[Blue Zones Series] The Power of Holistic Living

Over the past 9 weeks (or so) we have talked about what Blue Zones expert Dan Buettner calls the Power 9, the 9 patterns.

And while I talked about each of them in isolation, which can often seem like a lot of work and like we don't have enough time in our day to hit every single one of them. However, something important to remember is living a healthy life or a life for longevity isn't about doing each thing separately but instead thinking about them in a holistic way.

It's about living a holistic life. If you rock the movement part but not the life satisfaction / purpose or you eat a plant-based diet but you isolate yourself and don't have those social connections then you'll always be missing something.

I am going to use this blog as a way to wrap up our series and show how everything works together. I do recommend checking out each of the other blogs first. Each blog gives you a great overview of each of the patterns before reading about how to live the Blue Zones life.

The Power Of Movement
The Power Of Purpose And Satisfaction
The Power Of Slow: Stress Management
The Power Of Spirituality
The Power Of Support
The Power Of Family Structure
The Power Of Healthy Consumption
The Power Of Portion Control
The Power Of Plant-Based

What's a holistic life?

Holistic living is about living in balance with your mind, body, and spirit (or soul). It's about balancing out your life in all the areas to increase your health, wealth, and happiness.

This starts with an understanding of what the areas are, which is why it was important for me to talk about all the different patterns first before talking about holistic living and holistic wellness.

Now I know this seems like you have to do a ton of things each day but realistically simply knowing can help you feel like you're living more holistically and often the habits can tackle more than one area with one habit.

Why holistic living?

Our body systems never work in isolation. There isn't one part of our body that doesn't impact at least one other part of our body. So thinking that we can live a truly healthy life and only focus on what we eat and our workouts isn't going to cut it.

We need to understand that the human body is a complex system. Everything was designed to fulfill a specific and important purpose so if we don't acknowledge this or work towards strengthening each of those purposes (not just a few of them) then we do ourselves a disservice.

How can we live holistically?

It's really more about how you live overall than what you do each day. Life isn't about getting your checks in the boxes.

Dan Buettner always says "it's more about living in an environment that makes the healthy choice easy." Centenarians didn't go about with the intention to live to 100, it happened because they lived in an environment where the patterns naturally occurred or were just a part of everyday life.

For instance, in Sardinia centenarians get a ton of exercise. Not because they go to the gym every day, gyms didn't exist when they were children, but because the main job there is shepherding and Sardinia has a lot of hills. So they walked a lot on hilly terrain. 

Need some extra support? I have a great holistic wellness combo pack that can help get you started in living a holistic life. Check it out here.

"I cannot live a long life. Most of my family has died young."

According to research genetics accounts for only 20% of the reasons people live a long life. That means 80% is up to us.

There are very few things where genetics doesn't at least play a role but in this case, we have 80% of the control, so what we do and how we live has much more to do with living a long life than genetics.

Things like heart disease, stroke, cancer, and type 2 diabetes risks are be reduced based on the way we choose to live. What we eat, how much we exercise, how much we take care of our mind, where we live, etc.

"I cannot live a long life. I am stuck in my circumstances."

While I am not naive enough to think that simply a desire to live long and have the perfect circumstances is going to be a cure-all, I want to tell you a personal story.

I grew up with teen parents. My mother was barely 16 when she had me, she was an orphan in the foster care system. Most of my family members drank, smoked, and some did drugs. Most hadn't graduated from high school and none had gone to university. We were not well off and I had to work for things I wanted, like playing sports. I was lucky that I had a mother who believed in me wholeheartedly and let me explore what I wanted and desired.

I decided to be the change in my life. I graduated high school having taken many Advanced Placement classes, I moved to a different city to go to university and graduated with good grades. I started a career, I left that career and started a business, I never touched drugs or cigarettes, I didn't party. I settled down in a city that was quite health-focused, a decent sized plant-based community, lots of green spaces, trails, mountains, the city spent a good chunk of money adding bike lanes everywhere.

I went plant-based (after going vegetarian as a teenager), I dedicated myself to being healthy and active, I created habits around mindset, I took the hard step and followed my dreams. I filled my house with things that I love. I created an environment that made these things easy. 

Now, like I said, I know that it's not easy for everyone and so many people live in circumstances that feel like the world is against them (and many do). Trust me, it was certainly not easy accomplishing what I did so I know this is not an easy task.

What can I do to live a Blue Zones, holistic life?

If your circumstances dictate it then dive in and do all the things. But for most people that is not the case. The world can be a difficult place to succeed in. If it wasn't then everyone would be rich and famous.

So why not start small. Read each of the blogs and make mini commitments to yourself. What is something you can implement today or change today?

It's not about diving in head first and going from living a sedentary lifestyle where you eat fast food and binge Netflix every day to buying organic, working out every day, and meditating twice a day. If you think that's doable, go for it! But for most people, we need to build up to that.

I had a friend who watched the documentary Game Changers on Netflix. She ate the standard North American diet including meat, dairy, and eggs, etc. After watching Game Changers she declared her household was going plant-based. It was that moment where I decided I'd do it too. I had been a vegetarian for many years, I had an allergy to the main protein in dairy, and had been thinking about going all the way for a while.

Do you want to know the outcome?

I am still plant-based and going strong. My friend is back to the regular North American diet because it was a hard switch. Had she taken smaller steps she might have been more successful. Begin by going vegetarian and then cut out other things while learning to eat new things; learning to substitute for the same nutrients. Then eventually making your way to fully plant-based.

Perfection isn't the goal. 
Read that again.

Yes, holistic is best, but to be successful we have to let go of this idea that we will get it right 100% of the time. We need to stop striving for perfection.

None of the centenarians are perfect.

They aren't happy every minute of the day, they have days where they don't exercise, they aren't even 100% plant-based for every moment of their lives (on average many regions eat meat about 3-5 times per month, in small amounts).

They aren't tracking every single thing or working on getting their check marks in each of the patterns. They are focused on living.

The world is full of so many beautiful things, sure it's also got a bunch of bad stuff too but if we always choose to see the bad we will miss all the beautiful moments.

Remember it's called holistic living.

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