting. Over the years I have come to know God (directly, not through religion) and feel that, even if no human loves me, I am loved and am lovable. I knew that if I blew on that little flame that it would grow. I had to learn how to breathe life into myself to save myself. I still had many hard roads to walk between then and now so it wasn’t like everything became easy and happy overnight. I have worked hard to learn how to love myself in ways that my family didn’t (couldn’t) and doesn’t demonstrate. I have one failed marriage under my belt. I still have very difficult relationships with my family of origin. But I am a seeker of common ground and silver linings. I have to see the sunny side of everything otherwise I’d kill myself. I now take good care of myself with food and exercise, I express my opinions rather than hold them in, I keep myself safe within smart emotional boundaries, and I love wholeheartedly those who I trust. I have a small circle of husband, child, and a few friends and they are all my world. If I didn’t have them and if I lost my faith in myself and my faith in God, I might would want to end my life early. But I would recommend that everyone learn to love themselves first. Do everything you can to stand by yourself, be your authentic self fully, and find a joyous life path. There are no rules, your perspective is your reality, and you can create your life to be whatever you can imagine it to be. Take that power and make yourself happy. I wish you all the joy in the world and I wish you immense faith in yourself. xo
Carla, thank you for your very thoughtful and kind response to my inquiry and wish you great joy and happiness as well.
I deeply appreciate your honesty in acknowledging that your positive attitude is partially dependent on the fact that you having a loving partner and family.
I personally find it absolutely impossible to fully enjoy a life that doesn’t include regular companionship, affection and sex. And believing I’m worthy of love brings no relief from the pain of not having it.
What you said about looking inside yourself and believing the little light you saw was worth protecting is so beautiful. I wish I could translate that into effective pain management but it’s not a reality for me. And I’m saying it as someone who eats clean and chemical free as much as possible, is very aware of the connection between gut health and depression, and exercises regularly.
I don’t believe that loneliness is a function of low self-esteem. I think it’s a function of biological hunger. It’s supposed to hurt like hell all the time . No anguish, no propagation of the species.
At 44, I do look forward to menopause despite its difficult aspects as I read an article by Gloria Steinem where several post-menopausal women said losing their libido was the only thing that ever really helped their loneliness.
A long life is not the right fit for everybody as far as I’m concerned. It depends on the quality, as experienced by the individual. Not all pain can be effectively managed. When it can, I stand one hundred percent behind your philosophy.
Good to hear from you again Brooke. If nothing else I hope that you would use your pain and experience to write about your pain and experience. Your gift for writing is unique and worthy to readership. Perhaps the purpose of your inescapable pain is to describe that pain for others so that they can understand. It would help so many people to see & get inside your experience in order to foster greater empathy. My inescapable optimism believes there is a reason for all this.
Taking good preventive care of your health does not always guarantee a positive outcome later in life. My mother was an athlete, worked as a lifeguard as a teenager, strong body and never sick. She was diagnosed ALS at age 56 and was slowly paralyzed, rendered unable to eat and dead within 4 years. Do I think she would have been better off dying in her sleep prior to developing the disease? Yes.
So sad. Your mom sounds like she was the pinnacle of health until she wasn’t. Yes, I agree, an earlier death would have been one full of mercy. It must have been so hard for you all to watch her decline. I’m sorry.