Mother’s Day: Longevity Tips From a Super-Powered Greek-American Mom

Ewanna “Becky” Castanas astatine the property of 10 with her siblings, wearing the accepted costume of the family’s village, Karyes. Credit: Zoe Helene

The past Greeks revered the parent and honored her arsenic the giver of beingness centuries earlier Mother’s Day became fashionable successful the West. Mother Earth (Gaia), woman of Uranus, was the personification of quality that gives commencement to everything, and she was worshipped arsenic the eventual deity. Thousands of years later, the modern Greek Mother is unsocial the satellite over. Whether successful Greece, Australia, the United States oregon anyplace crossed the globe, she smothers her children with care, emotion and over-protection, and gives them lifelong lessons until her aureate years. On Mother’s Day she is celebrated with the deepest of emotion and appreciation for her wellness wisdom.

By Zoe Helene

Twelve years ago, my husband, ethnobotanist and Medicine Hunter Chris Kilham, appeared successful a conception called “Super-Powered Greek Coffee” connected “The Dr. Oz Show” backmost erstwhile it was averaging astir 4 cardinal viewers daily, to speech astir a survey showing that Ελληνικός καφές (Ellinikos kafes/Greek coffee) makes the interior lining of humor vessels healthier, expanding longevity. When Chris mentioned his mother-in-law, Ewanna “Becky” Castanas Greene, by her afloat sanction connected the air, helium won large points with my μητέρα (mother) and with the greater Greek tribe. Well done, Honey.

Mom, who was 80 years aged astatine the time, was invited to beryllium connected the show, but she was surviving successful New Zealand truthful that wasn’t possible. I was penning for Huffington Post, truthful I decided to grant my parent with this story, arsenic the amusement aired conscionable successful clip for Mother’s Day.

Today my parent is 92, and aft surviving successful New Zealand for conscionable shy of 50 years, she’s present surviving adjacent to america successful Western Massachusetts. She’s inactive happily joined to my father, who is 97 and a fractional (at that age, you number fractional years), and they’re some inactive vibrant and fabulous, arsenic the photograph of them astatine an epic section costume enactment past October tin attest.

Mother’s Day and aboriginal years connected Ikaria

On Mother’s Day, I’m pleased to person this accidental to grant her yet again with the nonfiction below.

My parent has memories of aged Greek ladies gathering astatine each other’s houses and brewing up rich, heavy java that they served successful peculiar demitasse cups, often passed down from parent to daughter. Coffee was accompanied by tiny cakes oregon pastries specified arsenic kourabiedes (κουραμπιέδες) oregon koulourakia (Κουλουράκια), and a dense dose of miss speech astir families and the aged country. Men would usually spell to the kafeneion (καφενείο/coffee location oregon café), wherever “they’d beryllium astir sipping java portion solving each the governmental woes of the satellite their way,” she says.

My hubby and Dr. Oz, who is present the head of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hold that drinking Greek java contributes to bosom wellness and longevity. That said, I besides cognize there’s a batch much to Greek longevity than consuming a mates of cups of specially brewed java each day. I cognize this due to the fact that my mother’s household has a past of longevity that would impressment beauteous overmuch anybody.

My mother’s parents met successful the United States but were some primitively from Karyes (Καρυές) a beauteous chorio (χωριό/village) successful the mountains of the Peloponnese, celebrated for the priestesses of Artemis Caryatis and the inspiration for the Caryatids, masterpieces connected the Erechtheion of the Athenian Acropolis.

Like the land of Ikaria successful the Greek java study, my relatives from Karyes person an awesome longevity record. My mother’s father, my papou (παπού/grandfather), lived to beryllium 96. He often told maine that his begetter had lived to beryllium 100, his father’s begetter lived to beryllium 98; his father’s father’s begetter lived to beryllium 105; and his father’s father’s father’s begetter lived to beryllium 110. “Women’s births and deaths weren’t truthful cautiously documented,” my parent explained, though she knows that her mother, my yaya (Γιαγιά/grandmother), lived to beryllium 93.

Yiayia Dina with my mother, Becky, successful her arms. Credit: Zoe Helene

Longevity tips from a 92-year-old Greek American ma connected Mother’s Day

I asked my parent to stock immoderate of the wellness contented she’s learned from a agelong enactment of long-lifers. Here’s what she told me:

LOVE DEEPLY. Love profoundly the radical successful your beingness and emotion profoundly successful general. Love animals, plants, the planet, and the arts. Everyone loves differently. Think of the radical you emotion successful your life, and however they love: each 1 is unique.

BE HONEST. Speak your information and past beryllium wherever you are successful that freedom. I was ever a truth-seeker. I wanted to cognize the truth. Have nary secrets. Don’t fto anyone archer you to “keep your rima shut.” Holding things successful causes each kinds of problems, including health problems. There’s nary uncertainty astir that.

LIVE FREE. Ελευθερία ή θάνατος (Eleutheria one Thanatos/Freedom oregon Death) is the Greek motto. We person a agelong past and astatine times person been enslaved oregon enslaved others. Having experienced some sides, we person learned to worth state arsenic indispensable to life.

LET IT GO. Hold nary grudges, resentments oregon regrets, and bash not envy others. Bitterness tin termination you from the inside. If you person envy, beryllium honorable with yourself astir it and bash everything you tin to instrumentality attraction of that envy. Ask yourself, “Why bash I get that feeling?” Sometimes I’ll spell to a idiosyncratic I’m holding a grudge against and I’ll say, “I’ve ever felt a grudge and I don’t person it immoderate more.” And that’s that. Release it. Come to presumption with it. Accept it successful yourself, past driblet it.

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY. People who don’t turn go boring. You tin bore yourself, too! A time without learning thing caller is simply a wasted day. Share what you’ve learned. When your begetter and I locomotion connected the beach, oregon possibly implicit meal I inquire him, “What did you larn contiguous that you didn’t cognize before?” And that’s what we speech about. Don’t beryllium acrophobic to inquire for proposal and perceive to others’ opinions. Then beryllium unfastened to change—even large change—in yourself.

SEEK BEAUTY. Seek what is beauteous to you and situation yourself with that beauty, beauty for each your senses: sight, sound, touch, sensation and smell. Beauty feeds the tone and keeps the cupful full, and not conscionable for you. When you make beauty, you are besides inspiring others.

FEED YOUR BODY. Breathe bully cleanable air, devour bully caller nutrient and portion bully cleanable water—with nary added chemicals. The Mediterranean diet’s benefits are good documented.

MOVE YOUR BODY. It doesn’t substance what you do: garden, walk, dance. Moving your assemblage keeps you beardown and flexible and keeps the humor flowing. Your begetter and I locomotion unneurotic each day, nary substance wherever we are successful the world.

COMMUNITY COUNTS. Spend clip with friends and family. Try to person friends from each walks of beingness and of antithetic ages. The Greeks stitchery arsenic a assemblage and dance precocious into the night. Every generation, each dancing together. I grew up astir that. It was large exercise, but mostly it was astir celebrating the joyousness of beingness unneurotic arsenic a tribe.

My parents astatine a Haloween Ball successful 2024. Credit: Zoe Helene

MARRIAGE MATTERS. Married radical unrecorded longer. Greeks don’t divorcement easily. My begetter utilized to say, “You’re calved once, you wed once, and you dice once.” That’s an aged colony saying. He would archer me, “We wed for life.” I conjecture that stuck for me. I wanted it to beryllium right. Staying successful emotion for beingness takes work, but it’s worthy it. You person to beryllium truly a person with your spouse successful each the champion ways. Don’t discontinue excessively easily; immoderate worthwhile, lasting narration takes changeless commitment. That said, staying successful a atrocious narration tin beryllium unhealthy. If you can’t hole a atrocious relationship, get retired and larn from that acquisition but bash effort again due to the fact that erstwhile it works, it’s worthy it.

SPEND TIME WITH NATURE. Get outdoors. Spend clip with quality successful her galore forms. If you similar to garden, garden. It you similar to walk, walk. I spot the water each day. I spot the airy sparkling connected the h2o oregon the satellite reflected successful the waves. I ticker the sunrise and set. Spending clip successful the earthy satellite volition center, heal, and animate you. It helps you summation position connected being human.

STAY CURRENT. Keep up with the times. If you let yourself to get stuck successful the past, you volition surely turn old. Keep an unfastened mind. Move beyond your comfortableness portion and unfastened your caput to caller ways of thinking. Learn however to usage caller tools and technologies.

HAVE SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO. I can’t accent capable however important this is! I learned this erstwhile I worked successful a mill and looked guardant to the extremity of that gig. The radical who felt they would enactment determination for beingness looked guardant to Friday nighttime astatine the pub, and they would ever speech astir it each the time. That got them done the week.

SEE THE WORLD! Travel enriches your life. Travel shows you existent cultural, scenic and wildlife diversity—and thing takes the spot of firsthand experience. Staying enactment excessively agelong I get compartment fever. I could enactment enactment if I had to, but I would find it oppressive. Your begetter and I emotion to question together.

WORK. In my mother’s community, radical thought thing was incorrect with radical who didn’t work. They thought, “If you don’t enactment there’s thing incorrect with you.” It’s ever champion to bash what you love, but nary substance what, spell astir your enactment cheerfully. Be grateful for the enactment you person and bash it to the champion of your ability. Blind work, similar moving to support up with Jones, is ne'er healthy.

READ. Reading wasn’t encouraged successful my location erstwhile I was increasing up. There was enactment to do. I discovered the satellite of books successful assemblage but it wasn’t until the kids near the location that I started earnestly speechmaking some fabrication and knowledge-based nonfiction. Now I work much than 3 books a week, which takes maine to different worlds, keeps my caput crisp and opens maine up different ways of thinking.

PLAY. Social skills are precise important successful beingness and if you miss learning astir them arsenic a child, they are precise hard to prime up later. Being societal and being socially adept is portion of a agelong a life. When a idiosyncratic is socially inept that tin pb to loneliness and isolation, and some of those things tin beryllium terribly unhealthy. Growing up during the Great Depression and past World War II, we would get unneurotic successful the vicinity and play games similar kick-the-can and Tarzan and paper games. Playing with different children taught maine astir give-and-take, and astir however we each person strengths and weaknesses.

BE NEEDED. People who don’t consciousness similar they’re needed laic down and die. Some radical shy distant from needing and being needed due to the fact that they’re acrophobic of being “needy.” Needing idiosyncratic and being needy are precise different. Needing and being needed is healthy.

BALANCE IN ALL THINGS! Balance successful each of the things above! You tin instrumentality that connection equilibrium and you tin spell done this full list! My begetter utilized to say, “Παν Μέτρον Άριστον” (Pan Metron Ariston) “everything successful moderation,” but I deliberation the connection “balance” is simply a overmuch amended word. It is conscionable truthful overmuch broader. Moderation is good, too, but the immoderate radical are the ones that spell beyond mean and they are truthful often the radical who extremity up doing large things for the world. Great scientists and artists and thinkers are seldom mean people. Balance is different. Think of a horse. If you’re connected a equine and you suffer balance, you autumn off. You request to enactment connected the equine and ride, accelerated oregon slow, to get wherever you’re going.

By Zoe Helene