Longevity is about more than optimization
What our Greek grandparents taught us about living well.
We’ve made health complicated.
And I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been part of the problem.
There always seems to be a new protocol, bio-hack, supplement, must-have superfood or routine to optimize. Trend after trend promises to help us live longer, feel better and bring us one step closer to some ideal version of ourselves.
I know this world well. I work in wellness, I’ve tried the trends and extremes myself and I’ve experienced firsthand how easy it is to lose sight of the big picture.
The pursuit of health can very quickly become its own form of perfectionism.
To be fair, I really do like some of these protocols and I don’t think wanting to improve your health is a bad thing.
I just wonder if, in our pursuit of better health, we’ve also lost sight of what we’re pursuing and forgotten how to simply live.
What does optimal health even mean anymore?
As a child of Greek immigrants, I grew up between two distinct worlds. Like so many others who share that experience, I sensed something different about life in Greece long before I knew how to articulate it. There was a feeling of vitality and energy there that we just didn’t see at home.
My grandparents lived in a small mountain village, where the activity of their days was largely dictated by the world around them. They certainly weren’t intentionally trying to optimize their lives.
They rose with the sun, worked physically and grew much of their own food. Movement was naturally part of their day and in the afternoon heat, they rested. Meals followed the seasons because that was what was available. Coffee was social or a moment of pause. People gathered in the plateia for hours, simply being together.
None of this was a longevity protocol.
And yet, when I think about what we now know contributes to a healthy life…
Movement, rest, time in nature, nourishing food, social connection, a sense of purpose…
So much of it was already woven into the way they lived.
Health wasn’t a separate project.
Today, we intentionally schedule the things that used to happen naturally. Exercise, time outdoors, gathering with friends and even relaxation.
All of this naturally becomes another list of things to do correctly- another way to optimize.
But perhaps health isn’t built through a handful of perfect habits. Perhaps it’s built through the accumulation of the small decisions of ordinary days.
The decisions about the food we eat, the ingredients we choose and the way we move. Who we choose to spend time with and the moments of beauty, connection and calm we create space for.
Over time, these small experiences become our lives and shape our health.
This is part of what I’ve come to think of as the Greek art of living well.
There is a natural balance to it.
Work and rest, nourishment and pleasure…
I certainly don’t live this way perfectly myself. Modern life makes that difficult. Having grown up between these two worlds, I’ve become increasingly interested in what we might recover from the older one.
Not everything. Just the things that allow us to feel a little more free.
We can’t, and shouldn’t try to, recreate the past or another way of life. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t borrow some of its rhythms.
One example in our home was ending the day with a pot of Greek Mountain Tea. In fact, this ritual was one of the inspirations for my husband and me to start our herb business.
I remember gathering and drying the golden stalks of mountain tea with my grandmother and bringing it home in my suitcase after summers in Greece. It was one of my earliest connections to the idea of looking to nature for sources of comfort and healing.
I love the plant itself- the flavour, its beauty, the traditions around it. I’m fascinated by what we’re learning about its health benefits, but what I love most is the ritual.
That pot of tea encourages us to linger at the table after dinner, extending the feeling of nourishment beyond the food itself to include conversation, connection and time together.
I will always be interested in learning about the factors that contribute to health, vitality and longevity. But increasingly, what interests me isn’t how we can optimize every aspect of our lives.
I’m more interested in the small details that make an ordinary day feel a little more beautiful, connected and nourishing.
Small things, repeated often, become a life.
That’s what I’m beginning to understand about longevity, that it’s not really about optimizing at all.
We want long lives, yes.
But not at the expense of living them.
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