Living a Healthier, Happier Life
Have you ever wondered what inspired living means, or how to live a Mediterranean Lifestyle? I talk about it all the time! Interested? Let me share the 3 best tips I’d tell my younger self about what I’ve learned about stress-free living.
Tip #1 – Invest in Relationships
Relationships were something I really didn’t think about much when I was younger. Now, I’ve come to understand they represent the area of my life that has the biggest impact on how I live. If I were talking to my younger self, I’d tell her that relationships encompass your life partner, family, and friends. Your partner, husband, or wife relationship is the most important one in your life. Hopefully, this is the person you’ll spend your life with.
This relationship can be the difference between a happy, stress-free life, or one of sadness and despair. And with that I say, choose carefully and thoughtfully. Your family relationships also play a huge part in your overall happiness. Sometimes, the relationships you have with whom you often share mutual support, can become an important extension of your family community.
One important thing relationships provide is connection, which is essential for our longevity and our happiness. The Blue Zones says that more centenarians (100+ years old) have strong connections and relationships with others and are part of a community. Their research is rooted in the identification of the world’s longest-living cultures and most extraordinary populations. The findings they’ve discovered have been published in the New York Times best-selling books. Some of these are The Blue Zones, The Blue Zones Solution, The Blue Zones of Happiness, Thrive, and more!
So, how are your relationships? Take some time to take stock and do the work to either improve existing relationships or cultivate more supportive ones. Nurturing good relationships can significantly increase the enjoyment in your life right now, and add years to your life later on.
The Blue Zone research led me and my partner, Dario, to create the International Dinner Club. It’s designed to either deepen your existing connections or encourage you to begin new ones. This is achieved by intentionally creating at least one dinner party each month with the important people in your life. By gathering, cooking, eating, and drinking together, you’ll deepen your connections and add passion to your life. Check out this popular program here!
Tip #2 – Reduce (or Eliminate) Stress
The second thing I’d tell my younger self from this perspective is to chill out.
I have a Type A personality. It serves me well much of the time. But it can also take over my life in ways that don’t support my health or mental well-being. Couple that with the fact that I, as a human (especially a woman), tend to take care of everyone’s needs before my own. It can also mean I’m left stressed out and frustrated. I’ve learned that the more we take care of others, the more their stress adds to our own, and the more difficult it becomes to let big (and little) things go.
The Mediterranean Lifestyle centers around learning how to live a stress-free life. It’s not necessarily easy, but my experience has taught me just how important it is. As a rich life strategist and life coach, I’ve spent my career creating tools for managing stress and focusing on the stress-free, healthy, happier life you desire. I’ve created meditations based on my hydrotherapy certification which are designed to make this easier.
We’ve even included one entire day in our “3 Secrets to Living a Mediterranean Lifestyle from Anywhere” free program devoted to attaining (and maintaining) a stress-free mindset. It’s complete with a short, 5-minute-long meditation and other simple tools designed to help you live a more calm, happy, relaxed life (like they do in the Mediterranean)!
Tip #3 – Make Time for Travel and Adventure
The final piece of advice for my younger self? Life is short so don’t wait to enjoy life. Do it now. A big part of living the Mediterranean Lifestyle is learning to enjoy life now. I knew early on in my life that I wanted to travel as much as possible, and I wanted to do it on my terms. It’s what led me to start and run a successful travel agency for many years. I’m starting to think it’s probably one of the reasons I chose a life partner who has the same passion for travel that I do.
The only thing I love more than traveling is traveling with him. We’re passionate about travel, especially international travel. It just encourages us to experience the way another culture lives. That will enable us to just truly be in the moment and live our lives differently for a short time. We love how we can leave our regular, day-to-day life so we can reconnect with ourselves and each other.
The things we’ve learned through our travel experiences helped us form our 8 Principles to Living a Mediterranean Lifestyle from anywhere. You can read about it on our website here.
We’re heading to Tuscany with a small group of foodies, travel lovers on one of our popular culinary retreats next year. We’d love to have you join us! You can read all about this amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience here.
There you have it. My top 3 tips for living a more inspired, healthy, happy life…
✔️ Cultivate relationships that support your happiness
✔️ Find daily ways to live a more stress-free life
✔️ Make time for travel and adventure in your life
If you find small ways to make changes in these three areas, you’ll begin to notice big changes in your life as a result.
