This blog has three major focuses: how to learn, how to be more mindful, and how to live a longer, happier life (longevity). It’s pretty easy to see the benefits of living a long happy life, but it doesn’t happen by accident.
This post answers several questions:
- What is longevity?
- Why should we think about longevity when we’re young?
- What does longevity look like on this blog?
So without further ado, let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
- The Problem:
- What is longevity?
- Why should we care about longevity when we’re young?
- First, it helps us establish healthy habits
- Second, it helps to prevent chronic disease
- Third, it maximizes your long-term health (you get more bang for your buck, basically)
- Fourth, it helps you build physical and mental and emotional resilience
- Fifth, the sooner you start, the more you increase a healthy lifespan
- Sixth, it helps you create a financially secure base for your later years
- Seventh, it helps to create positive cycles for your intergenerational relationships
- What does longevity look like on this blog?
- Conclusion
The Problem:
- Longevity is not a major cultural focus for Americans
- As a society, our education on longevity is not systemetized
- There’s a lot of information out there on health and fitness, and it can be overwhelming and difficult to parse through it as a result
Let’s take a closer look at what longevity actually is.
What is longevity?
Technically speaking, longevity simply means “long life.” However, when we talk about longevity, what we’re really talking about is a long life with a high quality. That doesn’t necessarily mean we have a lot of money or power or possessions.
A high quality of life will be different for every person and every family. This blog is focused on helping you discover what it means to live a long, happy life for YOU.
That being said, there are a few things that we all have in common when it comes to living a long life, joyful life. Human connection, avoiding chronic stress, time in nature, and self-realization are all important aspects of being happy and living for a long time.
Why should we care about longevity when we’re young?
Starting a longevity based lifestyle when we’re young is incredibly helpful for maximizing your enjoyment of your career, your body, and your life in general. That being said, it is never too late to start.
This blog is primarily targeted toward women in their thirties, but if you fall outside of that demographic, don’t panic. A lot of this will apply to you no matter your age.
First, it helps us establish healthy habits
Our thirties are a critical time for setting lifelong habits. We’re more stable in our thirties than in our twenties and generally have a much better grasp over who we are and what we want. By prioritizing longevity, we can establish sustainable routines of healthy movement and eating, stress management, and adequate sleep, all of which contribute to a healthier and longer life.
Second, it helps to prevent chronic disease
Many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, depression, diabetes, and certain cancers have roots in unintentional lifestyle factors that develop over time. By developing intentional habits early that promote long life, we can all significantly reduce our risk of developing these conditions, making it easier to pursue the lives we love for longer.
Third, it maximizes your long-term health (you get more bang for your buck, basically)
By starting as early as possible in your longevity journey, you maximize your long-term health, which pays dividends as we age. Taking proactive measures helps us avoid falling into sedentary traps and unhealthy lifestyles. These measures look a little different for everyone, but some of the common ones are regular medical check-ups, managing stress, and prioritizing mental health and healthy physical movement (whatever that looks like for you).
Fourth, it helps you build physical and mental and emotional resilience
A focus on longevity not only involves physical health, but also mental and emotional resilience. Resilience isn’t about how you handle stress, it’s about how you recover during periods of rest. Cultivating healthy coping strategies early, fostering happy social connections, and developing a positive mindset can all contribute to greater resilience in the face of challenging time’s, which in turn promotes a longer, more fulfilling life.
Fifth, the sooner you start, the more you increase a healthy lifespan
While this one is pretty self-explanatory, it’s important to mention. While lifespan = the number of years a person lives, healthspan = the number of years lived in good health, free from significant illness or disability. By prioritizing longevity early, you can increase both your lifespan and healthspan, enjoying more years of vitality and well-being.
Sixth, it helps you create a financially secure base for your later years
Longevity planning is about more than health and wellness. It is about financial preparedness. By starting to save and invest for retirement in your thirties, you can take advantage of compound interest, a longer timeframe to improve your financial literacy, and bigger windows to recover from financial mistakes or hardships. This ensures you’ll have the resources to support yourself in later years, which creates significant peace of mind.
Seventh, it helps to create positive cycles for your intergenerational relationships
By looking at your life and what you want from it in the long-term as early as possible, you can serve as a role model for younger generations, which is invaluable. If you start in your thirties or forties, your children, nieces, nephews, and/or younger cousins will be able to model those habits in their teens and twenties.
This ripple effect can contribute to a culture of health and longevity in your family for decades, if not longer. Investing in yourself is also an investment in the people you love most. It is a way for you to create a powerful and positive cycle.
What does longevity look like on this blog?
Because everyone’s goals for a long, happy life are different, you’ll see a variety of topics in the longevity section of this blog.
In particular, you’ll see a lot information about healthy movement like swimming and hiking. You’ll see posts about mental health and taking steps to avoid diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Living a sedentary lifestyle is a quick killer. Living a life with chronic stress literally breaks down your molecular structure (this is part of why people in poverty don’t live as long, though this is a multifaceted issue).
Keep in mind that everyone’s health and wellness vary.
Some of us have injuries, some of us are post-partum, some of us have no desire to run a marathon.
My biggest recommendation is to take the ideas that are helpful for you and leave the info that doesn’t apply.
There will be some overlap with the other categories on this blog, but everything in this category connects to living longer and living happier.
Conclusion
Longevity is about more than being here for a long time, it is about enjoying your time while you are here.
Overall, focusing on longevity in one’s thirties lays the foundation for a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life in the years to come. It’s investment in yourself that pays dividends well into the future for you and the people closest to you.
To help you build positive habits that will get you the most out of life in a sustainable way, this blog focuses on essentials like connecting with nature, adding healthy movement to your day, resilience, and relationships.
So let’s get started!