We Have the Power: How Making Different Choices Can Change Our Lives and World (The Blue Zones)

There’s a quote by Socrates on the wall of my company’s office: “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

I love this quote. It’s such a simple yet powerful concept. I’d like to apply it to how we think about health.

We’re about to move into a new election cycle in the United States. Healthcare — quality, access to it — is always a major discussion point and will undoubtedly be explored and discussed repeatedly over the next year. As it should be. Safe, quality healthcare should be accessible to everyone.

I’ve seen the transformational power of modern medicine, brilliant scientists and talented physicians. Yes — we need these experts and their solutions to be available to all.

In the meantime — what can we do?

I just completed watching Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones on Netflix.

I’ve always been interested in The Blue Zones research of the places in the world with the healthiest, longest-living populations. The docuseries is a fascinating, high-level overview of that research.

The four keys to these healthy, long-living Blue Zone societies are as follows (and definitely watch the docuseries to understand the nuances of these):

• Healthy movement, whether it’s traditional exercise, dancing at celebrations, cooking, taking care of your home, etc.

• Making connections and spending ample quality time with friends and family

• Maintaining a positive outlook and life purpose. What are you waking up for every day?

• Consuming a nutritious, mostly plant-based, whole foods diet

• 
  

While I was watching the series I kept thinking: What if we all chose to live the Blue Zone lifestyle?

Think about it:

These are four things that most of us have control over, which means: We have more power than we think when it comes to our health and wellness.

So while we wait for our governments and societies to get it together, we have the opportunity to make different choices for ourselves and our families.

We don’t have to move to a small village on a mountaintop to make this happen.

Interestingly, there are Blue Zone communities already in the United States. But you can create a Blue Zone right where you are…starting today!

We can choose to move more, connect with our loved ones, reset our mindset, come up with a personal purpose and of course, eat more nutritious foods.

As Gandhi said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

If we want a healthier society, lets choose to become a healthier society.

And we can do all of this while we make safe healthcare accessible to all.