The Well-Lived Life – by Dr. Gladys McGarey

We often hear from two kinds of people about healthy longevity: doctors, and supercentenarians. The former don’t usually have the lived experience of it, and the latter don’t usually have the medical understanding of it. This author has both!

You might imagine that the six secrets begin diet, exercise, sleep, etc etc, but no. Those things are important, of course, but Dr. McGarey assumes that we are already in the know when it comes to those things, and focuses instead on things easily forgotten. Specifically, things her own patients have sometimes forgotten, and things she has made a very long career out of reminding people about.

So instead, we learn about the importance of one’s zest for life, finding one’s purpose, giving and receiving love, making and maintaining healthy human connections, learning from everything we can in life, how to “spend your energy wisely”. Note that the latter truly is about spending it wisely—not about storing it up like a miser, but really, about wisely spending it.

Indeed, we might have expected no less from the woman largely credited as being “the mother of holistic medicine”.

The style is… So very human. If you’re as soft-hearted as this reviewer, you will cry. But you’ll also learn, you’ll also reawaken, and you’ll live. Which is what it’s all about.

Bottom line: sometimes, healthy longevity is not all about telomeres and c-reactive proteins. This book explores what truly matters in life, and also what truly matters to life, the better to live it more healthily and happily at every age.

Click here to check out The Well-Lived Life, and live life well!