Your Body Wants To Be Healthy

What if you were so healthy that you forgot to die? It is a blessing to become old. I had a client who told me that after she lived thru Hodgkins Disease, she started to put gorgeous older women on her Vision Board. She realized that she use to complain about turning a year older and now after the diagnosis, turning a year older is a gift.

The NY Times had an article about an Greek island named Ikaria that had many centenarians residing there. The journalist set up a meeting with the doctor and interviewed many others on the island to gather information; here is the breakdown and an outline of the flow of their day.

1. Rest: They wake up late naturally without alarms, a breakfast of goat’s milk, wine, sage tea or coffee, honey and bread. Work in the garden to harvest food for the next meals.  Take a nap later in the day, and at sunset visit with neighbors.
2. Diet: Their snacks include; Kalamata olives, hummus, heavy Ikarian bread and wine. Lunch was almost always beans (lentils, garbanzos), potatoes, greens (fennel, dandelion or a spinach like green called horta) and whatever seasonal vegetables their garden produced; dinner was bread and goat’s milk. At Christmas and Easter, they would slaughter the family pig and enjoy small portions of larded pork for the next several months.
3. Community: Community support is very important to their existence, instead of fighting with their neighbors, they supported one another in physical and emotional well being. Community gardens, dining together, annual parties and rituals.
4. Stress Free: They do not wear watches, over plan or rush anywhere. They get there when they get there. They end the day with a tea made from local herbs. These herbs have medicinal and antioxidant properties, wild marjoram, sage, a type of mint tea, rosemary and a drink made from boiling dandelion leaves and adding a little lemon. I am certain we have many healing herbs right in our own back yard.
5. Sex life: No Viagra here, they polled 100 men and 80% claimed to have a wonderful sex life and were great with duration and achievement.

What is the common theme?

Take naps, plant a garden, live simply, and enjoy each other’s company.

Cheers to Greece,

Heather Fleming