🌿 How to Age Playfully and Live with Ancestral Wisdom | Hilda Labrada Go...

What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About Aging Well

In this beautiful conversation, I sat down with Hilda Labrada Gore, host of the Wise Traditions Podcast from the Weston A. Price Foundation, to explore a question that feels more relevant than ever.

What if aging was never meant to be something we fear, fight, or medicalize?

Hilda has spent years learning from traditional cultures around the world, communities that live long, vibrant, and joyful lives without modern diets, supplements, or the constant pursuit of anti aging fixes. What she shares is not a protocol or a biohack. It is a remembering.

Again and again, ancient cultures show us that vitality is not something you chase. It is something you live into.

Aging as a Natural Stage, Not a Decline

One of the most striking themes in our conversation was how differently traditional societies view aging. In many of the communities Hilda has visited, getting older is not associated with loss, irrelevance, or fragility. It is associated with wisdom, contribution, and deeper connection.

Elders are not sidelined. They are consulted. Revered. Included.

This alone changes how the body ages. When people feel needed and valued, their posture, energy, and sense of purpose remain intact. Aging becomes an expansion rather than a contraction.

Play, Movement, and Joy as Daily Medicine

Another powerful lesson from ancient cultures is how naturally movement is woven into daily life. Not structured workouts. Not gym routines. Just constant, purposeful motion.

Walking. Carrying. Squatting. Dancing. Laughing.

Hilda shared how elders in traditional societies continue to move well into old age because movement is not something they do. It is part of who they are. The phrase use it or lose it is not motivational. It is simply how the body works.

There is also play. So much play. Joy is not reserved for childhood. It is a lifelong expression, and it shows in how these communities age.

Nourishment Beyond Modern Diets

We also talked about food, specifically what a truly nourishing ancestral diet looks like. This includes foods that modern culture often fears or avoids, like raw milk, organ meats, and properly prepared traditional foods.

In traditional cultures, food is not about restriction or rules. It is about nourishment. It is about mineral density, fat soluble vitamins, and foods prepared with care and wisdom passed down through generations.

These diets support strong bones, resilient skin, fertility, and long term health without calorie counting or food guilt.

Connection to the Earth and the Body

Grounding, time outdoors, natural light, and connection to the rhythms of nature are not wellness trends in ancient cultures. They are daily life.

Being barefoot. Feeling the earth. Living in sync with the day and night cycle. These inputs regulate the nervous system, hormones, and mood without effort.

When these connections are lost, we see it reflected in modern stress, anxiety, and accelerated aging.

Mindset Shapes Biology

Perhaps one of the most important insights from our conversation was the role of mindset. Traditional cultures do not obsess over aging. They do not define themselves by wrinkles or numbers. There is an ease and acceptance that allows the body to age more gracefully.

Fear tightens the system. Trust softens it.

A positive mindset is not about ignoring reality. It is about how we interpret and respond to it. And that response shapes biology more than we realize.

Family Wisdom and Living Legacy

Hilda also shared deeply personal stories about her parents, family health, and the wisdom that gets passed down when generations stay connected. In traditional societies, family knowledge is not outsourced. It is lived, observed, and shared.

There is something profoundly stabilizing about knowing where you come from and honoring those who came before you.

A Gentle Reminder

This episode is not about rejecting modern life or romanticizing the past. It is about remembering what the body already knows.

Aging does not have to mean decline. It can mean returning to what is natural, rhythmic, nourishing, and human.

If this conversation resonates with you, I invite you to listen to the full episode. It is a gentle but powerful reminder that vitality is not something we manufacture. It is something we reconnect with.

And perhaps aging well is less about doing more, and more about coming home to what we have forgotten.