living longer, happier, and healthier
lessons on resilience from the world's longest-lived communities
Hello love,
Every month, like a little treat, we get a message from Catherine Grindrod Dean teaching us about resilience.
In this article, Catherine takes us on a journey to the Blue Zones, those incredible regions around the world where people live the longest, healthiest, and most vibrant lives. She shares the "Power 9," a set of simple yet transformative habits these communities have in common, like moving naturally, eating mindfully, and building deep social connections.
I love how she ties resilience to community, drawing inspiration from the Okinawans’ moais, these lifelong groups of friends who support one another through life’s ups and downs.
It’s a beautiful reminder that living well and bouncing back from life’s challenges isn’t about doing it all alone; it’s about leaning on the right people and creating rhythms that support true well-being.
Catherine is a nutrition and lifestyle coach specialised in helping women over 30 feel healthy and energised by learning to nourish themselves and stop punishing themselves. She’s helped me so much on my journey to making peace with my body and prioritising my health that I certainly wouldn’t be the same without her.
If you haven’t read her previous posts yet, find them right here :
If you want to live an active, vibrant and truly resilient life into your 80s, 90s and beyond, this month’s blog is for you.
It might sound too good to be true, but the centenarians in the world’s Blue Zones are doing exactly that! I’ve been fascinated by the Blue Zones for years. If you haven’t heard of them, the Blue Zones are five areas around the world with the longest-lived and healthiest populations in the world. They are:
Okinawa in Japan
Loma Linda in California
The Barbagia Region of Sardinia
The Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica
Ikaria in Greece.
They are the focus of the fantastic book The Blue Zones by Dan Buettner if you’re intrigued enough to find out more.
What do the Blue Zones have to do with resilience?
The secret to the Blue Zones inhabitant’s healthy and vibrant lives into old age isn’t about running marathons, following super strict diets or going to the gym for hours every day.
Instead, they create lifestyles that make it easy to create and stick to healthy habits. Buettner identifies nine key habits common to the inhabitants of all the Blue Zones and described them as the Power 9.
The Power 9 are :
Move naturally: gardening, housework & walking are all daily activities for most Blue Zone centenarians, keeping them without formal exercise.
Have a purpose: having a powerful reason for waking up in the morning could add 7 years to your life expectancy.
Down shift: Blue Zone centenarians prioritise managing stress, whether it’s taking a nap, praying or happy hour.
80% rule: Blue Zone centenarians eat until they are 80% full. Eating in moderation can help reduce overeating and promote a healthy weight.
Plant slant: most centenarians eat a largely plant based diet, focusing on vegetables fruits and legumes.
Wine at five: many centenarians drink alcohol, but crucially they drink in moderation and they drink with friends.
Belong: almost all Blue Zone centenarians are part of a faith-based community. The faith doesn’t matter, the community, support and sense of belonging does.
Loved ones first: family is at the forefront of centenarian life. Spending time with and caring for children is the responsibility of the whole family. Did you know that committing to a life partner is thought to increase life expectancy by up to 7 years?
Right tribe: people in the Blue zones choose to be part of social circles that support healthy behaviours.
I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love this holistic, gentle, life fulfilling approach to health that goes way beyond the hardcore gym culture, supplements and biohacking that is often touted on social media.
Social support is often overlooked when we think about our health. Personally, I like to think of it as the 5th pillar of health, with nutrition, movement, stress management and sleep being the first 4 pillars.
Why Community Matters For Resilience
If you’ve already built a strong, supportive community, count yourself lucky.
A 2022 UK based study showed that almost 50% of adults felt lonely occasionally, sometimes, often or always. Emma Seppala, a US based researcher, found that loneliness or low levels of social connection can be worse for our health than smoking, high blood pressure or obesity and can make you more susceptible to anxiety and depression.
Having the right support can help you make better choices, help you to cope with stress and provide encouragement when times get tough.
Research also shows that strong social support can increase the quality of our sleep as we feel happier, more content and less stressed. Of course, when we’re sleeping better and feeling less stressed we are heading towards true resilience and further away from the slippery slope that leads to burnout.
Back to the centenarians of the Blue Zones, specifically the Okinawans of Japan. In Okinawa there are Moais, lifelong groups of friends that support each other socially, emotionally and financially. Moais are often formed in childhood and typically consist of about five people that meet regularly throughout their lives. These social support groups go way beyond friendship, providing a safety net for each other when life gets difficult. The members of the moais support each other through everything life throws at them.
No matter how bright your outlook, one thing is certain; life will, at some point, send us lemons. Make lemonade? Great advice. Cue a huge, dramatic eye roll.
Because simply doing that and putting a positive spin on things is easier said than done. And, honestly, if. you’re approaching burnout and dealing with everything life has to throw at you on your own, you’ll feel more like throwing those lemons at the wall than making a delicious, sparkling drink with them.
But the Okinawans are really on to something and the proof is in the pudding.
It’s not just that they live longer lives. It’s the quality of their lives that matters. True resilience, your bounce-back-ability, your capacity to get back up again after getting knocked down, is directly linked to your overall health. The stronger, fitter, healthier and happier you are, the more truly resilient you will be. Finding the right tribe or creating your own moai can really help with this.
No matter how strong, independent or self-sufficient you are, to become truly resilient, you’re gonna need the support of people you can trust. As the power 9 behaviours show us, the most resilient people create and nourish strong connections because they instinctively know how important it is for their overall health and resilience. Depending on others for support is much more than a social nicety.
If you’ve been following along, you may remember me mentioning a former management job I had that caused me to completely burn out (Read about it here).
Yes, the workload was intense, but I can’t pretend my inability to ask for help didn’t play a part in that. When I eventually hired a reliable, caring and competent assistant manager, my workload and life changed so quickly & dramatically that I didn’t even know what to do with all my extra free time.
So, yes, I get it.
In fact, I’m going to hazard a guess that you’re the kind of woman that is so self-sufficient that asking for help doesn’t even cross your mind. Am I right? If I am, take this as your sign that it’s time to start. Just in case you need this reminder: asking for help doesn’t make you weak. It doesn’t diminish your strength.
If anything, it’ll make you stronger and help you shine even brighter.
This has been fascinating to read! I watched the Netflix documentary on the Blue Zones a few years ago, and found it so inspiring, but I must admit I didn’t go as far as reflecting on how I could invite more of that wisdom into my life
This is such a refreshing take on resilience. It’s not about extreme measures or striving endlessly, it’s about creating a life that feels good and supports you from the inside out. Living well is simpler than we often think and I personally find it so empowering to know that resilience isn’t something we have to figure out on our own but rather something we build together, with the right people around us.
What About You?
What does resilience look like in your life? Are there small, daily habits or connections that help you feel strong and supported? Maybe there’s a community you’re part of, or maybe it’s something you’d like to create. I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to share your experiences in the comments or send me a message. Let’s inspire each other to live our most vibrant, resilient lives!
And if you’re looking for a community of sensitive and ambitious women entrepreneurs, you’ll fit right in with Catherine and me in the Soulful Biz Club : a cozy but mighty community that offers brain-friendly co-working, weekly group coaching and audio guidances as well as prompts to help you thrive in your business in a soft and holistic way.
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