A Centenarian’s Guide to Designing a Life You Love

She’s 101 years old. She still swims. She goes to Zumba. And she bakes her own bread every week. Betty Morris isn’t an anomaly — she’s a blueprint for designing a life you love. This week’s solo episode is for the woman who doesn’t just want more years, she wants more life in those years! I’m sharing Betty’s four foundational practices for becoming a centenarian, plus one more that I’ve added from my own journey. Whether you’re in your 50s, 60s, or beyond, these practices are ones you can implement today, in whatever form calls to you.

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In this episode, you’ll discover:

  • Why consistent movement, in whatever form you enjoy, may be the single most important thing you can do for longevity right now
  • How community connection literally adds years to your life, and creative ways to find (or build) yours
  • The gratitude practice I use every night before bed, and why being grateful for the hard things is the real spiritual work
  • How to treat yourself in ways that nourish your body and soul, not just your sweet tooth
  • Why a daily spiritual practice like meditation, journaling, and/or energy work is the hidden pillar of physical health that Betty didn’t mention

Resources & links mentioned:

Design Your Life, Your Way – next steps:

TRANSCRIPT

Longevity on Your Own Terms: How Long Do You Want to Live?

Gloria:

Namaste.

How old do you want to be now? Let me rephrase that. How long do you want to live? And along with how long do you want to live, how do you want to live? Because there are some people who live to be very old, like my grandmother who lived to be 95, who unfortunately had dementia in her later years.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s not how I want to be. I do not want to be like that. I do want to live a long time. In fact, I have set a goal for myself that I would like to — I would like to reach at least 100, and I’ve wanted that for quite a while.

I just think it would be so cool to be a centenarian, to reach that age and to be able to say, wow, you know, I’ve lived 100 years now. I do know that — and again, this is in memory — my grandmother’s been gone for a long time now. But I do know that she did complain in later years that she had outlived a lot of her friends.

And I know that does happen, and that has happened a lot in the past, but I wonder if that’s necessarily the case today, because I don’t know about you, but I see lots and lots of people who are living well past their 80s, living into their 90s, and they’re still vital and amazing people. I mean, there’s a lot of people just in show business. You know, I mean, Mel Brooks is still producing movies, and he’s — I think he’s close to, he’s in his 90s. Okay.

And I think he’s getting very close to being 100. So it’s definitely possible. And I think you can still be able to have people to be able to still talk with and communicate with even as you get into that age. So what I wanted to talk about today was how to be able to do this. How do you design your life, your way for longevity?

Because as you’re going through this time of life — and you know, if you’re over 50, you’re over 60, and you want to be able to be vital into your, let’s say 90s, let’s say you want to at least go a few more decades, maybe not necessarily going to be over a hundred, but let’s say to be able to still be vital — how can you best do that? So I have some ideas, but of course I’m not there yet. So I did some research and I found a wonderful profile of a woman who — when I found this article, yeah, it came out this year. And so she’s 101 years old.

Meet Betty Morris: The 101-Year-Old Blueprint for Midlife Reinvention

Gloria:

Her name is Betty Morris. I love that name, Betty, because that was my mom’s nickname. Her first name was Elizabeth, but she went by Betty with her friends. Oh. And in fact, she’s from Michigan.

See, I love her even more as I’m glancing at this article that I printed out, but I thought I would share with her because yeah, actually she was born the same year that my mom was. And so if my mom had lived, she would be a centenarian right now. Unfortunately, she only made it to 78 and in fact, pretty much all of my family, my immediate family all died too young. So that’s another reason that I want to be able to break the cycle — well, my immediate family.

But my grandmother — I still have my — my grandmother made it to 95, so I want to be able to surpass my grandmother. So that’s my plan. So I’m going to share with you today the four strategies that this centenarian credits for helping her to live past a hundred. And it’s something — all of these things are really easy that you can start doing today. You can start doing today. And I’m going to add in a couple more that I think — or at least one other one that I can think of off the top of my head that I will put in there as well because I do think it’s helping me so far.

Longevity Pillar #1: Keep Moving — Finding the Exercise That Works for Your Body

Gloria:

And yeah, so number one that she shares in this article that I found is she recommends to keep moving, and her exercise of choice is swimming. She’s been swimming for about 40 years, which I think is remarkable. And she started doing it regularly because she wanted — she joined a friend who wanted to incorporate water exercise into her routine. And I will say that I have done water aerobics in the past and it was a lot of fun. I actually miss doing it. I used to belong to our local Y and had a membership there — course Covid hit and I kind of got out of the habit of doing that anymore.

But at least for me, what I do is I do go for walks almost every day and I’ve started incorporating actually bike riding as well. So yeah, keep moving. She also attends Zumba classes. I love this. She’s — you know, she’s 101 and she’s taking Zumba.

I did Zumba once and it hurt my knees. So it was — it wasn’t for me. So the lesson here — and she does do outdoor walks, too — so the lesson for me to you in designing your life, your way is to find something, number one, an exercise that you like. So whether that is swimming, whether it is riding a bike, whether it’s walking or running or jumping on a trampoline.

I know they have those little trampolines that you can jump on in your house. Maybe it is taking some type of class. Could be yoga. Yoga is another good exercise as well. But there’s all sorts of different types of activities that you can do to keep the body moving because, you know, you use it or lose it. Right. So if you’re not exercising, then you lose — you know, as we get older, we lose. I think they say that you lose muscle mass, so whatever you can do. And I would add in things like strength training — those are good things.

And start doing some weight lifting. I’ve been endeavoring — I still haven’t gotten myself into a good routine for that. But I know that there’s some good — it’s a good strategy to do as you get older. And I actually — maybe I’ll include this in the show notes — I found a YouTube channel that the gentleman actually tailors the exercises for people over 50 or maybe even over 60. I don’t have to go back in, but I need to start watching more of them because he had — because there’s right and wrong ways to exercise, especially as you get older.

And some of the things that you did maybe when you were in your 30s may not be as healthy and appropriate as you get older. So yeah, I’m going to find the link to that and I’m going to put that in the show notes for you. So keep moving. Keep moving. That’s Betty’s first recommendation.

Longevity Pillar #2: Community Connection and Finding Your People in Midlife

Why Being Sociable May Add Years to Your Life

Gloria:

Second one — I love this one because this is actually something I talked about on the podcast not too long ago. Yeah, not too long ago. Maybe a month or two ago where it did — so she talks about finding joy in community. She believes being sociable matters. And I could not agree more. Excuse me one sec.

Had a little tickle in my throat there. So yeah, so she — you know, either she’s chatting with fellow swimmers or she’s attending church, but she makes it a point to be sociable, to even ask people their name if she doesn’t know them. And to really just be in community with people. And yeah, I will include the link to the episode I talked about recently because I talked about the importance — I really went into detail about the importance of community and that if you can’t find a community to belong to, then start your own. And there are resources out there. There are places that you can go to — I mean, besides your local community.

But there are online resources. There’s — I think Meetup is one. You know, there’s groups on like Facebook as well, but you can find whatever you’re interested in. There most likely is already a group established, whether it’s online or possibly in person. But again, if you — you know, maybe you don’t go to church for whatever reason or, you know, religious organization, maybe you like to dance, you know, maybe take some dance classes. And in fact, I would say — I don’t know if she has this as her other one. No, she doesn’t.

How to Build Community Around Shared Interests and Purpose

Gloria:

So I’m going to add this in along with finding joy in community — you might be able to find a community around an interest that you have. So maybe if you want to start taking classes somewhere, whether it’s even at your local university or maybe you always wanted to learn how to draw or to paint, take art classes. Maybe you like cooking. I know that there’s places where you can take cooking classes.

And when you’re in a class, then of course you’re going to meet other people. So like she does — you know, her class is swimming, so that’s where she meets people. So you can do this either with your exercise or with an interest that you have, but being with other people and — worst case scenario again is call somebody — even if it’s a community of one other person.

There’s this — you know, they’ve said there’s like this loneliness epidemic and you don’t have to be alone. So reach out to someone, make sure that there are — I’m not gonna say make sure. I would say take advantage of all of the different places there are where you could connect with someone. So again, whether it’s through your local spiritual organization, whether it’s through some type of activity that you like to participate in, whether it’s exercise or maybe something that is fun to do, or maybe you find a — whatever — there’s a community out there. And if you can’t find a community, then at least make sure you’ve got a couple of good friends that you can rely on and either call them on the phone, hopefully if they live close by — you know, call them and say, hey, can we get together and go get a cup of tea or have a cup of coffee or maybe go see a movie? You know, movies are back. People are going to the movies again. And find something to do, but find some way, because the quickest way to have a short life is to cut yourself off from people.

The Healing Power of Service: Volunteering as a Longevity Strategy

Gloria:

We human beings are social creatures and we need to have that type of community. Maybe it’s volunteering — now here, yeah, that just occurred to me. That’s another way is that you could volunteer. There’s all sorts of wonderful organizations out there that would love to have people to help them out. And so whatever your skill set is, maybe you’re good with office work and you can volunteer, or maybe it’s outreach, maybe you want to drive and do like Meals on Wheels deliveries. There’s opportunities out there because especially with volunteering — if you don’t, let’s say for whatever reason, maybe you’ve moved to a new city and you don’t — haven’t made a lot of friends there yet, well one way to be able to ward off depression or things like that is to be of service to someone else.

So find opportunities where you can donate your time, your talents, maybe mentor someone. Especially if — let’s say that you are now retired from your job, but you can still mentor someone younger and give them the benefit of your wisdom. They will appreciate it and you will appreciate it. So go check out — you know, call your local university or community college and see if there’s opportunities there.

Ask other people and say, do you know somebody who could use some help — who can use whatever it is that you have to offer? Don’t hide. Don’t hide your light under a bushel.

So find joy and community. I like that.

Longevity Pillar #3: Gratitude Practice and Keeping a Positive Attitude

Why Gratitude May Be the Most Underrated Health Practice

Gloria:

All right, let me see what was number three here. So her third rule of thumb for living longer is to keep a positive attitude. But beyond that, this article — she says that one of her biggest life philosophies is simple: to stay grateful. And she says the golden rule is to live with a grateful heart every day.

And yeah, I 100 percent believe that.

Now I’m thinking back about this because now I think — yeah, I was going to say that I don’t know that my grandmother was always the happiest person, but now that I think back about it, I do think that she had a positive attitude. She may not have always shown it to my mother because they didn’t have the greatest relationship, but my grandmother — wow, I’m just thinking about this — she really did follow this advice. Although she wasn’t necessarily physically active per se, but she did find joy and community.

My grandmother was Hungarian, and she — when she was living in Miami, there was a Hungarian Reformed Church there, and they had a hall that they would host dinners and parties. And like when I was a kid, we would go for the New Year’s Eve party and the Christmas dinner and Easter dinner and things like that. And my grandmother was always the one going around to all the tables selling raffle tickets. That was her job. So she was in her 70s, 80s, doing this. And she had — she could turn on the charm. She just really knew how to charm and get people to, you know, pony up the bucks and buy some raffle tickets. And yeah, that’s one of my strong memories of her is doing that. So she found joy in that. She had community.

Finding the Diamond in the Rough: Gratitude for the Hard Things

Gloria:

And yeah, I think she had a positive attitude, at least there. And I do know — so I’m going to flip it and say that, you know, my mom, God rest her soul, while she did have a positive attitude and she was grateful about some things, but then I think she also harbored a lot of resentment, and I would always — I heard her complain a lot. And, you know, like I said, I’ve loved her with all my heart and she really took great care of me growing up, did a lot of wonderful things for me, and I am forever grateful for her. And I also, you know, we’re human. You know, we’re not perfect. And I know I’ve done my share of complaining over the years as well. And I do know for me one of the —

One of the practices I have for staying grateful is that I have journals. And so before I go to bed at night, I always write down three, four, sometimes five things that I’m grateful about that happen during the day because I want to go to bed thinking about things I’m grateful for. I don’t want to go to bed worrying about the things that didn’t get done or what I got to do tomorrow. No, I want to focus on good. I want to focus on things that I’m grateful for so that I have more to be grateful for.

Because I do think like attracts like. And if you are focusing only on the negative and focusing on complaining about what didn’t go right, then that’s what’s going to be in your frame of mind and that’s what you’re going to wind up seeing. You’re going to see more of that. When you can focus instead on the things that are going right in your life, it becomes more of a habit and you start seeing more things to be grateful for. And I will challenge you also — and I know, I think I’ve talked about this on the show before — is the real challenge comes in being grateful for the things that you could complain about.

I’ll say it that way. When things don’t go right, to somehow find a way to look for that diamond in the rough. Look for the lesson — let’s say something didn’t turn out the way you expected. And you know, you can be upset about it. I’m not going to say that you can’t be upset about it. Yes, of course you can be upset about it. And you can be — you know, if you really feel crappy about it, just don’t stay there. Don’t stay in that mood.

Find a way to say, okay, this happened. I don’t like the result. What can I learn from this? How can I change this so that the next time something like this happens — or maybe I can prevent this from happening because I do something different?

So that’s the real challenge — is to be grateful for those things that it’s very easy to complain about. That helps you to be able to keep that positive attitude going. And I really do believe it will help you to live longer and to be in a better place for that.

Okay, let’s recap. So far we’ve had: keep moving. We’ve had find joy and community. And then number three is to keep a positive attitude. And I would say more than that, keep a grateful attitude. Maintain gratitude, or just stay grateful, period.

Longevity Pillar #4: Treat Yourself — Nourishment, Joy, and Giving Yourself Permission

Gloria:

And then the last practice that Betty Morris at 101 credits with helping her to continue to be where she is now at 101 — and she certainly seems like she has no signs of slowing down — she says to treat herself. Treat yourself, I should say. And it says in this article: at her age she’s not overly strict about food. Yes, she enjoys her fruits and veggies, so that’s good. But she also loves toast slathered with butter and strawberry jam made by her niece.

And she says one treat stands out above the rest. She loves peanut butter fudge and she still bakes homemade bread every week by using an old Tupperware recipe she has perfected over the years. So yeah, you know, I think eating well goes along with exercise. So eating healthy foods. But yeah, certainly as you get into your — probably as you get into your maybe late 80s and 90s — you can yeah, you could probably treat yourself a little bit, maybe not be quite so strict about, you know, not wanting to have processed food or overly sugary treats, things like that.

And I’ll say for me now — again, I have been indulging a little bit too much lately and I got to get back onto it because I’m going to be — next month I’ve got to start training for a race that I’m doing in the fall. So I got to get a handle on that. But the one thing I am doing is even when on the days that I’m indulging, I’m still making sure that I have a green smoothie and I’m still eating good food — at least like say one healthy meal — and then I can have one not so healthy meal. So I’m trying to balance it out a bit.

But I do need to lean more on the — less indulging, more keeping more on the healthy routine. But again, once you get past your 80s and certainly when you get in your 90s, I say, you know, live it up a little bit. I mean, for heaven’s sakes, you don’t have to be quite so strict. And maybe treating yourself isn’t necessarily about food. Maybe it’s treating yourself with an experience. Let’s say, maybe you always wanted to travel somewhere and now that you’re not working full time, you can make plans to treat yourself to some sort of vacation that maybe you didn’t have time for. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be treating yourself to food. Just keep that in mind. So there’s different ways, different ways to be.

The Fifth Pillar: Spiritual Practice, Meditation, and Energy Healing for Longevity

Going Inward: How a Daily Spiritual Practice Supports Physical Health

Gloria:

So I did mention at the beginning that I wanted to add one other thing that I believe will help. Now she doesn’t mention this, and this article doesn’t mention it, but I think for me, certainly it’s helping me now in this time of life where I’m over 60 now. But I think a really good practice — and I think it goes in with say the positive attitude — is to spend time getting to know yourself.

So doing some sort of spiritual practice where you are connecting with your higher self. So whether that is doing mindfulness practice or a meditation, whether it’s journaling, but something that you can do every day even for just a few minutes to help you to find joy within your own heart. You know, it’s important to find joy in community, but I think it’s also really vital for you and I. And now, of course — okay, I’m not gonna — this is my opinion, I’m gonna say it that way.

This is my opinion, my recommendation, take it with a grain of salt. But I know for me that the time that I have spent getting to know myself pays dividends every day. And I think it has helped me in being able to — well, live to my 60s now and to be healthy. You know, that was another thing. My mom and my dad both had health issues. And I really feel that I’ve been able to avoid being on things like high blood pressure medicine and not having diabetes and things like that because I spend time meditating. I meditate every day. And I know there have been scientific studies that have shown that meditation does help to keep your stress levels down. And stress is a leading cause of a lot of different ailments in our life. So that’s why — one of the reasons not — I do it for me, the physical health considerations are the added benefit.

For me, it’s more about the spiritual growth that I’ve had that I get from it, and that’s why I do it. But it certainly — it’s absolutely great for physical health as well. So that would be my last point that I would recommend. And again, whatever it is that works best for you. And I will say — meditation is great. Journaling is great. Mindfulness practices. Any other type of energy healing as well, whether it’s Reiki or light language, like I do — it’s something that also works with your energetic body and helping it to, again, keep yourself healthy.

Light Language Transmission: Clearing Energetic Blocks for Midlife Women

Gloria:

So with that in mind, I’m going to take a drink of water and then I’m going to share some light language with you today because I feel that this has — it certainly helps me, it helps my clients to clear out energetic blocks that I think also contribute to sometimes the physical ailments that we have. So yeah, so I think it’s a really powerful practice for gaining clarity, for releasing stuck energy in your mental, emotional body. So I’m going to share that with you right now and I’m going to invite you, if you are listening to the show right now and you’re driving a car, to pause this and come back when you can listen and preferably in a place where you’re not going to be disturbed. So I’m trusting that you’ve done that now and that you’re back.

And what I would encourage you to do right now is to set the intention that the message you’re going to hear today will help you in whatever way that serves your highest good. So it’s just — just a nice — and overall, that’s what I’m setting the intention — I’m setting the intention right now that the message that comes through will be for your soul’s highest good and for the highest good of all.

 

[Light Language Audio Transmission]

Closing: Living Boldly and On Purpose

Gloria:

A little taste for you today. I hope you received that with the love that was intended. And if you would ever like to have a private session with me, I encourage you to go to my website and you can learn more about how light language helps women over 50 and helping you in your midlife journey. And if you don’t want to wait, if you don’t want to go to my website, I will — you can go ahead and just schedule an appointment with me right now. You can go to Bit.ly — capital L, capital L, capital E for Live Love Engage — and then lowercase podcast and the number 30.

I should probably change that bitly. Well, Live Love Engage for my book. Yeah, that was the one I had for the old podcast when, before I rebranded it at the beginning of this year. So anyway, I’ll have that in the show notes, so don’t sweat it. But you can also go to my website and you can see on the menu ‘Work With Me.’ And there’s a section there on Light Language and you can learn more about it. And yeah, so I think that’s going to do it for this edition of Design Your Life, Your Way. And I’m so glad that you were with me today. I really am delighted to come into your home or your workplace or wherever you’re listening to this or you’re watching it.

And I just really appreciate you. And I encourage you this week to go out and live boldly and on purpose.

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