Dan Buettner is Minnesota’s one-man fountain of youth. As a National Geographic explorer, he popularized the concept of identifying Blue Zones: far-flung regions like Okinawa, in Japan, or the Nicoya Peninsula, in Costa Rica, where people more often live to be 100 years old. He’s also researched the cultural traits that contribute to happiness—in Denmark and Singapore—and reported back in New York Times bestsellers like 2017’s The Blue Zones of Happiness. And his Blue Zones Project has helped more than 50 U.S. communities (including Albert Lea) to improve their own metrics of health and well-being.
In a time when so many of us are desperate for reassurance and wisdom, we asked Buettner if he could tell us what he’s learned on his travels and what insights he’s picked up about the virtues of his home state. “Now, I can’t say Minnesota is doing everything perfectly,” he explained, when we reached him by phone. “But we’re in the top 10 percentile—probably top 5.”
Here are a few more of his conclusions.
Beware of comfort. Most of the things that bring us happiness require effort.
The Sardinians originally came to their island from northern Spain right after the last Ice Age. But then the Phoenicians came, then the Romans, then the Arabs, and their population was pushed up into the harshest part of the island, the Nuoro province, where it’s very hard to grow food. The only way they could survive was to develop a social cohesiveness with a strong zeal for family.
When the first Minnesota settlers came here in the middle of the 19th century, it was equally difficult, and they had to stick together as a community. In Miami, if there’s a car stuck, people are going to drive around it. In Minnesota, people jump out of their car and push them out of the snowbank. That’s a spirit that we should continue to cultivate, and it comes out in times of hardship, when we have a blizzard that gives us 4 feet of snow.
We have the winters to get good at stuff. In most Blue Zones, there’s a word or phrase for a sense of purpose. Ikigai is the word in Okinawa. In Costa Rica, it’s plan de vida. In Ikaria [an island in the Aegean Sea], they self-describe as being Ikarian well before they’d ever self-describe as being Greek. People with a strong sense of purpose tend to take their medicines, tend to stay in shape, and are more likely to eat well and stay socially engaged.
Religion erodes in time of prosperity, and it streaks up in times of hardship. People who attend a church service weekly live 4 to 14 years longer than people who don’t, and religious people are happier than nonreligious. Minnesotans might have a bit of an advantage because on Sunday mornings in January, church might be about the most exciting thing to do.
Denmark is one of the happiest places on earth. Jante Law comes from a novel by Danish Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose, and it boils down to, “You’re no better than anybody else.” In Los Angeles, the tall tree gets the most sunlight; in Minnesota, it gets chopped down. I would argue that’s actually a positive construct. The happiest places in the world have the shortest ladder between the richest and the poorest.
I joke that Minnesota is a land of bad hair and sensible shoes. But people who aren’t worried about their status feel more comfortable in their own skin. And psychologically that promotes a greater sense of well-being.
When it comes to longevity and happiness, there’s no short-term fix. It requires doing the right things and avoiding the wrong things for decades. People in Blue Zones live in areas committed to making the healthy choice the easy choice, through policy and infrastructure.
Minneapolis owes a huge debt of gratitude to Theodore Wirth: the horticulturalist—basically a gardener—who designed our parks system. Nobody here is more than a few blocks from a park.
We are one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in America. There is an inextricable relationship between health and happiness. We’re one of the fittest cities in America, and that’s in no small part because the streets aren’t just built for cars.
Blue Zones people aren’t doing burpees and yoga and running out to CrossFit. They’re walking to get their groceries, they’re stepping out for a cup of coffee, they’re strolling with their friends. We’ve got to high-five our city officials because there’s been a conscious decision to create a built environment that fosters social connectivity and natural physical activity. It’s that Monday-through-Friday stuff that makes the big difference in our health over time.
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June 18, 2020 at 12:00PM
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Explorer Dan Buettner Shares Wisdom from His Travels - Mpls.St.Paul Magazine
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