Besse Cooper- wise beyond her years!

RIP Besse! 12/4/12

This is Besse Cooper and on August 12 of 2012 she became the world's oldest person according to the Guiness World Records.  Besse was born in 1896 which makes her a cool 116 years in age!  Even cooler than her accomplishment of longevity  is that when she was asked her secrets to longevity Besse's answer was quite simple yet extremely profound, "I mind my own business and I don't eat junk food."


 That's deep and yet so simple- if only we could just put her secrets into action in our own lives. Worry, control, and nosiness are useless activities that cause our own suffering.  How often do we worry about people or situations that we have no control over? Or even worse try to control people or situations we have no control over? And what about making other peoples business our business?  USELESS!  Worry, control, and nosiness cause the most suffering to those who are worrying, controlling, or nosy.  The truth is, our internal experiences are more changeable than those we perceive through our senses (than the external world).

 In fact Besse's secret is so spot on that it is one of the main goals of all yoga practices.  Thousands of years ago the great yogi sage Patanjali wrote a set of instructions  for yoga.  The first set of Patajali's  yoga sutras states,  YOGA CITTA VRITTI NIRODHAH.   This essentially means "The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is yoga".  When we really get down to it, isn't Besse right?  When we mind our own business isn't that essentially what we are doing, modifying and restraining the mind-stuff. And when we mind our own business are we not then inclined to start working on our own personal improvements and development?  Really how can we get to know our highest Self (yoga = union of self and highest Self ) - God within, if we are too busy caught up in what other people are doing?  Think about it.

Believe it or not, the second part of Besse's secret, "and I don't eat junk food" is just as profound as the first.  The interesting thing is Besse was probably eating "Superfoods" before the term ever existed. Foods that were organically grown from the earth that were farmed in her backyard.  Talk about local and all natural.  She lived in the times when that's all that existed and it was just called food back then. There weren't the added fats, sugars, sodium and chemicals that plague today's modern Western diets.  Just good wholesome food the way God intended.

So as you move throughout your days and years just remember Besse's words "mind your own business and don't eat junk food" and you are well on your way to following in her foot steps of a long healthy life.