Want to Live Longer? Here’s What You Need to Do and How to Do It

In this article, you’ll learn and discover how to live longer. Here’s what you need to do and how to do it.

The average lifespan of a human has continuously increased over the course of centuries. Improvements and advancements in medicine, sanitation, working conditions, and the fact that people are now making healthier choices have all contributed to people living longer. On average, men are expected to live to at least 68 and women, 73 but both men and women are beating statistics and living much longer than that! So how are they doing it? They’re simply making some lifestyle changes and changing their mindset on how they view life.

It’s easy for someone to tell you to just do this or that if you want to live longer but it really all starts with you. You have to want to live longer and make healthier choices. You may not even realize it but certain aspects of your life affect your health. The type of job you have and the hours you work, your habits (good and bad), and even the people you have in your life all play a role in how you feel, healthwise and play a major role in how long you live.

People really don’t stop and think about it often enough because facing your own mortality is a scary thought. People think that planning for death is something you do when you’re old and because people are living much longer now, they think they have all the time in the world to plan their end-of-life arrangements but the reality is that you need to start doing that now, especially if you’re not living a healthy lifestyle… your mortality is more at risk.

And even if you are living a healthy lifestyle you still want to take the time out to properly prepare your last will and testament… it’s just being proactive and handling things before it’s too late… you never know what life will throw at you. Now, ideally, you want to you can live a very long time if you just make some changes to your everyday routine… take a look at what you can do.

Keep Stress at Bay

You’ve heard people say “stress will kill you” and it will indeed do just that… if you let it. Some people experience stress and don’t even realize it. It sometimes comes in the form of gray hairs that seem to have come out of nowhere, headaches, bags under your eyes, and constant fatigue. A lot of the time, people have all the signs and symptoms of being stressed out but fail to do anything about it… not doing anything about it is what ages you even faster.

Ignoring those signs and symptoms is what weakens your immune system and can lead to other illnesses and conditions. According to medicaldaily.com, the reason why stress has such a huge impact on our bodies is that it shortens our telomeres. Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of our chromosomes that promote health and help us to live longer.

Managing your stress is going to help you at a cellular level, which will, in turn, stop your telomeres from shortening. Try Yoga classes, take a vacation, take your full lunch break at work, and remove toxic people from your life. Your journey to managing stress isn’t going to be an easy one but its worth the journey.

Exercise Regularly

Of all the ways to live longer, exercising has to be the worst concept, right? Exercising can be quite daunting for lots of people but if you want to live longer, you’ll deal with the “pain” that comes with it. A recent study found that exercising regularly reduced the risk of every chronic disease there is, from obesity to cancer.

Regularly exercising is intimidating to a lot of people because they think of the most extreme scenario of exercising. Incorporating regular exercise in your daily routine doesn’t mean that you have to join a gym, get a personal trainer and wake up at 4 a.m. every morning to go for a run… regularly exercising can be something as simple as taking the stairs at work every day instead of the elevator and going for an evening walk in your neighborhood while dinner is cooking.

The whole point of the word “regular” is consistency. As long as you incorporate some kind of physical activity in your daily routine and remain consistent with it, it will become regular for you and that is the overall goal… it will definitely keep you living longer. What people don’t realize is that sitting all day is just as bad as smoking.

Keep a “Young” Frame of Mind

You’ve heard people say “you’re as young as you feel”… well that has some truth behind it but the truth of it is, you’re only as old as you think you are… it’s all mental. You have to change your frame of mind. Everyone knows that their mind is what controls their actions but people don’t realize just how powerful their minds are.

If you want to do something but think “you’re too old” to do it, you’re not going to do it. If you have the mindset of age is only a number and you’re not going to let it define who you are as a person, then there’s nothing you can’t do.

Make Healthier Food Choices

This isn’t saying that you have to completely give up all the foods you enjoy… it’s okay to enjoy those foods sometimes but you need to make healthier food choices as often as you can. There are so many healthy alternatives to the foods you know and love, and the great thing about these alternatives is that they still have loads of flavor even though they’re healthier options.