When I learned that Dick Van Dyke — the singing, dancing star of classic films like “Mary Poppins” — would be 100 years old next month, I knew I had to get him on the phone.
I grew up watching his movies on repeat, and I wanted to hear how he felt about hitting the century mark.
Van Dyke was born during the Coolidge administration and still remembers the ice man from his childhood who made his deliveries in a horse-drawn wagon. “I’m a super-old,” he joked.
How did he make it this far? While genetics have most likely helped, he also practices evidence-based longevity habits. He details them in his new book, “100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist’s Guide to a Happy Life.”
Some aspects of aging have been difficult, the Emmy, Tony and Grammy winner told me. He wears a hearing aid, and his eyesight is dimming. “When you reach 100, a lot of things don’t work too well,” he said. But “sometimes I feel like I’m 15 again,” he added.
He shared his secrets while relaxing in his Los Angeles bedroom, sipping a cup of coffee with his customary five lumps of sugar.
“Yes, you heard that right,” he said.
He stays active.
It’s well documented that regular exercise increases your chances of a long life and Van Dyke tries to move every single day. He goes to the gym three days a week to do circuit training, he said, and sometimes, as he moves from one machine to the next, he busts out a soft-shoe dance.
If he needs extra motivation to hit the gym, he said that he’ll promise himself he can have a power nap as a reward.
In between gym days, he does yoga and stretching. “The doctors can’t believe it when I touch my toes,” he said.
He commits to being playful.
Van Dyke’s approach to aging, he said, “is that I try to avoid being the ‘get off my lawn’ guy.” Instead, he taps into his sense of playfulness, which “keeps me connected to the child inside me,” he writes.
Playfulness, he told me, “gives you a sense of fun and freedom,” no matter how you feel physically. And research suggests that it lowers stress and improves well-being. Van Dyke looks for moments during the day to be playful, whether it’s chances to crack jokes or to make a toddler laugh in the supermarket line.
He also has three cats and a dog. “Pets just lift your spirits,” he said, which is a claim backed by evidence.
And he adds levity to his life by singing every day, which has been shown to reduce stress. “I hum, too,” he said. “It does everything for my mental health.”
He says yes.
Being open to new experiences as an older adult may be good for your brain health and emotional well-being. For Van Dyke, that means saying yes to things as often as you can.
When a local theater asked him to direct grade-school children, he immediately accepted. Last year he agreed to dance — nimbly, and barefoot — in a Coldplay video called “All My Love,” directed by Spike Jonze and Mary Wigmore.
It can be tempting to dwell in the past, he explained, but saying yes keeps him firmly in the present and the future.
So does having an open mind, he said. Van Dyke’s assistant uses the pronouns “they” and “them.” This “took some getting used to,” Van Dyke writes, but he said he embraced it.
It’s tempting to resist change, he added, “but you do really have to keep your mind open as you get older, especially to new ideas.”
He maintains his connections.
Keeping your social ties strong is a key to aging well, and Van Dyke makes an effort to sustain his relationships.
He told me that he’s constantly “scheming” to get his grandchildren and great-grandchildren over to his house, and that he wants his backyard to feel like a theme park. His next projects: a rope swing and a zip-line.
“Just hearing them all out there squealing gives me such joy,” he writes.
And for 25 years, Van Dyke has sung in an a cappella group called the Vantastix. The other guys are all decades younger, “which has a rejuvenating effect,” Van Dyke said.
He works hard to sustain his friendships, although he doesn’t have any pals his age. Attention, centenarians: “I’m in the market for some 100-year-old friends,” Van Dyke said.
Fortunately, his friend Mel Brooks, the director, is turning 100 next year.
And Sir David Attenborough, the British naturalist, turns 100 in May. Dick, maybe you should reach out.
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Jancee Dunn, who writes the weekly Well newsletter for The Times, has covered health and science for more than 20 years.
The post How to Live to 100, According to Dick Van Dyke appeared first on New York Times.
