Live a Long Life

Life is good. Living a healthy, long life is admirable. How old is the oldest person you know?
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Expect your every need to be met, expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level, expect to grow spiritually.  
                              —Eileen Caddy

10 Simple Tips to Live Longer and Healthier 

Elderly woman and man holding hands on the couch, in love.

Want to increase your life expectancy? Pay more attention to the good things in your life. Find ways to be healthy, happy, and creative. Try a few of these tips to better living and enhance your life span. The people you love will appreciate and support your effort.

10. Cultivate a Sense of Purpose
Living life with a sense of purpose may be good for your immune system. Studies link people who have a sense of purpose with having a strong immune system. Living a self-centered life can do the opposite and weaken your body’s immune system. Find your own sense of direction. Do things that make you feel that you have something to contribute to society. Challenge yourself to “grow” and be the best person you can be. 
9. Be Positive
Try to keep an optimistic point of view. It’s healthy to think positive and act positive. Surround yourself with positive people. You may find the more you think positive, the more it happens that positive things appear in your life. 
8. Use Play to Reduce Stress
Cultivate a more playful approach to life. Maybe you can’t avoid all stress, but you can turn it around with jokes or playful responses. Schedule time for play into your day and don’t allow yourself to cancel because something “more important” comes up.
7. Be Active
Do anything but sit. Sure, it’s best to exercise regularly. But, if you are not able to keep up exercise, yoga, running, or biking, at least take walks. Begin by walking around your neighborhood, at about the same time, every day. Build up a walking habit. If you can build up your daily walk to one mile, or two miles, then what’s to stop you from walking that same distance to the store, to your job, or to the library? If long walks don’t do it for you, try gardening, running up and down the stairs in your home, or dancing to oldies while you cook.
6. Improve your Eating Habits
Eat healthy, drink plenty of water, avoid the foods you know are not good for you. Occasionally switch some of your diet with foods and beverages you know are good for you, such as green tea for its antioxidants instead of a cup of coffee, fish for omega-3 oils instead of meats for one meal a week, and whole grains or rice instead of pasta or bread.
5. Build Strong Relationships
Cherish the people in your life—family, children, good friendships. Don’t forget to express your caring out loud. People who have close friends or partners that they can confide in tend to live longer and healthier lives.
4. Travel Regularly
Make an effort to meet new people in different places. You will learn as much about yourself as you do about the people you meet. If you can, travel to countries around the world to experience different cultures and values.
3. Live for Needs, Not Excess
Pay attention to the most important things in your life first. Cover the basics of food, shelter, appropriate clothing. Find the joy in these simple things. Every comfort beyond these seems like a bonus. Collect fewer excess things and the simple important joys drive your life.
2. Practice Gratitude
Each day, write down 2 or 3 things in your life you are thankful for. This gratitude list will help you to be more content with your life. Practicing gratitude can boost your feelings of happiness.
1. Laugh at Least Once a Day
 It’s true, laughter is the best medicine. Let yourself laugh at least once a day. Every time you laugh you feel good inside. Your face, head, and neck muscles relax. You release your lungs and breathe better. It’s a proven stress-buster. Even a simple smile can change your mood for the better.
Does this make you want to study people who have lived exceptionally long lives? People who live over 100 years are often asked how they did it. Their answers are as varied as the people themselves. But most often they talk about the people who they shared their lives with. A life that is happy and full of close, strong relationships will feel like a life worth living. 

Did you enjoy these simple tips for living a long life? Read more articles like this at LifeStyle.

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Posted 11/13/13
My granny lived to be 102 years old. And she was funny, She told jokes right up to the end. That and whisky.
  TJBJ441
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