Gladys McGarey, 102, has watched many lives begin and die.

She has watched the deliveries of thousands of infants throughout the world as a certified physician and birthing specialist. She has also witnessed the deaths of her ex-husband and several of her own five children.

She is now living in a bright home in her daughter’s backyard in Arizona, where she has built a profession she claims will help her achieve her 10-year goal. She wrote about it in her latest book, “The Well Lived Life: A 102-Year-Old Doctor’s Six Secrets to Health and Happiness at Every Age,” and took Insider on a tour of her daily routine. “They didn’t tell me I had to stop talking,” she added, despite the fact that the doctor no longer had a license to practice medicine.

Her day begins with prayer, raisins, and prune juice.

McGarey starts most days the same way: she gets up, says a morning prayer, climbs down the stairs, and has Raisin Bran and prune juice for breakfast.

“I have salad for lunch and some kind of soup or something for dinner,” she said later in the day to Insider. “It’s my routine, and I believe it works for me.” It is critical for each of us to discover what works best for us.”

Throughout the day, she keeps her hands and mind occupied.
McGarey knits on a daily basis to keep her hands busy during the day.

“I can’t see knit patterns now because my eyes don’t work,” she explained, “but I can knit little gifts for people, and that keeps my hands busy.” “If I don’t keep my hands busy, I do something on my phone, which makes people all tense, you know?”

She also continues to consult and adheres to the “holistic” approach to medicine that she helped develop in the United States in the 1970s. McGarey thinks that healing requires addressing the whole individual, including their emotional and social states as well as any physical signs of suffering.

McGarey listens to audiobooks or chats with friends when she’s not knitting or consulting, which aging experts believe is important for human pleasure and can help us live longer lives.

And she just received a stem cell injection, which she believes has improved her vigor, but scientists are still accumulating information to establish if this therapy genuinely helps halt aging.

“I’m not really robust and sturdy, but I think it’s helped me, and I’m looking forward,” she explained.

She believes that developing a 10-year plan is essential for good aging.

Finally, discovering your fundamental purpose, a life “juice” that is your mission, and what you will attempt to achieve with your time on Earth is, according to McGarey, the most crucial component of aging successfully.

She now utilizes her “juice” to think about how to improve how people live together and care for one another. Her personal 10-year plan, which she believes everyone should have, involves establishing a hamlet for “living medicine,” in which the elderly, newborns, and everyone in between may live together and care for one another more happily.

“A ten-year plan allows for everything,” she said in her book. “It has a wide enough reach to keep our life force active.” But it’s near enough that we can pull it off, brush ourselves up, and start over.”

She isn’t concerned about what her last “number” of years on Earth may be. Instead, she keeps her gaze fixed on what’s next.

“I still believe I have work to do, and I intend to keep working at it,” she stated.