Health and wellness is multi-dimensional and an ongoing process. As I learned in my certification training, wellness is about personal growth. By putting ourselves first, we can maintain our own personal health and wellness foundation.

My dad was a three pack a day smoker and passed away from lung cancer at the age of 66 while his mother and one of his two siblings lived into their nineties. My mom lived to the age of 92 and most of her 12 siblings lived into their eighties and nineties and those still living are in their late eighties and nineties.

Some believe that if members of their immediate family lived long healthy lives, they hit the gene jackpot, or due to a family history of disease they are destined to die young. However, according to the Blue Zone studies and other research on longevity, our life span is determined primarily by lifestyle and culture. Not only can we increase our lifespan, we can also look and feel much younger at every age. Lifestyle is a much greater determiner of person’s level of health and wellness. Author of The Blue Zones, Dan Buettner states that how long and how well you live is up to you:

• Eat wisely
• Move naturally
• Belong to the right tribe
• Have the right outlook