Global Good Life Project

I love to travel and study other cultures. And the more I’ve done this, the more I’ve realized that certain cultural practices help people live happier, healthier, and longer.

For example, I grew up in a small town in rural Montana, where our average life expectancy was around 77 years old. Here in Italy, average life expectancy is 84 years old. That’s seven extra years of life, on average, and it all comes from simple differences in diet, lifestyle, and cultural practices.

Here’s another example: back home in America, it’s not uncommon for people over the age of 50 to struggle to sit down on and get back up off the floor. But in Japan, traditionally, the same generation gets up and down off the floor all day long without any issue. The difference isn’t genetic – it’s the result of different lifestyle practices. And it may not seem like a big deal, but an inability to get up can be prematurely deadly and perhaps more importantly, when you’re healthier – you’re happier. And everyone deserves the chance to live a good, healthy, happy life.

We were all born into certain cultures, beliefs and traditions – and we all get the blessings and consequences of that fate. But do we just have to accept the cards we were given? Or can we improve our health, happiness and longevity by incorporating ideas and practices that have been proven to work for other cultures, over generations, around the world?

That’s what I was thinking about when I came up with a great-big-wonderful-maybe-terrible-but-why-not idea. I decided to choose a dozen of the world’s best cultural practices and try to live them ALL for 30 days – a Global Good Life Project.

The practices I picked are:

1. Hygge, the Danish practice of cultivating coziness, creating a warm atmosphere and savoring the good things with people you love.

2. “Shinrin-yoku” or “forest bathing,” the Japanese practice of spending time in nature and absorbing the forest atmosphere. It’s also very similar to “Friluftsliv” from Norway, which celebrates open-air living.

3. The practice of keeping a sparkly clean, uncluttered and orderly living space from Zen Buddhism and Shintoism, which believes cleanliness is the way of the gods.

4. “Bella figura,” the Italian practice of cultivating beauty and making a good impression by being well-groomed, stylish, exhibiting good manners and etiquette, and taking pride in oneself and presenting the best version of oneself to the world.

5. Blue zones plant-based diet with lots of olive oil, at least one cup of beans per day, and antioxidant drinks like green tea and unsweetened coffee – like they do in Sardinia,Italy; Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica, and Loma Linda, California, where people enjoy greater health and longer life expectancy.

6. The practice of walking everywhere and doing everything manually, from the world’s blue zones.

7. The practice of sitting, eating and working on the floor, from traditional Japanese culture.

8. The practice of growing things, from here in Italy and the world’s blue zones

9. The practice of Zazen, Zen Buddhist meditation from Japan.

10. Siesta, a short afternoon nap from Spain.

11. The practice of remembering, honoring and thanking ancestors, from Okinawa, Japan.

12. The practice of savoring good company. This comes in many forms. Turkish “Keyif,” enjoying delicious idleness with friends and family. Italy’s “Il dolce far niente,” the sweetness of doing nothing. Swedish “Fika,” coffee breaks with friends. And Okinawan “Moai,” groups of friends that are committed to supporting one another.

I’m going to practice these things for 30 days to see if I can benefit from this global wisdom on an individual level. And I’ll be documenting this experiment along the way. See what happens at youtube.com/@explorytales!