An Enduring Approach Toward Cultivating Longevity from Within: Part 1

I remember it was the smell that hit me first. The smell of age, decay and the strong antiseptic ineffectively attempting to mask all of it. It is with compassion that I sit at a rehabilitation center in Fort Myers, Florida visiting my ailing mother. My mother who lays in, by all appearances, her deathbed. After falling and breaking her hip last December, she never managed to gain the capacity to walk again, thereby she lays here lost, and confused with neurodegenerative decline. It is with compassion that I look around and see all the other “residents” in similar states of diminishment. It is with compassion that I realize that if we aspire to longevity, and luck be with us, we do not aspire to this. And it is with urgency that I recognize the importance of cultivating an approach towards our longevity that not only lessens the likelihood that we end up in this demise, but allows us to thrive and to strive towards a life of optimal health. 

We begin by moving, not only through formal exercises but as importantly, moving our bodies with awareness, tending to our inner lives and to our relationships. I have had the privilege of witnessing and helping so many of you already on this course, desirous of continued adventure, activity and participation. Diane McCabe, a long time patient and LASPC community member exemplifies this approach to longevity. At 82, the same age of my mother, Diane is racing Dragon Boats throughout the country, training weekly, leading, inspiring and mentoring her team. I encourage all to read her story, as it was appropriate that she is our featured community member this week.

I cannot help but compare my mother’s situation with Diane’s. I love my mother, but she has never embraced this approach towards longevity. The idea of practicing mindful living and mindful movements, a commitment towards regular exercise and following sound principals towards diet were always topics we would regularly discuss, but never became her practice.

In the spirit of this, I invite all of you to join me at {pages} a bookstore, in Manhattan Beach on May 19, for a Conversation about Brain Health & Alzheimer’s. The two speakers featured, have three wonderful books: Reversing Alzheimer’s by Dr. Heather Sandison, The End of Alzheimer’s Program and The Ageless Brain by Dr. Dale Bredesen. The details are listed in our events section along with a special offer for all LASPC patients and community members.

Movement again. We are all endowed with an infinite array of potential movements. As we age, we inexorably begin to lose many of these movements, some of which are fundamental to our health and our capacity. So in the spirit of “use it or lose it“ and in the spirit of making it play, we can choose to practice “movement snacks”, such as: walk often and everywhere, walk hills, walk the beach, while walking rotate our spine, look up from our phone, bring attention into our posture. Bring attention to our breath, breathe deeply, breath softly, breathe vigorously, breathe slow, cultivate an intimate relationship with our breath, smile always, practice a deep squat, hinge our knees , spin our shoulders, stretch our eye muscles towards the periphery, stretch our forearms, mobilize our wrists , stretch our hands. Go outside, stretch our legs, stand tall and squeeze our butt,(no one will notice), bring attention to our spine, sit crossed legged if possible, if not, work on it. Take our shoes off, walk barefoot around the house, around the yard, walk barefoot on the beach, stand barefoot and balance up on our tippy toes, sit on the beach, lay on the beach, do our chores mindfully. Take a nap outside, leave no trace, be kind, sleep well, dance, dance with the kids, laugh, lay in shavasana. And at times, be still. 

Let me finish this by saying,  I enjoyed the time with my mother. There were tender moments as well, such as this exchange we had after I returned to her room one evening to retrieve my left behind cell phone charger:

As I walked into her room, she looked up at me and asked me:

“Who are you?"
”HI, I’m your son, Steve“ I answered.
“Oh, Hi, will you be my friend?” she asked.
“Sure, I’ll be your friend” I answered.
“Oh, that’s nice, because I would like to be friends with my son Steve”, she said.
“And I would like to be friends with you “I responded.

So, we sat in silence as friends. I dropped down into a squat to be eye to eye with her all the while opening my hips, stretching my back and strengthening my feet as I continue to strive toward cultivating aging well.