CAZENOVIA — Recently, local resident Phil Rose published an updated edition of his book, “The 120 Club – Living the Good Life for 120 Years: Health and Vitality in an Age of Transformation.”
The wellness, health, and longevity book centers on the idea that living 120 years is a very real goal for humankind.
“After conducting extensive research on aging and longevity, I developed my ‘10 Wisdoms,’” said Rose. “This is a comprehensive program on how to live a long and healthy life. It also makes an argument of why you should want to live to 120 in the first place.”
In the book, Rose presents the following 10 Wisdoms for living a balanced and long life: emotional healing and stress reduction; creativity and play; spirituality; diet; exercise; jobs, career, and money; politics and social transformation; friendships and significant others; Mother Earth; and Western medical doctors and alternative healers.
“The biggest hurdle for people to read such a hopeful book is having to look around us and see how those close to us are aging,” said Rose. “It’s not always so hopeful. But that should not stop us. We have more information and resources available to us [than ever] before in history to live a long and healthy life.”
The author has taught classes on his book at Onondaga Community College, Upstate Oasis, and the State University of New York at Morrisville.
“When I [met] people, they would ask me, ‘Are you 120?’” said Rose. “[Of] course, I would say, ‘Yes.’ We then would have a good laugh. One needs a good sense of humor to make it to 120.”
Rose is a member of the United Climate Action Network (UCAN) Steering Committee and the president of the Fenner Renewable Energy Education (FREE) Center.
UCAN is a grassroots group in New York’s 22nd Congressional District that advocates for environmentally sustainable policies and engages with businesses, schools, and other local community organizations to advance environmental literacy and sustainable practices. The FREE Center is a grassroots organization formed in late 2001 to educate the public on the benefits of renewable energy and other sustainable practices. The center is located on Bellinger Road near the 30-megawatt Fenner Wind Farm.
Rose also has a private counseling practice with offices in Syracuse and Cazenovia.
He wrote the first edition of “The 120 Club” around two decades ago while in-between jobs. Fifty-nine years old at the time, he had just completed eight years as a literacy specialist for Laubach Literacy Action and was able to take a year off to write.
“I woke up one day and had what we might call a moment of clarity and enlightenment,” said Rose. “I said to myself, ‘Why should I limit the length of time I would be alive?’ It was a very liberating thought. It changed my life forever. From this idea, my mind started figuring out how to make it to 120 and beyond. This is where my ‘10 Wisdoms’ came from. I needed to start now to avoid the crises of aging later in life.”
Rose recalled that he eagerly dug into all the literature he could find on aging and longevity, spending lots of time in both medical and public libraries.
According to Rose, 90 percent of the literature he read focused on diet and exercise with “a nod” to stress reduction through meditation.
“Yet, all those whose lives I read about and who lived very long lives had very full and complex lives,” he said. “I began to combine what I was learning from the scientists and specialists with my own experience and that of people who had lived a very long time.”
Last year, at the age of 76, Rose decided to update each section of his book with the knowledge he has gained since he first penned it.
“While the fundamental concepts remain unchanged, I’m older and wiser now and have fine-tuned my thinking,” said Rose. “What I have read or heard from others is interesting, especially the science, but I don’t agree with people who promote chemical or nutritional magic bullets on aging. While some of this is helpful, I have a more holistic approach to aging, especially when it comes to emotional healing as a path to ‘stress reduction.’ I’ve learned a great deal about this as a professional counselor. Now as a volunteer working on the climate crisis, I see the healing of the earth as connected to longevity. We can learn much from the earth.”
Electronic and paperback editions of Rose’s book are available at amazon.com.
To learn more about The 120 Club, visit the120club.com.
To join the club or participate in Rose’s seminars and workshops, email [email protected].
