The world of wellness is a big one—as Susie Ellis, the chairwoman and CEO of Global Wellness Institute, knows full well. Through her work with some of the field’s leading experts, she retains a bird’s-eye view on emerging ideas and trends.
Many people interested in wellness are now aware of Dan Buettner’s work on the Blue Zones, those rare longevity hotspots around the world. In his first book, The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who Have Lived the Longest, he and a team of medical researchers and anthropologists pinpointed five places that have a remarkable number of centenarians: people living healthily, and seemingly effortlessly, into their hundreds. The Blue Zone Five are the island of Sardinia in Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Ikaria, Greece; the Nikoya region in Costa Rica; and Loma Linda, CA.
What a brilliant idea it was to analyze these populations to un-riddle what behaviors actually keep people thriving to 100. After exploring where people live the longest, Dan turned his attention to those world hotspots where people report being the very happiest. In his latest book, The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons from the World’s Happiest People, he traveled to happiness havens like Denmark, Costa Rica, Singapore, and Boulder, CO.