The Italian island of Sardinia; Okinawa, Japan; Loma Linda, California; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; and Ikaria, Greece all have one incredible thing in common. The communities of these 5 regions have the longest lifetime of any other community in the world, they’re called blue zones. This is no reflection of a few healthy individuals housed in the locations. These statistics are the result of the healthy communities formed amongst motivated individuals who dedicated their lifestyles to improve their longevity…together!
What powerful changes are these ordinary people implementing in their day-to-day lives to build extraordinary communities? That’s exactly the kind of research the Blue Zones Project has dedicated themselves to figure out. By traveling to these regions to find the similarities between their populations, these researchers have found key habits which these communities collaboratively promote to improve the well-being of everyone there. Here’s what they found: It’s a conscious group effort. Businesses, restaurants, schools, grocery stores and other organizations are becoming champions of well-being in their communities.
Businesses, restaurants, schools, grocery stores and other establishments are what physically make up a city or neighborhood have a large influence on our personal behavior. Everyday, we are tempted by convenient products, tasty advertisements, super-sized discounts, and our peers. These influencers are what directly construct our habits and, ultimately, our lifestyles. What if, however, our local restaurants and grocery stores promote healthy eating. What if our local businesses incentivized good deeds. What if, our schools aimed to educate our youth on public health and self care. The Blue Zones Project aims to achieve just this by encouraging individuals to pledge to be more conscious of the information their environment feeds them and how how they contribute to the noise. Pledging as a member would connect one to a community of fellow motivated individuals determined to live longer by supporting each other to maintain healthier diets and lifestyle habits.
Wether the official blue zones pledge is something one would want to commit their lifestyle to or not -it is still fascinating nonetheless- that there are communities of healthy people committed to living long, fruitful lives. Even more inspiring, is that their strong physical and mental health is a direct result of the small steps they took the effort to implement in their daily decisions on a daily level to create their own paths to wellness.
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