An Okinawan Centenarian

For the past six years I have explored parts of the world where people live the longest healthiest lives—regions called Blue Zones—and tried to decipher their secrets. During one Quest, I visited Okinawa, that’s where my team met Ushi Okushima.

Ushi is a 99 year-old woman who starts every day with a bowl of miso-vegetable soup followed with three hours of work in her garden, a nap, time with friends, then puts herself to bed with a glass of sake. Assuming that her longevity was connected to her diet, I was surprised to hear that my team leader, Sayoko, had a different conclusion.

Sayoko, a former manager of a Tokyo company who worked 17-hour days, saw that Ushi was not living for the next big thing; rather she was truly living for the moment. Sayoko did not see Ushi’s diet - she felt Ushi’s spirit and her love for life. After Sayoko’s first meeting with Ushi, she returned home, quit her job, moved with her husband, had a child and found a life that she truly enjoyed. Sayoko did not seek to find answers to Ushi’s longevity; rather she sought to thank her for changing her life.

Longevity does not always depend on what we put in our body, but how we enjoy the time we have been given. The lesson I learned is a secret to the cross-cultural formula for living longer, better is living for the moment.

Dan Buettner is a world explorer who for the past seven years has been studying the longest lived regions in the world, or Blue Zones. Buettner’s work on longevity and happiness has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America and 20/20. His new book, The Blue Zone, is now available wherever books are sold.