Ikigai

Japanese Proverb: "Only staying active will make you want to live 100 years."

Ikigai is The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life.

Here is a half Japanese Proverb:
"Only staying active will make you want to live 120 Years and Beyond."
I'm half Japanese, so when I pen a proverb....

Patricia and I just returned from our Kimono Wedding in the country listed as #1 for the longest living physically active people in the world.  We will tell you what we found in the posts to come.  In the meantime, the book below dives into the secret to a Long and Active Happy Life. Get it now, we'll read it together. Let's start a 120 and Beyond Book Club!

We will show you how to build an Ikigai Community where you live.



Credit:  Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

How to build your own 120 and Beyond Active Community.
Tip # 1 Find a Tai Chi Group or start your own. Get your group together and Tai Chi along with our Master Vince (see video link below).

Click HERE for a Tai Chi Video Lesson #1
Once you've watched this video, search YouTube for Vince McCoullagh Tai Chi for more.

"Ikigai: The Happiness of Always Being Busy."



Tip # 2  Take cardio walks around the block, on the beach, along a river, up a ridge or find a spin class.
Recommendation:   If you're in Orange County, California, 

Click HERE for a link to the Saddleback Community College 

Emeritus Program and Catalog
 



Tip # 3 The pillars of the 120 and Beyond philosophy: Build Community, Remain Physically Active, Engage in regular social interactions. Your nearest Community College is a largely unknown source of activities useful in building your Ikigai. 

The Science of Cells That Never Get Old.

Telomeres found at the ends of your chromosomes protect them from the wear and tear of cell duplication, but they get shorter over one's lifetime. Once telomere protective "caps" are gone, cells no longer function properly and die.

While certain factors shorten telomere length like chronic stress and how it is percieved, you will learn from this Ted Talk by Molecular Biologist Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, how to protect your telomeres and increase your Health Span. 

Click HERE to begin. Skip to 1:51 minutes.

 

"Tight knit communities, being in a marriage long term, and life long friendships all improve telomere maintenance."

How experiences create new Neural Pathways...

Taking care of your brain starts with understanding what's going on inside your cranial cavity.  You have 1,450 cubic centimeters of cranial space filled with neural tissue in a well protected "vault".  Let's take a look inside.

Click HERE for the interactive version.

New experiences create new Neural Pathways... which is why I'm taking a new Tai Chi class and learning Japanese, and Chinese, and Italian, and looking to join a calligraphy class, and listening to digital books and science podcasts. I plan to start learning how to play the guitar one day soon, and make time for a bookclub. (Have you read? Hitching Rides with Buddha, by William Ferguson).  New experiences, new learning, new neural pathways!

Optimizing your Body, Optimizing Your Brain

For Bill.  Optimizing your Body... with Cardio Work Outs

The human brain burns enormous quantities of oxygen and fuel, so it is important to maintain an optimal cardio vascular system, which can be accomplished by walking, jogging, and cycling.  Bill, a friend, is interested in a Spin class, so I've posted three video clips that I hope will take him to the next step.   My gym recently opened a new building with this digital Spin console. Bill, you can select a ride  choosing from over 200 choices on the control panel below, then climb on a bike! 

For first timers, a good goal is to pace yourself for a 55 minute ride. Pedal until you need to ease back... take a minute or two d\pedaling at an easy pace to recover your breath, then pick up the pace again.  Repeat.  You can also jump into a Spin class as a beginner and use the same strategy.  Go at your own pace, but ease back when necessary so you can complete the 55 minute class.

Bill the video below will help you become familiar with the equipment and in this clip, the emergency brake.  Later you will have time to try a live Spin class, which will challenge your cardio vascular system, pour extra oxygen into your brain and contribute to your 120 and Beyond plan.  
I'm on a bike or in a spin class 3-4 times a week, it would be better to have a Spinning partner!

Blue Zones: Where it’s common for people to live over 100.

What is a Blue Zone?

Blue Zones are hot spots of longevity and are good places to start building a longer health span by building a forward looking community.

Click HERE for a short introduction from National Geographic.

What do Blue Zones have in common?

The first principle of 120 and Beyond, and Blue Zones is...  Community. The Venn diagram above includes the terms Healthy Social Circle and Social Engagement.  

But Community means much, much more.  Communities are social units with something in common, eg. norms, values, that share a sense of place (village, town), often with a common cultural and historical heritage.  Communities have durable relations beyond immediate genealogical ties, and have members who often share, intents, beliefs, needs, preferences, resources and some measure of cohesiveness.

So let us now build our own 120 and Beyond 

or Blue Zone Tai Chi Community.

Click HERE to see what’s happening 

in Laguna Beach and Dana Point, California

Learn Tai Chi and Build Your Own Blue Zone

#1 Let’s begin by looking at how Tai Chi is a great path toward a longer, active health span.  Click on the video below to see

Wendy Ma, Vince McCullogh and Matthew Ma

lead an Emeritus Tai Chi session.

#2 This link is another good place to start your own Tai Chi path. Click on the video below for an orientation by Ron Cohen to the 18 Shibashi movements linking breathing to moving meditation. Shibashi is a good warm up for more advanced forms of Tai Chi.

Ron, Cindy and Paul have been leading a Sun-style t’ai chi ch’uan group

at Heritage Park in Dana Point, California at 10:30 am Thursdays for over 10 years? 

Maybe they’ll show us how.

#3 Coming soon with Paul et al.

Or go straight to Yang-style t’ai chi ch’uan.  Click HERE to practice the short form with Vince McCullough. 

"What is essential is invisible to the eye." 
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Blue Zones are hot spots of longevity like Okinawa Japan and Sardinia Italy where it’s common for people to live actively beyond 100.  
This page will focus on Tai Chi which also contributes to a longer healthspan for

120 and Beyond

Click HERE for more about Blue Zones

#4 This is my favorite lesson, Vince names each position to create a moving narrative.

#5

Why Tai Chi?

1. Moving mindfulness does for your brain what rocket fuel does for NASA Planetary Missions. Tai Chi will put you into a longer health span orbit.

2. Tai Chi is one of many physical activities that delivers increased quantities of oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which fuel the brain's glial cells in their work to feed and clean up the brain's neurons.  By the way,  Alzheimers is a build up of plaque that glial cells are tasked to clean up.   See previous Brain post.

An excellent example in the creation of My New Blue Zone took place in late August of 2018 when Bill and Alexandra invited  me to join their Tai Chi community with Vince McCullough.  They met daily at the beach to enjoy a moving group meditation. I believe practicing Tai Chi two or more times a week and building my own Blue Zone will help make it possible to reach 120 and Beyond.

The Human Brain...  uses more energy than any other human organ, up to 20 percent of the body's fuel consumption* and 
fully 25 percent of the body's total oxygen consumption.**   

*(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-the-brain-need-s/)
**(http://www.humanneurophysiology.com/cbfo2consumption.htm)

Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 

How do we protect our most valued asset? First, let's gather important neurological information from a reliable source: MIT   This video begins by shining a light on our greatest neurological risk. 

  Your Brain vs. Alzheimer's:  "Knowledge is Power." Click here for the video.  "33% of US adults will die of Alzheimer's or age related dementia." Not the news we want to hear but there is good news too!

From this first resource we learn that there is a noninvasive technique to reduce beta amyloid plaques in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.  Before we get carried away it is important to know that not all successes move from mice to humans. That said, we now have a compass pointing in a very compelling direction. It's hard to imagine a more non invasive experiment.  Exposure to 15 minutes of flickering Christmas lights a day.  More details to follow.