Dan Buettner, Blue Zones founder, identified the fiveoriginal blue zones - the places in the world with the healthiest, longest-living populations, including Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California.
What did he discover?
After analysing these communities, Dan created the Power 9, a set of principles common to all.
- Move Naturally - At Empowered Ageing, all our movement programs are based on functional, natural movements, which include dance and ground based movements.
- Purpose - We support our clients to discover a strong purpose in life, whether that be through our Blue Zones project, or other.
- Downshift - We help you reduce stress and experience more peace through movement and breathing.
- 80% Rule - We teach you how to eat less and live longer.
- Plant Slant - We coach you on how to eat more plants and still love your food!
- Wine @ 5 - It's OK to enjoy 1 or 2 glasses of wine per day, but no more, and go for organic.
- Belong - We provide a strong community with regular social events to make everyone feel they belong.
- Loved Ones First - Whether that's your family or yourclose friends, keep them close.
- Right Tribe - Surrounding yourself with the right tribeis critical when it comes to maintaining healthy behaviours. If you have a group of friends whose only social activity is drinking, then that is likely to become your main form of socialising. But if your friends are hikers, life could look very different!
What are we doing at Empowered Ageing?
We use the principles of the Blue Zones to help our clientslive long, healthy lives.
Some current initiatives include meeting to discuss how wecan apply the principles to our lives; a spiritual book club; walking groups; and communal cooking from the Blue Zones recipe books.
Any client is eligible to join our community, from those whoattend a workshop, to our health coaching clients, to those who are exercise or massage clients.