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What really is the secret to a long life?

1. Be rich!

Rich People Don’t Just Live Longer. They Also Get More Healthy Years.

Also, be an orchestra conductor. Or a business executive. Anything that gives you access to resources and, perhaps, leads to lower stress.

But if you aren’t the 331st Earl of Tuppence-on-Ha’penny or asked to lead the Philharmonic? The basic rule is to save, save, and then save.

Pretend that you lost your job, and were told that you couldn’t get another for 20 years. Could you maintain your standard of living?

That’s retirement, if you retire at 65 and die at 85.

It takes a lot to live well through those years, particularly as you need more help to get by.

It’s all too easy to say you’ll start saving — next year. But you can live without the cool new phone.

2. Don’t do stupid drugs, which is to say, most of them. The life expectancy of an addict is poor.

OK, so you weren’t a complete and utter moron and told your dealer that heroin is so yesterday, what else?

3. Don’t smoke. Wow, that’s a surprising one! But it remains the number one cause of preventable death. And don’t think that vaping is ultra-healthy, either. It may not be as bad as smoking, but it’s none too good. And don’t drink too much, either. It’s no longer believed to prolong life when ingested in *any* quantity, and if you get cirrhosis or fall off the chicken coop roof it will shorten it.

4. Eat a healthy diet. And by that I don’t mean subsisting on regurgitated bean curd or yeast toast. It can be pretty much anything, as long as it existed in its current form a few hundred years ago and it’s reasonably varied.

But soda? Added sugars? Oils and chemicals that didn’t even exist a few years back? Thence lies death and despair.

5. Keep to a healthy weight. This is really kind of superfluous, since if you abide by Number 4 above, you will. But obesity is a real killer.

6. Get lots of exercise. Bo-ring, I know, but yeah, get lots of exercise. This, not smoking, and a healthy diet are the big three.

7. Church, marriage, family, friends — all known to prolong life — until you get to the divorce, anyway, which shaves years off it.

8. Reduce stress. Mindfulness is pretty effective, and cheaper than a nickel bag.




The Buddhist Lojong,1 or mind-training tradition, says: “Don’t be so predictable.” As spiritual practitioners, we need to have some curiosity about the unknown. When unexplored territory frightens us, we might ask ourselves, “Where’s my sense of adventure?” It’s important to have a sense of adventure in life, because our very situation is not unlike climbing up that rock.