HEALTHY AT 100 (44 page)
Authors: John Robbins
_____
Consider what you would want to do if you knew you had only six months to live. See how many of these things you can do in the next two years.
Whatever your stage of life, create an affirmation or visualization that reflects your goals for yourself. Twice a day, as you wake up in the morning and as you fall asleep at night, mentally repeat your affirmation or visualization, and engage your imagination on behalf of making your goals your reality.
Never let the fact that you cannot be what you would
like
to be prevent you from being and appreciating what you
can
be. Stand for your vision of what is possible, and never underestimate your power to make a difference. Sing, even if you think you can’t.Never be ashamed of the privileges that have come into your life. Never be ashamed of the gifts that have been given to you. Use them for the good of us all.
_____
Get enough sleep. Remember your dreams and share them. Keep a dream journal. Over time, watch for recurring images or themes. See what you can learn from them.
Take time to meditate, write poetry, or keep a journal.
Share a story with family or friends, or write in your journal, about a time when you were humbled, soothed, or awed by something in the natural world.
Give thanks for your life, for your health, and for this beautiful earth.
Sit quietly in nature and listen. Respect all life.
Pet cats, dogs, and other animals. And hug people—lots. You are never too old to ask for a hug, and never too old to offer one.
_____
Sit with someone who is dying. Meditate, pray, sing, or read to them.
Become a hospice volunteer.
Support the family or partner of someone in your community who is nearing death. Bring food, run errands, clean his/her house, massage his/her shoulders.
_____
Speak to those who are close to you about the major illnesses of your life. Honor the insights into yourself and your way of life that you have gleaned from being sick.
If you are faced with a serious health challenge, get the best medical care you can, and make sure you take time to honor and care for your mind, heart, and spirit as well as your body. Rather than seeing the crisis as merely an obstacle to be overcome, use it as an opportunity to discover what is most important in your life. Hold what is frightened, painful, and neglected in yourself with the tenderness and compassion with which you would hold a newborn baby. Remember that you do not have to do anything or be anything in order to be happy and worthy of love. If you have suffered a major loss, keep a grief journal. Write down whatever you are feeling, as a daily exercise in self-exploration and expression. Write about whatever you are experiencing, including anger or despair if those feelings arise.
_____
Identify an ancestor or some historical figure in whose lineage you feel yourself to be, and do something to pay tribute to his or her spirit.
Celebrate death days as well as birthdays. On the anniversary of a loved one’s death, create a way to remember her and to honor how her spirit lives on in you. Set up an altar of remembrance, using photos, letters, and objects that carry memories.
Write in your journal or talk to friends or family about your death. Describe your vision of how you want to die.
Remember that at the end of your days on this earth, the question will not be how much you have, but how much you have given; not how much you have won, but how much you have loved.
_____
Celebrate your uniqueness, realizing that there is no one in this entire world with your talents, your eyes or your heart, your fingerprints or your dreams.
Give yourself unlimited permission to be healthy, happy, and at peace.
Remember that one who forgets the language of gratitude can never be on speaking terms with happiness.
The older I get, the more I realize how dependent I am on the love and support of others. At one time in my life, I thought it was a weakness to be dependent on other people. But I have come to see it very differently.
A nineteenth-century rabbi, Menachem Mendel, said, “Human beings are God’s language.” By this I think he meant that in answer to our needs and prayers, God sends us people. Friends, lovers, family members, neighbors, even those who appear to be our opponents or enemies, each of them helps to make us who we are.
Words cannot convey my immense gratitude to the people whose steadfast love and presence made it possible for me to write this book during a very challenging period of my life. This book would not have been even remotely possible without their help.
I thank Deo Robbins, my wife of forty years, for the vastness of her caring. I thank our son, Ocean Robbins, for being there for me when I needed him, time and again. I thank our daughter-in-love, Michele Robbins, for holding the space so deeply for all to prosper and be well. These three people continually inspire me with their commitment to life and to love. I am profoundly privileged to share my life with them.
I thank Doug Abrams for his belief in me, and for his deep willingness to learn and grow and share his passion. He is my friend as
well as my literary agent, and I have been extraordinarily fortunate to have his help in the creation of this book.
I thank Caroline Sutton, the book’s editor at Random House. Her keen perception and deep understanding have contributed mar-velously to its fruition. And I thank her and the team at Random House for the strength of their belief in me and in this book.
I thank my team of “ruthless readers,” the friends and colleagues who read the manuscript at various stages and made so many fine suggestions. In particular I thank Kimberly Carter, John Borders, and John Astin, who gave deep attention to the manuscript and whose reflections have been invaluable. I also thank Bob Stahl, Michael Klaper, Tom Burt, Patti Breitman, and Jeff and Sabrina Nelson for the quality of their attention, insights, and feedback. We all need friends who will tell us not only what we want to hear, but what we
need
to hear in order to grow. This book would not be what it is without their honesty and clarity.
I thank Don Weaver for his intrepid help in sharing with me many hard-to-find and out-of-print publications.
There are many other people whose love and attention have made it possible for me to write this book and to thrive. I thank Craig Schindler, Katchie Egger, Ann Mortifee, and Jessica Simkovic, each of whose love has meant and means the world to me. And so many others. You know who you are. I am blessed to have you in my heart and life.
I thank you, dear reader, for joining me in the search for a way of life that finds health in honoring the human spirit and our interdependence with one another and the whole earth community.
In a brightly lit room, a lighted candle is a lovely decoration and symbol. In a completely dark room, a lighted candle is far more than that—it enables us to see. Similarly, in these dark times when there is so much suffering and violence in our world, each person who keeps the flame of spirit lit with the search for truth and compassion is a blessing to us all.
Thank you for all your efforts, including those that may have seemed wasted, to bring love and wisdom to your life and to our troubled world. I appreciate every step you have taken, and every step you will yet take, toward a wiser, healthier, and more just world.
May all be fed. May all be healed. May all be loved.
John Robbins invites you to visit
www.healthyat100.org
for tools, leading-edge information, and a comprehensive resource guide to help you live and share the message of this book. When you visit, you will find:
Organizations, websites, links, books, and tools to help you thrive
Reviews of books and films you might want to know about
Information about Healthy at 100 support groups and study groups
Ongoing updates about the issues in this book and the latest learnings of medical science
More information about John Robbins’ life, work, and insights
The opportunity to connect with an emerging community of peers who can support you on a healing journey
Information about events with John Robbins and how to contact him
Please visit
www.healthyat100.org
.
1. “Writer’s Plot to ‘End Pain,’ ” Associated Press,
The Australian
Feb. 25, 2005.
2. B. R. Levy et al., “Longevity Increased by Positive Self-Perceptions of Aging,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2002, 83(2):261–70. See also M. B. Brewer, V. Dull, and L. Lui, “Perceptions of the elderly: Stereotypes as prototypes,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
1981, 41:656–70; B. Levy, “Improving memory in old age by implicit self-stereotyping,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
1996, 71:1092–1107; B. R. Levy, O. Ashman, and I. Dror, “To be or not to be: The effects of aging self-stereotypes on the will-to-live,”
Omega: Journal of Death and Dying
1999–2000, 40:409–20; B. Levy, J. Hausdorff, R. Hencke, and J. Wei, “Reducing cardiovascular stress with positive self-stereotypes of aging,”
Journals of Gerontology
2000, 55:205–13.
3. Ken Dychtwald,
Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old
(Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1999).
4. According to an analysis by Peter R. Uhlenberg, a professor at the University of North Carolina, cited in Tamar Levin, “Financially Set, Grandparents Help Keep Families Afloat, Too,”
New York Times
July 14, 2005.
5. Marla Dickerson, “Old News Travels South: Experts say a wave of senior citizens is poised to hit Latin America,”
Los Angeles Times
Nov. 1, 2004.
6. Ibid.
1. Alexander Leaf, “Every day is a gift when you are over 100,”
National Geographic
1973, 143(1):93–119. See also Leaf, “Getting Old,”
Scientific American
1973, 229:45–52, and “Long-lived Populations: Extreme Old Age,”
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
1982, 30(8):485–87.
2. Alexander Leaf,
Youth in Old Age
(McGraw-Hill, 1975), p. 3.
3. Ibid. p. 18.
4. “161 Years Old and Growing Strong,”
Life
Sept. 16, 1966, pp. 121–27.
5. Alexander Leaf, op. cit., pp. 8–9.
6. Ibid. pp. v, 8.
7. Ibid. p. 14.
8. Ibid. pp. 20–22.
9. Ibid.
10. Zhores Medvedev, “Caucasus and Altay Longevity: A Biological or Social Problem?”
The Gerontologist
Vol. 14 No. 5, Oct. 1974, and “Aging and Longevity,”
The Gerontologist
Vol. 15 No. 3, June 1975. See also Medvedev, “Age Structure of Soviet Populations in the Caucasus: Facts and Myths,” in
The Biology of Human Ageing
, edited by A. H. Bittles and K. J. Collins, Society for the Study of Human Biology, Symposium 25 (Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 181–200.
11. Shoto Gogoghian assisted Alexander Leaf in finding the oldest Abkhasians, who were scattered in villages and collective farms. For a discussion of Gogoghian’s views, see Dan Georgakas,
The Methuselah Factors: Learning from the World’s Longest Living People
(Academy Chicago Publishers, 1995), pp. 37–66.
12. G. N. Schinava, N. N. Sachuk, and Sh. D. Gogohiya, “On the Physical Condition of the Aged People of the Abkhasian ASSR,”
Soviet Medicine
5, 1964.
13. Nikos Baibas et al., “Residence in mountainous compared with lowland areas in relation to total and coronary mortality,”
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
2005, 59:274–78.
14. Sula Benet,
Abkhasians: The Long-Living People of the Caucasus
(Holt, Rine-hart and Winston, 1974), p. 20.
15. Alexander Leaf, op. cit., p. 112.
16. Sula Benet,
Abkhasians.
17. Sula Benet,
How to Live to Be 100: The Lifestyle of the People of the Caucasus
(New York: Dial Press, 1976), p. 42.
18. Ibid. p. 42.
19. Sula Benet,
Abkhasians
, p. 3.
20. Ibid. p. 9.
21. Ibid. p. 3.
22. Ibid. p. 14.
23. Ibid. p. 105.
24. Ibid. p. 9.
25. Ibid. p. 30.
26. Every year, half a million Americans have facial cosmetic surgery, and every week, makeover shows glamorize the procedures. For a more realistic view, see Jill Scharff and Jaedene Levy,
The Facelift Diaries: What It’s Really Like to Have a Facelift
(Booksurge, 2004).
27. The singer/comedian Laura Ainsworth talks about this and many other examples of the pressure and the struggle to stay young in her satirical musical show
My Ship Has Sailed.
28. Dan Georgakas, op. cit., p. 50.
29. Sula Benet,
Abkhasians
, p. 9.
30. Ibid. pp. 95–97.
31. Ibid. p. 69.
32. Ibid. pp. 34, 69.
33. Ibid. p. 71. See also Sula Benet,
How to Live
, p. 154.
34. Ibid. p. 107.
35. Ibid. p. 32.
36. Dan Georgakas, op. cit., p. 51.
37. Sula Benet,
Abkhasians
, p. 22.
38. Ibid. p. 21.
39. Ibid. p. 35.
1. Morton Walker,
Secrets of Long Life
(Devin-Adair, 1984), cited in
Vilcabamba: The Sacred Valley of the Centenarians
(CIS Publishing, 2004), pp. 31–32.