Cultivate and prioritize good social relationships for longevity, as they are more powerful than many other health interventions, including giving up smoking, drinking, diet, and exercise.
Foster deep, caring relationships, especially with a partner, to combat loneliness and promote a longer, healthier life. Loneliness is identified as one of the fastest ways to age.
Avoid isolation by actively seeking out friends and connecting with people, whether in person or through the internet, as loneliness is a long-term danger to health.
Form and maintain strong social networks, similar to the Okinawan ‘moai,’ to provide mutual support, both literally and figuratively, throughout life.
Curate a close circle of 4-5 dependable friends who you can count on and who can count on you. Choose friends who share healthy recreational activities and keep your mind challenged.
Elevate compassion as a high value in all aspects of your life, including personal relationships, home, school, work, politics, and media. This practice has a profound impact on well-being.
Engage in acts of love and compassion, from profound moments with loved ones to small chats with strangers, as these moments provide physical, biochemical, and hormonal benefits.
Seek a sense of belonging by being part of a family, a belief structure, or a community where you are known and supported. This provides a foundation of dependability and reduces individual stress.
Cultivate a strong sense of purpose (e.g., Ikigai, Plon de Vida) to provide direction, meaning, and a ‘rudder’ for navigating daily life. This eliminates existential stress and simplifies decisions.
Cultivate cheerfulness, positivity, and general happiness, as these states directly impact immune function, overall health, and longevity. Positive emotions facilitate healthier life choices.
Cultivate conscientiousness by consistently finishing tasks, striving to do the best possible job, pushing yourself to improve, and growing in all your endeavors. This mindset is a key factor in long-term health and happiness.
Cultivate curiosity by remaining curious and continuously learning new things, as this is neuroprotective and helps build cognitive reserve for brain health.
Cultivate gratitude by focusing on what you have rather than what you lack, and avoid carrying anger or feeling slighted. This practice can reduce fear and cortisol release in the brain.
Write down a list of things you are grateful for and recite them every morning upon waking and every night before bed. This ritual helps reinforce a grateful mindset.
Consciously reflect on your mortality every day to become more aware of life’s brevity and live more purposefully. Consider your legacy and potential regrets to guide your daily actions.
Live each day as if it counts, especially when young, by being excited and optimistic about the future while realistically acknowledging life’s brevity. Express love to loved ones, pursue passions diligently, and maintain energy.
Actively reduce chronic stress by adopting the mindset that ’nothing’s as bad as you think’ and consciously choosing to focus on the positive aspects of life. Find purpose and fight pessimism to be excited about each day.
Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night, recognizing it as the single most effective way to reset brain and body health. To achieve 7 hours of sleep, allocate at least 8 hours in bed.
Set a ’to bed’ alarm to create an 8-hour sleep opportunity, using a snooze function if needed to gently nudge yourself to bed earlier. This persistent notification can help you prioritize sleep.
Complete your pre-bed routines, such as changing into sleepwear and brushing teeth, at least an hour before your planned bedtime. This saves 15-20 minutes, instantly adding to your sleep opportunity.
If you are currently underslept, aim to get just 15 minutes more sleep per night, as even this small increase can significantly benefit your health and well-being.
Go to bed 15 minutes earlier and set your wake-up alarm 5 minutes later to gain 20 minutes of sleep. This minor adjustment can provide a substantial boost to your longevity and health span.
Make 90-95% of your dietary intake plant-based, prioritizing complex carbohydrates, with fats and proteins making up the remainder. This is a common characteristic of longevity diets in Blue Zones.
Incorporate a high diversity of whole plant foods, including whole grains, nuts, tubers (like sweet potatoes), various greens, and beans, as cornerstones of your diet. A diverse diet promotes a diverse and healthy gut microbiome.
Consume true whole grains such as oats, barley, frica, spelt, buckwheat, and brown rice, as they are valuable sources of fiber for gut fermentation and are anti-inflammatory.
Avoid ultra-processed foods and focus on eating a plant-predominant diet with as much diversity of whole, basic peasant foods as possible. Simple preparation can make healthy eating sustainable.
Ensure that healthy foods taste delicious, as taste is the most important ingredient for a longevity diet. If you enjoy the food, you are more likely to stick with it for decades or a lifetime.
Practice intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating by not keeping your body constantly filled with food. Start by skipping one meal (dinner or breakfast) and gradually extend your fasting window.
Align your eating time with your circadian rhythm, consuming food when your liver and gut are primed for digestion. This practice offers significant health benefits, as shown in research.
Practice 10-12 hour time-restricted eating as a family to synchronize eating times, which not only improves individual health but also promotes family togetherness and social health.
Engage in at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week, such as a brisk walk, to significantly lower your relative risk of dying at a given age by 50%. Physical activity turns on repair and maintenance mechanisms in the body.
Maintain or increase physical activity as you get older, rather than reducing it. This is crucial for keeping muscles, chromosomes, and cells healthy, and for slowing down aging processes.
Incorporate high-intensity exercise that makes you lose your breath for about 10 minutes a few times a week. This pulsed exercise provides significant long-term health benefits by stressing and resetting the body.
Lift weights and use a standing desk to build and maintain muscle mass, especially in your legs, glutes, and back. This is important for preventing muscle loss and supporting hormone levels as you age.
For the majority of the day, practice slow, rhythmic, and light breathing through your nose. This method ensures optimal oxygen intake and energy for the least effort.
Engage in controlled, short-term breathing practices (e.g., Wim Hof method, Tummo, Pranayama) for about 20 minutes to intentionally stress your body. This helps you manage stress and achieve a state of calm for the rest of the day.
Practice resting one day a week to intentionally ’turn things off’ and de-stress. This habit contributes to overall well-being and health.
Continuously learn new, difficult skills and move on from activities once they become easy or habitual. This ongoing stimulus tells your brain it’s needed, helping to keep it healthy and complex.
Adopt fundamental longevity habits: don’t smoke, don’t drink excessively, eat healthily and less, get good sleep, reduce stress, and exercise regularly. These actions can add an extra 15 years of life.