UK life expectancy is 82.9 years for women and 79.2 for men. On average, you’ll be knocking about for around 4000 weeks.
And yet we have the capacity to go way beyond the average. My lazy Google search reveals that the oldest person ever was a French lady who zimmered her way to 122.
Henry Allingham is the oldest Brit ever, tipping the longevity scales at 113 and a bit.
But here’s the thing. If you Google the longevity league table, you’ll notice a lot of Japanese in the list of world’s oldest people. In fact, almost a third of the oldest people who’ve ever lived are from Japan.
Which begs the question, what on earth’s going on over there?
If you look really closely, the Okinawa postcode is where the super-centenarians live.
Here are three Okinawan habits, in no particular order…
They tend to move naturally. Over here, we tend to compensate for our sedentary lifestyles with a mad 40 minutes at the gym, whereas the Okinawans cycle or walk. Even in old age, the Japanese will get out and about on foot. In the fresh air.
Is that beyond obvious enough for you?
Second, they live by the philosophy of Hara Hachi Bu, the direct translation of which is ‘eat until your belly is 8 tenths full’. In plain simple English it means ‘stop eating before it hurts’ or even simpler ‘stop stuffing your face’. That deep pan meat feast pizza with a crust filled with sausages – you don’t need to order it. And if you do order it, it’s okay to leave some.
And third, they take pride in belonging to a community and/or extended family. The younger ones have an in-built sense of moral responsibility to take care of their elders, so grandma and grandad will live with the family. Great grandma too, seeing as she’s going to be around until she’s 125! Crucially, the elderly aren’t viewed as frail and irrelevant, they’re respected for the wisdom that comes from having lived so many decades.
Plus, they’re really useful because they can cycle to the shops.
Our Self-Care workshop is not a guarantee that you’ll get a telegram from the King. Sure, it might add more years to your life, but there’s something that’s more important than that…
… It’ll add more life to your years.