The 4th Wave in Therapy is proudly sponsored by EFT HQ, the world's largest online EFT Educational Resource. To deepen your education of EFT skills through Masterclasses, training and professional development based on the latest research in Clinical EFT, visit this page: https://www.evidencebasedeft.com/eft-hq-landing-page. 

In this engaging conversation, Peta Stapleton and Marcus Peirce explore the themes of longevity, life design, and the cultural practices of blue zones that contribute to exceptional aging. They discuss the importance of purpose, connection, and active learning in fostering a fulfilling life. The conversation emphasizes the need to shift beliefs about aging and the significance of shared meals and mindfulness in enhancing quality of life. Marcus shares insights from his research and interviews with centenarians, highlighting the simple yet profound practices that can lead to a longer, healthier life.

Takeaways

• Your best years are in front of you.
• Longevity is a new problem that society is facing.
• We are grossly underprepared for the challenges of longevity.
• Having reasons for living is essential for mental health.
• Active learning is crucial for integrating longevity practices into life.
• Cultural practices from blue zones provide valuable insights into aging well.
• It's important to stop saying 'I'm too old to' and 'I don't have time to.'
• Life can be brutal if we neglect one area of our lives.
• Freedom of mind and purpose are key to longevity.
• It's never too late to start making positive changes in your life.

 Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Longevity and Life Design

02:56 The Fourth Wave of Longevity

06:12 Cultural Insights from Blue Zones

09:09 The Importance of Purpose and Connection

11:55 Active vs. Passive Learning in Longevity

15:11 The Role of Meaning and Spirituality

18:00 Slowing Down and Mindfulness

20:59 Family Connections and Shared Meals

24:08 The Impact of Beliefs on Aging

26:49 Exceptional Aging Practices

29:57 Final Thoughts and Challenges

Keywords: longevity, life design, blue zones, purpose, connection, mindfulness, aging, health, emotional safety, exceptional life

Note: this is unedited.

Peta Stapleton (00:01.656)
Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode in the fourth wave in therapy. And look today, I'm quite excited to connect. And it's funny, you talk off air to lots of your guests and we're like, we should hit record because we'll just keep talking. Otherwise. Now let me do a quick intro. Look, no matter what your family history or your genes are, and we talk a lot about that in the EFT tapping world, our guest speaker today and the person I'm going to spend some time with believes it's not all downhill from here.

Marcus (00:15.112)
you

Peta Stapleton (00:30.412)
and that your best years are in front of you, not behind you. I like the sound of this. Now Marcus Peirce is a longevity and life design strategist and the host of 100 Knot Out, Australia's longest running podcast on aging well and longevity. He is the author of the bestselling book, Your Exceptional Life. look, I just happen to have one here with me because I have actually read this. And every year takes small groups to the European blue zones of Sardinia and the Greek island, Icaria.

Marcus (00:49.373)
Noooo

Peta Stapleton (00:59.534)
And of course, you may know those as some of those are the places where people just forget to die because they do live their long, amazing lives. So Marcus has spent the last decade interviewing and researching more than 200 of the world's centenarians, graceful ages, health professionals and icons of humanity. That's just beautiful. And today we are going to dive deep. Marcus, thank you so much for your time.

Marcus (01:25.331)
Peter, a joy to be with you. Thanks so much for having me. And I know that you've known our mutual friend, Cindy O'Meara for some time, but I only saw you speak for the first time a couple of years ago and you made my hamstrings, their range of motion is so much better because of what I learned from you that day. I think of you regularly when I'm stretching and I will always be indebted for your wisdom. It's so great to be with you on the podcast. My hamstrings are so grateful.

Peta Stapleton (01:44.16)
you

Peta Stapleton (01:52.098)
So we're going to give context. People might wonder what was I doing with Marcus's hamstrings? And I was talking about EFT tapping and of course, you know, sometimes in big crowds, we get people to touch their toes and then we do tapping on the flexibility in the back of your hamstrings and tightness. And that's of course what we did to, you know, hundreds of people listening. And that's what Marcus means everybody. was not as I think Marcus's hamstrings. I love it. Okay. Marcus.

Marcus (02:13.397)
Yeah, that's right. Context is king.

Peta Stapleton (02:19.434)
In my therapy world, we talk about different waves of transformation that have occurred and are continuing to occur. you know, really a lot of them have brought us into sort of this fourth wave, which has really embraced the body back into the therapy setting and talking about stress being stored in the body, like we were just talking about hamstrings. But your research, your interviews that you've done, of course, on, you your 100 Not Out podcast, do you think

what you've uncovered around living and longevity, is that part of the fourth wave of how people are approaching life?

Marcus (02:56.893)
In many ways, I'd like to say yes, because I'm often telling people that longevity is a new problem. We've had many people over the years that have lived for a long time, but in very isolated incidents. Michelangelo lived to his 90s, Captain Cook's wife, Elizabeth, I think lived into her 80s and buried all six children. We've had people live a long time.

but now it's happening on mass. A 70 year old is a one in 10 chance to hit 100. I'm 43, I'm a one in five chance. A newborn is a flip of the coin. So this is something that is part crisis, part opportunity. If it's a fourth wave, I'd almost call it a tidal wave because it is literally coming on mass and depending on who you speak to, we're grossly underprepared.

But in many ways, I think it's very exciting, but it does beckon us all to challenge our life design principles, our values and the way we want to craft our future.

Peta Stapleton (04:03.342)
And I think you're right, like, you know, I'm 50 in my 52nd year. And if I kind of am thinking, look, I've still got that much time ahead again, still in my life to live on, would hope so. Like that really does change the way that you address your life, how you live your life in the here and now thinking it's not like I've only got, you know, 10 years left of working. I may have another 30, 40 years left of contributing maybe through my work or before I retire.

Marcus (04:13.119)
Mm-hmm.

Marcus (04:32.682)
Mm-hmm.

Peta Stapleton (04:32.908)
Like your work has been really looking at these cultural groups, the blue zones around the world, where people like are living these lives not necessarily through medical advancements, are they? That's not what's extending their lives. Tell us a little bit about what you found.

Marcus (04:49.461)
Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So before we go to the blue zones, I want to discuss something you just mentioned there about being in your 52nd year. You're 100 % spot on. You have every chance to hit 104 and beyond. What's really interesting when you talk to people, whether they're in Australia or America, you ask them, what's your number? Like, how long do you want to live for? And some people will say 85 and they'll give you a reason, or they'll say 91 and they'll give you a reason. It's often because of a

or a grandparent or so on, or their morbidity or their quality of life, it really descended really quickly. But the thing is, if you're not planning to live to 104 and you get there, that might not be a lot of fun. If you're planning to get to 91 and you get to 104, do you run out of money? Do you run out of health? Do you run out of friends? Do you run out of family? Do you run out of, because, and this is all at the back of some research out of Yale done by a...

incredible academic, Becca Levi, and they found that people that had a disempowered view of getting older died seven and a half years earlier than people that looked forward to getting older. And those people that were disempowered, you know, in their 30s scared of turning 40 and in their 50s not looking forward to 60 and so on. They also did not enjoy their current days as much as the people that had a compelling vision of the future.

And so if we now transport that research to the European Blue Zones, because I'm really connected to Icaria, what yes, as you said, the New York Times labeled it the island where people forget to die, and Sardinia, not the wealthy northeast part, but the southwest Indiana Jones, you got to go on an adventure to find the middle of nowhere where the centenarians are living, literally male to female one to one, whereas around the world, it's five women for one man.

You go to these places and they do show you a pathway or a way to live into the future. Having what might really start to frustrate people, a real culture around family tradition, making time to socialize, having a lot of physical activity, albeit incidental, no CrossFit, no yoga, no F45, and having a compelling reason to get out of bed each day.

Marcus (07:08.787)
Whereas we're just over broke or just working to pay the bills or we don't have a great culture of putting meaning into our work. And so as much as it feels like it's back to the future, it also feels like a fourth wave because this is new in that it's happening en masse.

Peta Stapleton (07:26.786)
That's so interesting. just picked up on, you you said reasons for living, because I'm thinking about phrases like, you know, the future beckons you and, you know, those kinds of things. And it's funny because in the emotional mental health kind of world, we talk about reasons for living being a protective factor against like severe depression or emotional distress. We don't talk about reasons for living being what we should all have just as that meaning making and that connection.

We're looking at this separate thing and maybe only for people in severe distress, you really need to make sure you find your reasons for living. You're saying people in these blue zones, that's their way of life, that's their mentality, that's their thinking. There's a reason to get up every morning, am I right?

Marcus (08:12.073)
Yeah, and this is what I love. I love this conversation. So we can be like really academic, right? And that's a really interesting conversation. And then we can be really, dare I say, basic and you can look at a local and Ikaria, who when they wake up in the morning, all they want to do is water the garden. They just want to water the garden. And then they'll come inside and they'll want to have maybe some rosemary tea, maybe a coffee, and maybe some yogurt and honey.

but they don't necessarily want to eat it alone. If they're living alone, they might be on the balcony or the porch, or they might go over to a friend's house and they have a real, what's the word? Their purpose is also built on what I like to call, it's a very popular term, emotional safety. Their purpose is not so individual that it's all about them. They find their purpose around others. So you spoke about reasons for living from a

mental health perspective and often that is around your children or your partner or your family or your friends or so on. But for you look at the longevity cultures, it never gets that urgent. Is that the way to say it? It never gets to the point where it's like, we've got to talk about your reason for living with this level of urgency. It's baked into their culture, almost like from the moment they're born. And that's why I think to your point, Peter, we don't want to wait.

to have severe, our mental health severely challenged, we are allowed to work on our life design, our values and our beliefs when everything's good or great. And if it's great, we wanna protect that and not wait for it to be okay. I think that five or six out of 10 in life is often the hardest place to be because it's not bad enough to give you a rocket to improve it. And it's not.

you know, so great that you've got to go for it. So it's a really, you know, this is an interesting conversation and sadly it's not a quick answer, but I hope you gather my thoughts so that it's nuanced, but we can go in any direction we want.

Peta Stapleton (10:19.106)
Yeah, absolutely. And it is making me think of a lot of different things here. And I guess, you know, there's so much media attention that has been on these blue zones, including Netflix series and things like that, that more people are kind of aware now of perhaps some of, you know, the way of living that these, you know, people are living their lives and obviously then, you know, having great meaning, but also living lengthy, you know, in age.

But do you think there's a translation that is occurring when people are now becoming aware of maybe they do a trip or maybe they watch a Netflix series or they're like, yes, yes, I've learnt about all this, but do you think it's translating?

Marcus (10:58.355)
Well, I'd like to return that question with a question. When I saw you speak and I did the tapping, I had a whole different response than watching a documentary or reading a book. And I'll often say people can listen to the podcast or they can watch the series on Netflix, but until they feel the tension of the coffee not arriving within a minute of ordering it and their quarters are rising because they're so used to quick service or the roads being inefficient,

or the food taking a long time to arrive because they wanna talk to you and get to know you and you're like, where's my food? Or the bus leaving at ish rather than 7.30, it's 7.30 ish, which might be 7.50 until people feel those feelings. And I'm not just talking island time, I'm talking a whole cultural way of life. I don't think intellectual knowledge is enough to master our life. I think many of us have this mirage of what I call passive learning.

were so book smart, but being street smart enough, when I bent over and felt my hamstrings actually like have a greater range of motion, then I was a believer. I'd seen tapping, I'd heard about it, I'd read about it, I'd watched about it. I was a passive learning expert, but until I did it, and I still go, so many people don't go to Ikaria or Sardinia, or if they do, they go to...

Mykonos or Santorini or they go to the wealthy part of the sand of Sardinia. You wouldn't feel this all the time. I've heard a tapping yeah, I know EFT. Well, do you really? So I think that lived experience, anything active learning is the way to really bake something in. You want to bake longevity into your way of life, you've got to you actually have to love the work that you do doesn't matter if it makes you a millionaire or not, you've got to look forward to your work, you've got to

Peta Stapleton (12:31.08)
Have you ever done it? Yes.

Marcus (12:51.091)
be physically active. can't just read about it. You can't just watch the football. You've got to play the game. You've got to catch up with your friends, not Snapchat and SMS. You've got to make the time to have a coffee, have a dinner party. That is the, I know I'm ranting, but that is the difference between passive longevity and active longevity.

Peta Stapleton (13:06.382)
No, no, Mark, as I say, passion. I would absolutely sum it up and say, look, I think the passion behind the message that you are saying is the part that is really important. It is about, tell me if I'm wrong, what you're saying is the meaning, the connections, the, yeah, we've got all the academic to back it up, but you literally have to take the step to start to action some of these ways of living in order to fully.

glean the benefit. Am I right?

Marcus (13:36.745)
Yeah, so I just read some research which I love from the Harvard Medical School showing that people that live with purpose will live four years longer. That's just the headline. I love it. But then I go, okay, so I've learnt it passively. But then I go, okay, let's say, do I love my job? No. Am I gonna leave my job? No. Have I got bills to pay? Yes. School fees? Yes. Holidays? Yes. great. Okay, I'm done.

It's a whole different thing to know the research and live it. And really that is the challenge, which I'm sure you would be always sharing with people in your world as well is intellectual knowledge will only get you so far. People don't have to come to Icaria or Sardinia. You can speak to your grandparents, your elderly neighbors, your people in your community, people that you love to learn from them how they're living great lives. And then the big trick is we're often telling our kids is it's one thing to know that we wash the clothes. It's the next thing to actually wash the clothes.

So I think that's really where this gets interesting as a fourth wave is, yeah, we know about longevity now, we're all talking about it, but are we actually living the life to give ourselves the best opportunity to make it happen well?

Peta Stapleton (14:43.534)
And in all your interviews that you've done with centenarians around the world and, you know, all of it's backed, I guess, by what you're finding in the research and what's coming out. Is that theme a common one of there's meaning in life? Maybe it's the reason to get up. Is it because I've got friends or, you know, because obviously I think of my own grandmother who did live into her late 90s. And she used to say, ultimately, she used to talk about the young people.

Marcus (15:11.977)
Yeah. Yeah.

Peta Stapleton (15:12.03)
were 20 years younger that lived in the nursing home area because they were in their 70s but she's like they're the young people you know so a lot of her close friends and connection and obviously family and partner husband had passed and so it was just her by the end so that connection and is that what is coming through in the interviews that you've done as well?

Marcus (15:19.092)
Yep.

Marcus (15:27.668)
Yeah.

Marcus (15:32.753)
Yeah, so my feeling on this not to denigrate anything that the centenarians have told me, but they're not the ones reverse engineering their lifestyle. It's us. It's you and I and people out there that are like going, all right, what are they doing to make their life work? You know, someone will say, it's my baked beans. Someone else will say it's a beer every day. Someone else will say it's coffee in the morning and coffee at midnight. Someone else will say it's the vodka. Like everyone's different.

but they enjoy waking up in the day. They don't go, another day. Like they look forward to their day. They are physically active and they're socially active, but they don't have to logically plan it. Right, I must see my friends and I must move my body. It's like, I've got to water the garden. I've got to take the wine that I've harvested, you know, over to Thaya's house because I told her I'd bring over some wine and then...

And then after that, I'm gonna go over to Yardy's and take him to olive oil. But you know, he lives 40 minutes away by foot, you know, but in Icaria, it's why I drive when you would walk. Sardinia, the shepherds have been walking for so long, they're not going to eat as much when they're walking as shepherds. They'll take some pecorino and some bread and a little bit of wine, maybe some walnuts. So we might talk about caloric restriction and intermittent fasting, but we will naturally wanna like.

biohack it or make a rule. For them, it's more innate. Like it's just how they live. But we do need to learn these principles. And then we've got to, you know, we've got a James Clear atomic habit. We've got to turn it into habit trackers and 21 day planners. And, you know, we've got to tap on it and journal it and you know, we've got to, you know, I mean, this is how I am. If I turn my camera around, I've got, I've got checklists and markers and diaries and

Peta Stapleton (17:02.7)
Yeah.

Marcus (17:27.721)
But for the elders, they're like, what are you doing? And it's like, well, because we have to learn about this because it's happening to us. We have to learn. And whether we like it or not, no one likes to say it. Most of us don't want to age like our parents or maybe our grandparents. They are not our longevity mentors. So we have to learn. And often it is from people that we don't know. It is from people from Europe or Japan or somewhere. And that's just...

That's the modern face of longevity in life design.

Peta Stapleton (18:00.238)
So are you saying, because I'm picking up elements of slowing down. I'm moving up. So we're not going to biohack anything here. we're not. just we're just going to for a moment, all our listeners are going to kind of just try this on for size and kind of go, all right, well, if I was standing in my line and I had ordered my coffee and that maybe if it was taking a bit longer, I might have a chat to the person standing in the line next to me or whoever. But is there a sense of that?

Marcus (18:06.6)
Mm-hmm.

Marcus (18:19.701)
Mm-hmm.

Peta Stapleton (18:29.674)
it's not all about the clock, the time and it's like mindfulness at some level, being present, it's being, you know, centered and it's just allowed.

Marcus (18:34.665)
Mm-hmm.

Marcus (18:39.219)
Yeah. So this is like right in my wheelhouse to everyone that runs a business here. Apologies if the following information is triggering, but in Ikaria, the locals have a one-liner and I mentioned Ikaria more because I've been there five times in Sardinia twice. So pardon me, but in Ikaria, the locals say this island will either suck you in or spit you out. If you're fast, A-type, you've to get things done. You've got to pay wages on Friday. You need inbox zero. You've got your life organized within a minute of your life.

you will get to the petrol station and wait in line, someone will be at the bowser, you're just waiting for them to go, but they're talking to their neighbor for like 15 minutes. And they've already filled up their petrol and paid for it, but they haven't left. And in Icaria, that doesn't bother you. But if you're the A-type, you are going wild because you're late for meetings, you're late for school pickup, you're late for now football training, you're late for dinner, like the...

So this is the way of life where it's like, okay, I know for me, Peter, when I come back from Icaria and Sardinia, I'm like, right, siesta, two hour lunch break from 12 till two. Every day I'm gonna read a book, I'm gonna go for a walk, I'm gonna have a nap, I'm gonna have a slow lunch, call my mom, call my sisters, you know, and then as the day gets on, the two hours goes down to one hour, goes down to 30 minutes, and then I'm having a lunch in 15 minutes, because I've got a podcast interview and kids to pick up, you know? So.

Everyone here can feel me, right? Like this is where it's a cultural shift. But what I really glean from their lifestyle is for me, it's the night times. It's no phones. It's reading books, not on iPads, because I'm on a computer most of the day. It's reading paperbacks. You can see behind me, big bookshelf. I want a real book. I don't want to watch anything unless it's the weekend and I'm watching the football, but I am reading.

I'm blissing out, I'm escaping or I'm chatting to my kids. I've got four kids, 15 down to five. I'll give them the quality time. I'll give my wife the quality time. And that is all thanks to Icaria and Sardinia. I didn't learn that from my parents because we were watching TV till 11 o'clock at night when we were kids growing up. But from Icaria and Sardinia, they get home from work and they've stopped. And COVID made us all continue working from home. just, there's no out. So I think that's tools down, whether you're a

Marcus (20:59.769)
full-time work, part-time work, you're tools down and then moving into the down ramp of the night. And it's different for everyone. I'm okay if you watch a bit of Netflix or whatever, but knowing how you down ramp and then go into a good night's sleep and then start the next day, that is pivotal when you look at these cultures. They master that so well.

Peta Stapleton (21:21.454)
And I guess protect that, just that one time a day where maybe there's no demands on you if you've clocked off work for the day, that that's somewhere everyone listening could begin, that you could just start protecting that time a day for yourself, that it could be, even if it was connecting with someone on the phone for a conversation or having the meal. I did grow up with a family and I've continued the tradition that we do eat dinner at the dinner table every night. We've never done the...

Marcus (21:35.945)
Mm-hmm.

Peta Stapleton (21:48.694)
lounge, know, sit on watch TV, eat the meal and I've got, you know, adult children now who still eat dinner with us at the dinner table and so there's this one cultured little part of the day which even if you go off and watch your own shows afterwards everyone's come together so it's somewhere to protect isn't it that we almost have to, yeah.

Marcus (22:07.221)
100%. And again, our mutual friend Cindy will talk about, you know, we could reduce so much mental health in the world or poor mental health by getting back into the kitchen and eating a meal together. And we could call that a therapy, you know, like dining with others at the table if we wanted to, but everyone understands it. And if you start to do that as a habit, you start to go, well, how was your day? What were the best bits? What were the worst bits? And you're not there to fix, you're there to listen, you're there to eat, you're there to...

connect with people and then we could talk about the oxytocin and the serotonin and the dopamine reward centers in the brain all because we're eating dinner at the table. And I think, again, the locals in Europe and so on, they don't have to think about this, but we kind of do because as you've just said, Peter, we haven't all been raised in a culture where this happens normally. So we're kind of learning it for the first time and it's never too late, never too late to start working on this.

Peta Stapleton (23:06.35)
Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny because I'm thinking of my own too. And recently, our 22 year old was asked by some university friends, how come you have a good relationship with your parents? Because it's one way to get your kids to talk about you. You sit down together and you have a chat every evening. And she kind of looked at me, what do you mean? We just sit and have dinner and everyone talks about stuff. Like she thought, what do you mean? You're asking me that this is weird. They're like, oh, I don't talk to my parents. And I'm like, so if you're a parent listening.

and you want your kids to be able to talk to you, have dinner together every night because it's this opportunity that just allows for conversation. So it's quite funny.

Marcus (23:41.883)
Absolutely. And I know there'd be parents listening because we have this chat with other families regularly and they're like, how am going to get my kids to change? And COVID did make that really tricky kids eating dinner in their bedroom and whether it's eating at the couch and so on and getting renewing these cultural pillars of what you want for your life is not easy. This is what we say like, you might know it now, but doing the hard work, you know, like developing that

I don't know if use the but developing that grit to really put stakes down in your life and go, this is what we stand for as a family. Because to your daughter's story, they're probably asking her, what is the secret of your parents' success? It's like, can Peter come in and have this chat? And like you said, it's actually spending time with your children is the greatest productivity hack that you could create for a healthy family life. When everyone's trying to save time and delegate, know.

AI can't spend time with your kids while it can, but it's not going to improve your family relationship. And this is the basic tenet of all of this longevity work is none of it's complicated. It's all simple, not easy, but simple.

Peta Stapleton (24:49.506)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Tell me in all your conversations you've had and your visits you've done, like what role does, look, you might call it spirituality, you might call it maybe more philosophical, you might even extend to religion. What role does that play in people's thinking patterns or meaning making or relationships as well? Like, does it play a role? Is it important if someone was

Marcus (25:13.237)
Hmm.

Peta Stapleton (25:18.562)
know, didn't have a spiritual practice, do they need one, does it have a relationship with longevity?

Marcus (25:23.677)
Yeah, I love this question. This is I do love about you, Peter, is you are so happy to go here, because a lot of people aren't. They don't want to think about it or talk about it. And I think the answer is yes to all of the above and everything. And they have different languages for it in Icaria, you know, they're Greek Orthodox, but they're not really attached to it, like they love it. But it's not like they're everything in Sardinia, Catholic, but they do have a really like a fierce independence. It's almost like they're

Icarian first, Greek second, then maybe, you know, Greek Orthodox, or they didn't, you know, they had their family in Australia. I love interviewing Holocaust survivors and war survivors because, know, their faith, particularly Holocaust survivors, you could argue that their faith in their religion was smashed to a million pieces. Eddie J. Q. was a dear friend of mine. He's regarded the happiest man on earth in a beautiful book and

I would often ask him, I'm like, Eddie, how did you become the happiest man on earth? And he always told me, said, Marcus, remember I was the saddest, most bitter, resentful man on earth until I had my son. And it was only then that I became a happy man because I realized that I didn't want to show my son, I didn't want to continue the concentration camp, which a lot of people talk about. Many people never really left the camp, but he didn't want to bring his son into a world where that was the family culture.

And this is the challenge that many of us have, whether you believe in a higher purpose or not is what's it gonna take for you to shift your beliefs about yourself because they are the most confronting. It's not what your wife thinks or your kids think or your society thinks. It's what do you think about you and your life? Do you connect that to a higher culture? Some people will call it adding meaning. For others, they've never really thought about, well, what does it mean if my parents split up when I was 10? What does that mean for me and why was it perfect?

as it was, as it's been a victim story and so on. I'm a journalist by profession, so I love putting meaning into everything. I love context and why did it happen and what are the blessings and all the rest of it. I think elders that I've interviewed across all cultures do tend to put some meaning, they might call it perspective, because they've lived a long time so they can look back on events and say, well, I can see that that happened for the right reasons, but at the time, I definitely didn't see the blessing in disguise or the silver linings.

Marcus (27:47.433)
So I love the simplicity of their humanity. don't over, like, what's the word theology? They don't turn it into like a science of theology or a transcendental meditation technique or a certain, know, Rosetta Stone. It's more, I've lived my life for long enough to recognize that there is something beyond me. There is a higher purpose and a meaning. And so it's almost like longevity has been their proof that there is something beyond them.

Peta Stapleton (28:15.374)
Yeah, that's so interesting that, yeah, often the benefit we're going to gain from, you know, your interviews as well as the opportunities to kind of, you know, the wisdom of these groups around the world, that is our opportunity, isn't it, to kind of benefit and say, well, I don't have to wait till I'm 95 and look back that I could start cultivating some of these practices now, you know, in my life. And you do. Yeah. So you do talk about

Marcus (28:42.13)
absolutely

Peta Stapleton (28:45.524)
exceptional aging and based on everything you know and all of you know your journalist background has done you kind of really well here like if you were to give listeners just something that they could start an exceptional aging way of living what would that be?

Marcus (29:04.957)
Well, the World Health Organization has us eight for longevity at 70 point at 83 on average, but we are 21st for quality of life. And that's 12.1 years of morbidity. So 70.9 good years. then statistically it all goes downhill from there. So I think we've got to be really mindful that if there's like one thing to begin with, it is our belief around getting older. If you can listen to this episode and

decide that you will never ever ever again say I'm too old to. And if you think you're too young to say I'm too old to, that's great, but you can never ever ever say I don't have time to. Because I don't have time to and I'm too old to are the exact same statement just a generation apart. The 35 year old says I don't have time, the 60 year old says I'm too old to. They're the exact same thing.

Peta Stapleton (29:51.778)
Wow, that so good.

Marcus (29:57.907)
And so we must move forward in our lives with no excuse because life is brutal. If we suck at one area of life and win at seven, the area of life that we sucked at, whether it was our wealth or our health or our family life, that will come and eat and destroy all the other seven good areas. And you can look at anyone that has dementia, but has great wealth and family life and so on. And it's all falling apart.

So we've got to be really clear here. Our belief is endemic to the quality of our longevity. And we talk about lifespan and health span. Those terms have been around for over 20 years. This isn't like a new frontier. So this research, you don't have to worry about how new or old it is. If it makes sense to you, just say, I'm going to stop saying I'm too old to, I'm going to stop saying I don't have time to, be more truthful with yourself and others.

Feel the freedom of that. I absolutely think that that is such a great creator of oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin and all the other healthy neurotransmitters where you'll go, my gosh, I'm free of excuses and I'm free of feeling like a victim. And if you can live with that, then I think you're beginning to feel like these graceful ages and exceptionals feel. They have a liberation within them that people don't really understand, but that I think is what they have. It's a freedom.

of mind because they've allowed themselves that openness to, as I say, make the rest of their life the best of their life.

Peta Stapleton (31:23.202)
That's fantastic. And that's your challenge, everyone listening in that, you know, that phrase, I'm too old has now been erased from your vocabulary. And I'll throw one more in. A couple of years ago with a colleague, I went to one of the positive psychology conferences. I choose where I spend my time these days at conferences. I'm like, go to that one. Yeah. Anyway, we were sitting there end of the day and a ER doctor was on stage giving a talk, all the research they found and they

he had particularly been working with elderly patient groups. And he said this one finding that they'd found, which was absolutely correlated almost like, know, to 100 % one correlation, meaning it really was related. They said, what made people feel old and then all health problems that came through it could be boiled down and they looked at all different kind of, you know, things that might have got in the road.

one single behavior, so you're talking about the words that we say, but another behavior that absolutely was almost correlated at 100 % with then a whole range of other things. And we were like sitting on the edge of our seat going, what is this? Because we were like, maybe we should stop doing it if we're actually doing it. And here's what it was. And I've since gone off and had a look, so interesting, that if when you get up out of a chair, go to bend down and do something, hanging out the clothes, any movement,

If you make the sound, anything similar, and you might put a hand on the area of the body, that sound attached to the body movement had this amazing ripple effect. And I'm just thinking of what you're sharing Marcus, and then knowing now everyone's heard that as well. But I've actually pointed it out to a few people here in faculty and kind of got, should probably stop groaning when you stand up.

Marcus (33:16.373)
I'm going to send you the research right now.

Peta Stapleton (33:18.952)
research like and I thought it's really interesting and it's interesting you can catch yourself even doing that like I found myself hanging out like clothes and like I go to yoga and I try to look after my physical self and have massage and do all the rest and I still found myself going and like going why am I groaning like I'm not even in pain so I'm like

Such an interesting piece of research. So another one that maybe we can attach here to our challenge that we're putting forward to everyone.

Marcus (33:51.861)
I'm definitely making that a project now. I'm on a 30 day plan to not groan once whilst moving and make that a part of my life. I love that, Peter.

Peta Stapleton (34:03.15)
because I'd be really curious that the next time you go on one of your visits or whatever, even just to witness, I wonder how much groaning goes on when some of our Blue Zone elders and our centurion, I wonder if they really are groaning when they get up or they're just getting up out of the chair. Yeah, so fabulous. Look, everyone, I absolutely encourage you. I devoured Marcus's book and I'm really hoping Marcus writes another book at some point because I think you need a second version.

Marcus (34:18.694)
Mm. Yeah, absolutely.

Marcus (34:30.954)
No.

Peta Stapleton (34:33.134)
So your exceptional life details up below everybody. And I hope that you, yeah, really take on board some of what's coming out. Because I truly believe, yes, we might have media catching up, letting us know about these things, but we have a lot to learn from other cultures around the world and things that we can adopt even in our own life and maybe protect that time in the evening when the day's starting to sort of, know, wind down, you know, reach out, spend time with others, maybe take it a bit slower.

that kind of thing. So wonderful to hear you today, Marcus, and just connect like this. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Marcus (35:04.293)
and stevan

Marcus (35:09.775)
it's been a joy, Peter. I just had one more thing. I just realized as you're talking about the book in the book, you may remember there's like a quiz where you write each of the eight areas of your life. I've just gone through the software. I won't say nightmare challenge of upgrading the quiz. So there is a new quiz at my website where people can go and check out each of the eight areas of their life and write them out of 10. And then there's some guidance to help them make some of those life design changes, like beliefs and so on. And not groaning when you get up off the chair and

And the little things. So I've loved this conversation. Thank you so much for having me. And yeah, look forward to many more down the track.

Peta Stapleton (35:49.39)
Absolutely. And all those details are below everybody. So please jump in and go and do the quiz for yourself, even if you haven't read the book and visit Marcus's work and maybe see what he's got coming up as well. So it's just been a joy. Thank you so much. I'm already reminding myself of some of those phrases moving forward and yeah, what my evening might look like tonight as well. Thank you so much, Marcus.

Marcus (36:10.847)
Thanks, Peter.

Marcus' Book "Your Exceptional Life: Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life" - https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B094HR7HBF

Exceptional Life Quiz - https://exceptionallife.outgrow.us/elquiz