7 Inspiring Books on Aging Well

As we grow older, it’s common to hear the phrase “aging well.” When people use this phrase, it’s usually centered around giving tips on how to live a long life and strategies for aging wisely. You can read a lot of this advice in books.

With so many guides on healthy aging, you may want to read some different books to get all the information you can and see where these guides overlap in healthy aging. These popular books on aging well are great sources of information on how you can learn to live your best life in your later years and grow older gracefully.

1. The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who’ve Lived the Longest

This book by Dan Buettner examines groups of seniors who live in “blue zones,” or areas where older adults live long, healthy, and robust lives. He advises living healthy and longer lives based on the diet, hydration, and exercise habits these older adults in these blue zones exhibit.

2. The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age

Author and heart surgeon Steven Gundry, M.D. provides information on how seniors can live with vitality throughout their entire lives. These wellness tips help seniors avoid illness and live like they’re young through each chapter of their lives.

Gundry focuses on microbiome health and what foods seniors should eat or take out of their diets. Overall, this book is like a plan for older adults to either prevent or reverse illnesses later in life.

3. How to Do Nothing

Jenny Odell reshapes our idea of productivity and finding peace each day. How to Do Nothing emphasizes the importance of pausing, reflecting, and unlearning the idea that not working is a waste of time.

Odell also takes a look at how nearly everything in society has the purpose of keeping our attention. Technology wants our attention to gather data about our habits and then turn it around in selling us a product. Odell encourages the reader to think outside of this framework and learn to take time to set technology aside.

This can be extremely beneficial if you’re seeking ways to live an active retirement where your days are filled with intentional activities and hobbies that bring you joy, as opposed to staying busy.

4. Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development

This study tracked the lives of all kinds of people from their teenage years to older adult years. In Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Study of Adult Development, George Eman Vaillant, M.D. looks at their life stories to find the factors that contribute to living a long and healthy life.

While breaking down lifestyle choices and how they contribute to leading a rewarding life, Vaillant demonstrates that each person has the power to make these choices to lead a satisfying life regardless of background.

5. Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being

Through advice on diet, stress management techniques, exercise, and distinguishing health tips from fact and fiction, Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Well-Being by Andrew Weil, M.D. gives older adults an easy-to-understand guide on what healthy habits you should incorporate into your life.

6. Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity

With advice on physical and mental health, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, M.D., with Bill Gifford, breaks down the science behind healthy aging, wellness and how to incorporate these methods to benefit your long-term health.

7. The Gift of Years

The Gift of Years by Joan Chittister regards aging as a privilege and something to celebrate, while also providing insight into how the aging process can have its own challenges and how you can face them.
Chittister frames these challenges as gifts and ways to learn more about yourself, instead of viewing them as difficulties you must overcome.

Age Well at Essex Meadows

Aging happens to all of us, and at Essex Meadows, our residents are making the most of their golden years. Essex Meadows supports healthy aging in residents through a holistic approach with the eight dimensions of wellness.

Instead of focusing on one thing like nutrition or exercise, Essex Meadows encourages older adults to use a well-rounded approach to wellness in the following categories:

• Physical
• Emotional
• Intellectual
• Environmental
• Social
• Spiritual
• Occupational
• Health Care Services

With this approach, residents lead fulfilling and engaging lives. Call us at (860) 767-7201 to get your name on our waitlist, and get ready for the best chapter of retirement.