This story was originally published in The Ritual ISSUE 11. You can subscribe here for free and read stories like this every Thursday, direct to your inbox.
Last week, our focus was longevity. This week, we’re talking about the concept of ‘Blue Zone Living’ and why we’re trying to bring it into our everyday lives. The relation? Blue Zone Living is tied to living a longer, healthy life expectancy. But this is less about hacking the system, and hiding signs of ageing - this is about creating a state of wellbeing that promotes calm, clarity and is baked in a true desire to live happily.
Blue Zone Living refers to a lifestyle approach inspired by places on Earth where unusually high numbers of people live longer and healthier lives.
The idea is to emulate the common habits found in those regions - especially around movement, diet, and social connection - rather than relying on any single quick-fix treatment. You wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that to live in a Blue Zone means to be living by the ocean. The five Blue Zones are located in Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, California. However, these locations actually received their name because the researchers delineated them on a map with a blue marker.
According to research by Harvard Health, Blue Zones have among the world's highest proportions of centenarians (people who live to age 100 and older). On average, they also have lower rates of chronic diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and dementia. The founder of the Blue Zone Concept, Dan Buettner, identified 9 key principles across all of the centenarians he met through his work. The key commonalities of this lifestyle include plant-based eating, minimising alcohol but also having it daily, embracing a sense of purpose, following a lifestyle that invites natural daily movement, and connecting deeply with social networks and family structures. That is, no one makes a point to exercise nor do they pursue longevity through changing their entire lifestyle.
On paper, it all makes sense why people living this lifestyle live a longer life. There’s less rigidity in their approach to wellbeing. If anything, it’s about reducing stress, and if TikTok loves to tell us anything, it’s that stress is cortisol’s best friend. But somehow, we think that the 75-Hard routines, the 100+ quick-fix supplements on the market, and the endless content that promotes strict routines to reduce stress and create better health… might be counteracting all of it.
Writer Sarah Noack wrote about living in a Blue Zone during 2024, where she’d recently packed up her life and took herself across the world with her then 3-year old daughter. Living ocean-side on a Greek Island opened her eyes to a world of living that you don’t realise is possible until you circuit break the habits you’ve already been upholding. “I can tell that people here are doing the exact opposite of what modern health coaches advise — they're drinking wine and coffee (with raw milk, not Oatly duh)... eating carbs and sitting in the sun.” She writes. “[The health] industry preys on our insecurities and our desire to feel in control when everything else seems chaotic. It offers solutions in the form of overpriced supplements, detox programs, and rigid diets, promising that if we just follow their advice, we’ll become THAT girl.
But what they don’t tell us is that this pursuit of “wellness” can become just another form of stress. We start obsessing over every bite of food, every sip of coffee, and every thought that crosses our minds, convinced that we’re one misstep away from failure. It’s a trap, really—a new kind of prison where we’re still chasing an unattainable ideal, but now under the guise of self-care and personal growth.”
Sarah’s points ring true, modern wellness has been designed around rules and frameworks to guide us. But somewhere along the way, we’ve lost our view on balance. In Australia, nearly half of employed adults describe their work day as sitting at a desk. As a result of this, The Australian Government suggests two days or more a week of strength training, or up to 300 minutes a week of moderate physical activity for those 18-64 years old. Two thirds of Australian adults take part in scheduled movement on five or more days a week, which in the context of how Australian’s live and work, that makes sense. We’re scheduling movement based on guidelines we’ve grown up with, as a way to rectify a lack of mobility and fluidity in our way of life.
Blue Zone Living mitigates this - where in these locations we see people living to over 100 with elevated levels of happiness. And there’s no harsh routine involving hot Pilates, running every day, and 20 day health resets. People naturally walk from A to B, bodies changing is embraced as a natural way of life, movement is a natural motion, nourishment is based on intuition and natural hunger cues. We can almost guarantee you that no one is wondering if they’ve had enough protein in their breakfast.
Are we saying to forget all of the health advice you’ve ever heard? Of course not.
But there’s much to be learned in embracing a lifestyle that centres less on the “must-dos” of life, and more on moments that create opportunities to change your environment for long-term longevity.
We wish we could say the answer is to pack up and move the Greece. When the research says so, you’ll be the first to know.
(If we haven’t moved there already).
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