Three Keys to Longevity

If I say to you, "Do these three things if you want to have a successful, long, and joyful life," you probably won't believe me. Not at first, anyway. But if you take the time to read the following three keys to longevity, and follow through with them, your life will seemingly fulfill itself.

These three things work because they are the three things people have always done, and they'll unlikely never change. Below I will show why they matter so much, and that without even one of them, you'll never have the energy to really enjoy life the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

The three "keys" I outline below are Activity, Healthy Diet, and Positive Thinking. With them, you give yourself the ability to achieve great things in life, or greater things than you have already accomplished. These three keys are interconnected. One enables the other, and together, all three enable you to be the best person you can be.

Whether you're a couch potato looking for something to motivate you in life, or an already successful professional trying to find meaning in your work, these three keys unlock doors you can only walk through when you're at your best mentally, physically, and spiritually.

• Activity

Human beings evolved to be active, calorie burning creatures. We didn't go through millions of years of change, from African climates to European or Asian wildernesses to sit on a couch and watch seven hours of TV each day. Our bones, muscles, and organs were made specifically to run, play, and live.

That's why we have sweat glands, large hearts and lungs, feet suitably designed for running or walking, and arms and hands made for swinging, throwing, or catching. We were made to be outside in the sunlight working hard or playing even harder.

Don't think so? How many millions of people have arthritis? Know any? Arthritis is one of the main reasons many people slow down in their old age. They stop what little activity they do because they simply can't perform physical tasks anymore. But research has shown that physical exercise reduces the severity of arthritis pain. [Arthritis Basics] What this means is that by staying active now, you can keep staying active much later into your golden years, if not right up until the very day you die!

Exercise relieves the stress we've built up from work, or family issues. Getting away from the world for an easy walk or a vigorous run "dumps" all of that mind-numbing, body-destroying stress. People who can't relieve their stress on a daily basis are ripe for heart attack and stroke, and all sorts of other serious health problems. [Exercise: Rev up your routine to reduce stress]

Exercise also helps boost your immune system, shortening illnesses like the flu or colds, or keeping you from getting sick altogether. Not to mention daily exercise, even a twenty minute walk, fends off much more serious diseases such as heart disease. [Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity]

Okay, so exercise is great; staying fit and active keeps you slim, trim, and in shape. But how does it make you a more successful person? Daily exercise will give you the confidence to do more with your life. Daily exercise gets you moving and gets you energized, and soon you will find exercise is simply not enough. You'll want to channel this new energy into something else, something productive. That's why activity is a "key" to opening the door to fulfillment.

But it's not the only key. The next key gives you the fuel you need to stay active.

• Diet

We really are what we eat. People are finding that out the hard way as they gorge on donuts and candy bars, trading in fresh water for carbonated soda. Americans are getting fat and slothful, lazily gobbling sugar and fat in a life-long eating contest; the only award, a premature death from any one of a dozen preventable diseases.

But while diet is hurting millions of people, your diet can help you achieve your goals, relax, and stay active. Food is the fuel that we burn in activity, and a pleasure we share with others. Whether eating a hearty breakfast or having dinner with loved ones and friends, we're copying a ritual as old as time itself.

Eating has been around forever, but Americans have taken it to a whole new level by trading in healthy foods for junk not fit to feed the animals we keep. A healthy, well-rounded diet can keep us on our feet all day and ready for what life has to throw at us, but if all you eat is sugar and grease, you'll only want to sleep and your productivity will suffer the consequences.

Choosing healthy foods protects us from disease, from insomnia, from weight gain, from mood swings. Healthy foods help protect us from an assortment of negative ills and ailments, including cancer and many of the preventable causes of death American face in growing numbers. Eating healthy can add years to your life, not spent in a hospital, but spent living and being active.

Food is the foundation of the immune system. If what you eat is unhealthy, and your foundation is weak, you'll be sick far more often, and for far longer, than if you eat a well-rounded diet.

You simply can't expect to be happy if you don't give your body what it needs to function, and food is not only the fuel to keep you active, but because of food's ability to boost your brain and stabilize your mood, diet is also the foundation for the third and final key.

• Peace of Mind

Peace of mind means letting go of those things that just don't matter. Holding onto the little things that stress us out but don't mean anything to our lives over the course of weeks, years, or decades, can do more harm than anything else we do to ourselves. What does it matter if someone cuts us off in traffic, or our day doesn't go exactly how we anticipated it to? What matters is that we have our health, family, and anything else that helps us sleep easy.

Speaking of being happy, this is the third key to longevity. Happiness, or what I like to call "Peace of Mind," doesn't just happen. Far from it. Happiness is something you must work to have each and every day, and when you have it, work just as hard to keep it and not neglect it or take it for granted. Without a proper diet or an active lifestyle, happiness is impossible. Eating the "perfect" diet and exercising every day your entire life won't help you one bit if you're not happy doing it!

Being optimistic has many far reaching health and social benefits. Optimists have less stress, it's true, but they also have less disease because happiness, or more specifically the chemicals released by an up-beat mind, boost the immune system. Being optimistic also helps you live longer, partly because of having less stress, having a stronger immune system, but also because life becomes a game too much fun to quit playing.
[The Six Life Benefits of Happiness]

So how can you be optimistic today and tomorrow and the rest of your life? The trick is understanding many of the things that bother most people don't mean anything in the Grand Scheme of life. The universe has its own plans, and spilling coffee on your white pants isn't going to change much in the course of your life. If anything, that new coffee stain adds character, like an old battle would.

There's a bright side to everything, and it's your job to find it.

• When three equals one

No one is perfect, and even if they were, perfection is no guarantee. Things happen that are so completely out of our control that nothing we can possibly do will change the tragedies we face. You can't wish a parent back to life, you can't heal a broken leg with exercise, and you can't eat your way out of the grave.

But by staying active, eating well, and thinking positively you may be able to channel your energy to triumph over disaster or achieve your goals, even if you've seemingly conquered every mountain in sight. Life is full of surprises, and if your life has become boring even after great achievements, it's only because you're not seeking new horizons. Open up to the world before you and let it be your only guide.

Sources:
1. Athritis Basics, CDC.gov
2. Exercise: Rev up your routine to reduce stress, Mayo Clinic
3. Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity, Mayo Clinic
4. Jerry Lopper, The Six Life Benefits of Happiness, Suite101.com