Have You Met Amy Faatz?

Amy joined Associated Content from Yahoo! May of this year and has written on a wide variety of subjects. Check her out! For those of you who enjoy reading those Snapple facts, check out her article  Snapple Fact#1: Is it Fact or Fiction.

Blue Zone Living: Something My Culture has Forsaken

Today I was introduced to a concept called Blue Zone by Jaipi Sixbear. She highlighted 9 lifestyle principles that I realized my African-American culture used to live by 7 out of 9 of these principles. The people of my great-parents generation would live to see at least 90-years of age while the generations after were lucky to see 70, sometimes even 50.

I won't go into detail about these principles because I feel everyone should read this article the follow-up pieces. Once you read it, you may be surprised to find that this was the lifestyle lived by family or culture only a few generations back. Little by little I want to integrate these principles into my life so I can regain my health and maintain it. I don't know how far I will take it (being honest because I get distracted) but I will try.

I will mention one of the principles here because it is very important and I feel America as a whole has forgotten this: Family. I am not just referring to our immediate family, but our 1st, 2nd, 3rd , 4th cousins and beyond. During the summertime parks would be filled as families had their annual family reunions. This is would be something I would all summer long during the weekend. Now I only ever hear of a handful of these gatherings anymore. I am ashamed to admit that my family has dropped the ball on this family event as well. When I was younger I didn't want to be around a bunch of my older family members because I was a bit of brat, lol. Now that I am in my 30's I see how important such events are. Familes uniting together and working together as a single unit is something we all need to get back to.

Now I am done with that little tidbit. Go and read Jaipi's articles related to the Blue Zone life and start integrating it into your daily living.