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In general, humans are living longer than they ever have. But in certain areas of the world, known as “Blue Zones,” clusters of people are stretching the limits of longevity. We’re not talking about people who have traded time for quality of life. These are vibrant, healthy individuals who are living past age 100.

What Is a Blue Zone?

The term Blue Zones was first used in the early 2000s by Michel Poulain, a Belgian demographer, and Gianni Pes, an Italian physician. Their research pinpointed the area with the most male centenarians, the mountains of Sardinia, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. The men used a blue pen to circle the location on a map, and the name Blue Zones was born.

Intrigued by this age-defying population, explorer and National Geographic fellow Dan Buettner selected a team of epidemiologists, physicians, nutritionists, anthropologists, and demographers and set out on a global quest to identify other areas with above-average life expectancies. Buettner and his team interviewed hundreds of elders around the world who were defying the longevity odds to understand what they had in common.

Nine Keys to Long Life

In addition to Sardinia, Buettner’s team identified four other locations that fell into the definition of Blue Zones:

• The island of Okinawa, Japan
• The Greek island Ikaria
• The Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica
• Loma Linda, California, home to a group of Seventh Day Adventists who live 10 years longer than the average American.

While the lifestyles of these communities varied slightly, Buettner’s team documented nine life-extending behaviors they all shared.

• Plant-Based Diet

  The people in the Blue Zones typically eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet. They consume lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, and legumes. They rarely eat meat and fish and almost never drink cow’s milk. Ikarians enjoy goat’s milk, feta cheese, and coffee (which is rich in antioxidants). Okinawans eat tofu and brown rice. And Sardinians drink goat’s milk and eat up to 15 pounds of sheep’s cheese annually along with sourdough bread. Buettner, executive director of the 2023 Netflix documentary series, "Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones," told PBS NewsHour correspondent John Yang: "The number one killer in America is our diet. We lose about 660,000 Americans prematurely to the way we eat."

• Stop Eating Before You’re Full

  Americans often eat quickly, on the run, and more than we need, which causes weight gain and all the issues that come with it. Okinawans follow Confucius’s mantra to stop eating when they are about 80 percent full. Others in the Blue Zones tend to eat their biggest meals at midday.

• Imbibe

  Except for the Adventists, most adults in the Blue Zones drink alcohol, usually wine, in moderation (one or two glasses a day).

• Stay Active

  People in the Blue Zones don’t typically run marathons or lift weights. They move naturally in ways that don’t stress their joints. Similar types of exercise would be walking the dog, mowing the lawn, and biking to work. The idea is to get moving and keep moving.

• Relax

  Stress is part of life, but people who live in the Blue Zones often take time each day to escape it. Constant stress causes chronic inflammation, which leads to age-related diseases, so do what you can to de-stress.

• Follow Your Heart

  People who live the longest often have a deep sense of purpose—a reason for getting out of bed every morning—which may add up to seven years to a life.

• Keep the Faith

  Many centenarians belong to a faith-based community. Buettner's research found that attending services four times per month added up to 14 years to life expectancy.

• Put Loved Ones First

  Caring for children, committing to a life partner, and keeping aging parents nearby is something people in the Blue Zones have in common, which likely fuels their desire to live long and full lives.

• Positive Influences

  Most centenarians surround themselves with people who support healthy behaviors and who encourage them to stay active, eat right, and enjoy life.

Emulate a Blue Zone Lifestyle

Even though you may not live in a Blue Zone, you can potentially prolong your life by implementing behaviors from the people who do.

Beyond good nutrition, the people who live the longest belong to communities, surround themselves with others who reinforce healthy behaviors, are physically active, are committed to those they love, and live life to the fullest, because they can.

Regular exercise can help prevent chronic diseases, keep weight in check, improve sleep, and relieve stress.

Exercise Strategies for All Ages

Experts recommend at least 30 minutes of moderate activity each day for adults, and 60 minutes for children. If your family is falling short, these strategies can help get you moving again.

Fitness for Kids

The statistics make one thing clear: Children in the US aren’t exercising enough. Fewer than half of kids ages 6 to 11 are getting 60 minutes per day, with a dismal 8 percent of kids ages 12 to 15 hitting that goal. Here are some ideas for making fitness fun.

Toddlers and preschoolers love to run, climb, and play, so taking them outside—into the backyard or to a playground—will boost their activity levels. They also love to help with household chores, which is a win-win for parents! 

School-aged kids enjoy playing games, whether sports or social games like hide-and-seek or tag. They may need an adult to help facilitate their activities (teach them how to throw, swim, etc.). They also love gadgets, so consider buying an inexpensive pedometer for them. Structured exercise classes might include martial arts, dance, or yoga.

Tweens and teens have the focus and endurance to engage in more sustained or repetitive activities, like cycling or jogging. They also have more opportunities to take classes and play organized sports. Teens need to feel like they have some control over their lives, so give them several choices.

Kids this age also have the strength and patience to do more physically taxing chores like raking and vacuuming. Housework can be incentivized with allowance or other rewards.

Exercise for Busy Parents and Professionals

The middle years of life are busy. Many of us are parenting and trying to develop and sustain our careers. Adding exercise to the mix may seem impossible, but it can be done. Here are some ways to take the pain out of meeting your daily fitness goals.

Start small. Making huge life changes or setting unrealistic goals is a sure-fire way to feel like a failure. Just a few minutes a day will add up over time: Park farther from the store and hoof it, take the stairs, walk the dog—you get the idea.

Work out at work. Have a desk job? Spend just five or ten minutes moving every hour—you can find lots of ideas for short workouts online. Take a walk with a co-worker on your lunch break. Consider walking or cycling to work a few days a week. If you work near a gym, you can stop in on your way home.

Set the scene. Get up before the kids and start the day with uninterrupted workout time. Store workout gear like exercise balls and hand weights out in the open—if you have to look at them every day, you’ll be more likely to use them.

Staying Active During Your Golden Years

Being active in the retirement years and beyond is crucial to reducing the risk of falling, keeping weight under control, and enhancing your mental health.

Try biceps curls with light weights. Get your heart rate up by taking a walk, maybe around the mall.

Exercises that build balance, body awareness, coordination, flexibility, and strength are just what seniors need. For example, doing squats may make it easier to pick things up off the floor, and doing wall slides are good practice for getting out of chairs. Always check with your healthcare practitioner before starting a new exercise regimen.

Support Structure

Katy Bowman, author of Dynamic Aging ($16.95, Propriometrics Press, 2017), knows that both physical fitness and a sense of community are important to maintain as we age.

She encourages people to find ways to combine the two, such as finding a walking buddy or starting a walking or birdwatching group.

Bowman writes, “Have you been choosing to drive through or use the ATM at the bank for convenience? Parking and walking in not only increases your movement, it also

offers the opportunity to interact with others as you are waiting in line... and benefit from the smiles and interaction with those assisting you.”

One of the best things you can do to live a long, healthy life doesn’t require a visit to the doctor, a change in diet, or a new supplement regimen. It’s all about social connections.

“Social” Science

Get connected: It’s not just common sense that physical and mental health is enhanced by having a supportive network–family, friends, faith community, knitting group, poker buddies, or whatever. It’s backed by an array of scientific evidence.

“Wide-ranging research suggests that strong social ties are linked to a longer life. In contrast, loneliness and social isolation are linked to poorer health, depression, and increased risk of early death,” reports News in Health from the National Institutes of Health.

Numerous experiments going as far back as the 1970s show that people experiencing positive emotions are better at being socially engaged, at including others socially, and at showing consideration, trust, and compassion. People who have broad and varied social relationships that are rewarding are more likely to be in good physical health and to live longer.

An analysis of more than 140 studies that looked at a combined 300,000 people concluded that, in terms of mortality risk, a lack of social connectedness is comparable to other major risk factors including smoking, alcohol abuse, obesity, and lack of exercise.

A Sense of Belonging

Emma Seppälä, PhD, science director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and author of The Happiness Track, defines social connection as “The subjective experience of feeling close to and a sense of belongingness with others.” She lists its benefits as longer lifespan, stronger immunity, lower rates of anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem and empathy, better regulation of emotions, and “a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being.”

Low levels of social connection, on the other hand, can lead to higher inflammation, higher susceptibility to anxiety and depression, slower recovery from illness, and increased antisocial behavior, Dr. Seppälä writes.

The Costs of Isolation

Social connectedness rates are dropping in the United States, with one survey indicating that more than a quarter of people have no one to talk with about personal problems. For aging adults, loneliness is a serious health risk.

At a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, experts noted that feeling isolated from other people can cause insomnia, elevated blood pressure, spikes in the stress hormone cortisol, gene changes in immune cells, increased depression, and a lower sense of well-being.

Researchers pointed to three dimensions of healthy relationships:

• Intimate connectedness, or having someone in your life who affirms who you are.
• Relational connectedness, or having mutually satisfying in-person contacts.
• Collective connectedness, or feeling part of a larger group.

Don’t Lose Touch

It’s not about living alone: risks to health and lifespan come not from physical isolation but from feeling isolated. So if you’re feeling disconnected, or if you want to maintain connections as you age, consider a few approaches. Retiring to a warmer climate may mean fewer weather hassles, but staying where your support network is may outweigh that.

Reach out to others by volunteering and offering acts of kindness. Be sure to ask for help when you need it–if you don’t ask, people will assume you’re OK. Turn casual or online “friendships” into real ones by inviting a friend for a walk or a cup of tea.

Finally, don’t just seek a friend: be a friend.

In our family, Thanksgiving is about much more than just food! Oh yes, every year I make homemade cranberry sauce, a huge rice-stuffing filled turkey roasted with onions, mushrooms and carrots till golden brown, along with neatly trimmed broccoli “trees” for the kids, and a mouth-watering array of regular as well as gluten-free pumpkin pies. But most delicious of all (tucked inconspicuously among the silverware and napkins on our long cloth-covered table) we have something more. A ritual!

Thanksgiving Family Traditions

Little 3” x 3” slips of colorful paper are set under the napkins beside each person’s plate… along with small stubby pens… so that when the meal is over and we’re still too full for dessert, we can write each other messages about “something you did or you were this year that really mattered to me… a phone call at just the right time, a welcome word of praise, a hug or smile that was desperately needed; the kind of mother or friend you were; the example you set that made the way easier for someone else in the family. Something you probably don’t even remember, but I do. And I want to thank you for doing it or being it.” Then we share our notes with everyone else at the table.

Sharing What You are Thankful for

On Thanksgivings when we have lots of guests, instead of writing our messages, we go around the table sharing them out loud, generating smiles, hearty chuckles and even grateful tears. Spoken words are wonderful, but words written have an advantage… They last! In the months that follow, we’ve all noticed these saved “things that really mattered to me” slips of paper posted on refrigerator doors, pinned on bulletin boards or neatly creased and folded in bowls of seashells, sea glass and other memorabilia. These tiny notes serve as powerful reminders too. On particularly challenging days, it’s wonderful to reread what was said about us and, even more heartwarming, to recall what was said about our kids. To know about the kind deeds they’ve done for others that we would never otherwise hear about, or be able to enjoy.

And, now that these notes have become a family ritual, we’re on the lookout all year for experiences we can write on next year’s colorful Thanksgiving notes! But we frequently deliver them long before knowing there’ll be lots more by then!

Success Filing as a Family

Here’s something I learned by shadowing Highly Successful People (HSPS) for 20 years and working with them for 20 more. HSPs make time each day to “file” their successes… all the ordinary and extraordinary things they did and realized that day, like… I ate a good breakfast, went for a run, quizzed my kids on their spelling words, replied to all my emails, returned a call I missed yesterday… that could be a hug opportunity.

The Importance of Acknowledging Success

Why is this important to HSPs? Here’s what they told me. If they wait for other people to acknowledge them and agree with them they could be waiting a long time! So to constantly build and rebuild their Self-Confidence, instead of relying on Other-Confidence, they write their successes in a journal, a computer file or cell phone or just underline them in their mind while repeating one of these mantras…

• When my Success File I feel Success-Full. When it is low, I feel low too. (And tend to lie around and procrastinate instead of getting going on my priorities.) Or…
• Success in my past gives me confidence in my future... the confidence I need to enjoy goals and dreams!

Whether we realize it or not, families have Success Files too. How full is your family’s? Hopefully this Thanksgiving Ritual will help you top it off!

Energy vampires and emotional zombies are real-life relatives, co-workers or neighbors who deplete your energy so dramatically that your health and sense of well-being suffer.

“If you surround yourself in emotional energy that is negative, that’s going to get into your physical energy and that can cause all types of sickness and disease” warns Caryn Bellews, a Massachusetts-based reiki master teacher and licensed massage therapist.

Chances are you’ve been “bitten” by an energy vampire if, after an interaction, you find yourself exhausted and wondering, “What just happened?” 

Do an Emotional Energy Audit 

Dr. Judith Orloff is assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA and bestselling author of Emotional Freedom. She recommends conducting an energy audit of the people in your life.

First, make a  a list of everyone, and then jot down how you feel while with them and afterward. Does any interaction make you sleepy? Do telephone conversations drain you? Do you come away from every conversation energized? How does your body respond? Do you get headaches or stomachaches or feel tightness in the chest?

Types of Energy Vampires

Bellew agrees that education is crucial and knowing how to identify the types of energy vampires in your life will help you use strategies specifically designed to minimize their negative impact on you.

• The Narcissist

  First, there is the narcissist,” she says, “the energy hog who is always right and everything is about them. They are very, very toxic,” she says.

  The best way to deal with them is not to have them in your life. If that’s not possible, it helps to show them how their help or involvement in a project benefits them. Because they are so selfish, she says, they respond best to self-interest.

• The Victim

  The victim is another type of energy vampire. “They are woe is me all of the time,” she says and have lots of problems. While you might think brainstorming or problem solving might help, “It’s a waste of energy” Bellew says. “You could give them 100 solutions and they’d have 1000 excuses.”

  She says the best tactic with victims is to limit the amount of time you listen to them. They will take as much time as you give them, so it is up to you to set time limits and boundaries when speaking with them. At the beginning of an interaction, say something like, “I only have five minutes.” Cut them off when their time is up so you don’t get sucked dry.

• The Controller

  The controller is a vampire who feasts on your life, who tries to fix it and gives endless advice when you haven’t asked for any. These people need to “dominate all interactions,” says Bellew.

  With them, it is often easier to just concede on unimportant issues. “Let them have it,” she says if it's something you aren't invested in. If it’s an interpersonal issue or something important to you, be confident and clear and don’t expect compromise. The best outcome might be “agreeing to disagree” because they will see most exchanges as win/lose and the best you might get is a draw. With them, you want to keep energy neutral and contact minimal.

• The Criticizer

  Criticizers are easy to recognize. They are the vampires who belittle you and point out your flaws and get joy from making you feel bad.

  With them, Bellew says, “Kill them with kindness"—an approach that disarms them. The criticizer is a bully. By refusing to get hurt or show it, you deflate them and they lose interest.

  Bellew is quick to point out that “hurt people hurt people” and most energy vampires aren’t injuring you with malicious intent. Usually, they are oblivious to the impact they have on others. In addition, conversation is rarely productive because they are not interested in changing or even aware they have an issue to address.

Are You a Vampire Magnet?

Both Bellew and Orloff believe that some people “attract” energy vampires. If you always have them in your life, you must look at yourself and determine if you need to set clearer boundaries that will protect your time, energy and health more.

Whether you are dealing with energy vampires occasionally or find them in your life more often, knowledge, awareness and the techniques below will help you strengthen your own life energy.

Energy Tools to Protect Against Vampires

Personally and professionally, Bellew uses meditation, visualization, deep breathing and positive self-talk on a daily basis. She suggests you close your eyes for a few moments each morning, take a few deep breaths, and visualize yourself being covered in a thick and protective bubble. If you know you will be with an energy vampire, you can imagine a mirror around you which will reflect away any negative energy that comes toward you.

During the day, Bellew advises being still, scanning your body, and regularly reminding yourself, “I am safe and protected.”

While the techniques might sound simple and easy, she says they are effective. So is stretching, wiggling the toes, and “sending breath to any part of the body that is tense” and encouraging the release of tension.

Body work such as massage or energy work can help release the energy stored in the body and Bellew recommends getting it regularly if you can.

What Are Zombies?

With a vampire, the emphasis is on protecting your energy. But with a zombie, it’s a little different.

Zombies don’t feed on your energy. Instead, they have a flat affect and being with them can make you feel numb, dulled, and tired.

Bellew says Zombies are usually “unfeeling, non-responsive, standoffish or cold.” With them you might notice yourself trying to wake them up or be a cheerleader to them but instead of them getting peppy you end up feeling like you hit a brick wall.

Resist the urge to energize them. “You lose your energy trying to motivate them and it’s not productive,” Bellew says.

Her advice for dealing with zombies is similar for guidance dealing with a resistant toddler. “Give them lots of choices. They resist ownership or follow through unless they are invested. Getting them to be engaged or to show enthusiasm is not always possible, but giving them choices offers the best chance of success.

You can’t always avoid zombies and vampires in the real world or know when you’ll be attacked. However, if someone comes to “suck your blood” you know one bite isn’t fatal and you can minimize the damage and replenish your energy.