Longevity Wisdom

What is wisdom?

Wisdom is the capability not only to see the total perspective of everything in all its relationships but also to put into practice the understanding of which things in life are most important and how best to go about getting them, and in the process how to become a better person with the right conduct.

Are you living in wisdom or in folly?

Living in wisdom means holistic living, that is, living with acute awareness of the wellness of the body, the mind, and the spirit. Longevity wisdom is the built-in living-longer wisdom that your Creator has given you to keep you forever young and healthy.

What is longevity wisdom?

Essentially, longevity wisdom is an innate awareness of not only the basic needs of your body but also all the signs and signals by which your body warns you of what is wrong with you. To attain that living-longer wisdom, you need a new level of consciousness to create a new world in which the biochemistry of your body becomes the substance of awareness of your beliefs, emotions, and thoughts. That awareness begins with an intention, which is a desire to live long or longer; the intention then enhances your attention to the physical, mental, and emotional needs of your body. So, invoke and embrace that body wisdom in order to keep yourself disease-free to live a meaningful life for longer.

Longevity wisdom enables you to look at everything that happens to your life in total perspective. For example, on your wedding day, the weather is not cooperative: the rain comes down in torrents; instead of being miserable, console yourself that the rain is good for all the plants and everything in nature. In this way, you begin to develop your awareness of everything around you, instead of focusing on yourself; you are looking at things in a larger perspective and you are beginning to approach living-longer wisdom.

The ancient longevity wisdom of Luigi Cornaro

The ancient longevity wisdom was expressed by Luigi Cornaro, a Venetian nobleman, who was one of the most celebrated centenarians. He lived from 1464 to 1566 AD. Luigi is famous for his longevity living in relation to calorie restriction, which brought him not only excellent health but also a long life free from physical ailments. His living-longer wisdom, expressed in his discourses when he was in his eighties and nineties, has been an inspiration for more than five centuries for those who wish to live to an old ripe age with superb quality of life.

In his youth, Luigi had abused his health with a lifestyle of wantonness and excess, resulting in an extremely weak constitution. His recklessness and dissipation had plagued him in his early adulthood with many physical ailments so severe that he often thought of the comfort of death as an escape.

". . . preferring to live as I pleased and being weary of such foods, I did not refrain from gratifying myself by eating freely of all those things which were to my taste, and being consumed, as it were, by fever, I did not hesitate to continue drinking, and in large quantities, the wines which pleased my palate. Of all this, of course, after the fashion of invalids, I never breathed a word to my physicians. . ."

Then, one day Luigi began to see his own life in larger perspective as well as the folly and futility of his indulgences; he was awakened to the living-longer wisdom to turn his life around by adopting a simple lifestyle and a diet of low calories. His health improved significantly. Life had become a real joy for Luigi, and his later years of life were by far the best, enjoying complete freedom from pain, ailments and diseases because he simply ate only as much food as he needed to survive and no more--a calorie restriction diet.

In his own words, Luigi advised: ". . . he who leads the temperate life can never fall sick, or at least can do so only rarely; and his indisposition lasts but a very short while. For, by living temperately, he removes all the causes of illness; and, having removed these, he thereby removes the effects. So the man who lives the orderly life should have no fear of sickness; for surely he has no reason to fear an effect, the cause of which is under his own control. . ."

Luigi's living-longer wisdom was simple: Do not overeat; lead a simple lifestyle of moderation.

Maybe when you become aware of your own insignificance, you begin to see the bigger picture of everything around you, and you will start seeking wisdom in holistic living.

Stephen Lau
Copyright© by Stephen Lau

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