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6 Essential Shortcuts for a Long Life

by | Aug 27, 2021 | +STRATEGIES

A healthier, happier longer life is within reach, especially if you start today to dial up all the ways you can feel and look younger and aim to live longer.

Get started now with five little lifestyle tricks that add energy and vitality back into your daily experience and create space for your body’s natural processes of rejuvenation.

  1. Wind Down Better
    Sleep is essential. It is a non-negotiable requirement for your total well-being.  Investing in sleep pays off in better energy, improved mode, and a healthier body. While it’s not possible to always guarantee a good night of sleep, start by prioritizing your wind down for bed so your system can down regulate. Even one night of poor sleep can wreak havoc on your system, and has been shown to increase inflammation, increase hunger and put you at risk for chronic and autoimmune diseases. So, no reruns of your favorite show or incessant scrolling on your favorite side. Your health deserves proper shut eye.
  1. Level Up Your Physical Activity

    Movement and fitness are some of the best-known ways to feel young again now. Exercise can reduce your risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and even some cancers like breast and colon cancer. There is also a tremendous instant payoff in mood and cognition following a good sweat session. Furthermore moving your body, especially through whole body compound movements that rythymically challenge the cardiovascular and respiratory system, increases circulation, gets your heart and blood pumping and supports the distribution of white blood cells and other immune cells. Its a readily available way to boost your vitality.

  2. Get Playful with Your Food

    There are so many healthy and tasty foods you can try and approaches to consider that fuel your health for today and the future. For example, try eating a plant-based diet for one month. If too challenging, commit instead to Meatless Mondays and grow your trust in understanding food as nourishment. Still struggling with what to eat, consider experimenting with The Longevity Diet--a lifestyle made famous by Dr. Valter Longo who studied centenarians in Blue Zones across the world. He discovered that specific diets can activate stem cells and promote regeneration and rejuvenation in multiple organs to reduce the risk for diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and heart disease.

  3. Give Your Body A Digestive Break

    We are not designed to graze on snacks all day long nor to fulfill our passions through extensive culinary experiences at every meal. Food is a pleasure; too much of it becomes a challenge. Practice a disciplined schedule of time-restricted eating instead and explore the benefits of intermittent fasting. Your body will be so grateful—and if you are truly seeking a rejuvenation of your health to live longer, try a prolonged fast and activate the fantastic benefits of autophagy, which occur naturally when you extend a fast.

  4. Flex Your Flexibility

    Your Mind and your body need to stay flexible.  Practice mindfulness and gratitude daily. Gratitude practices have been found to help reduce blood pressure and cholesterol and manage inflammation with people with heart problems. At the same time, physical mobility routines like stretching will improve your body’s ability to move around your world with less pain and more independence.

  5. Do Good, Be Good

    Feeling good starts with being good to yourself and also to others. Whenever possible, take time to reach out and create moments of connection with your family, friends, or coworkers. Ritualize spending time together by designating a particular activity to share can be something as simple as Friday morning breakfast at your favorite diner with your child or Sunday fishing with your sports buddies. Also, make it a habit or part of your character to reach out to someone daily and genuinely consider what you could do to make their life better. When you give of yourself in genuine ways, your life is mutually enriched along the way.