Resilience & Longevity
Support your brain and body - so you can keep doing what matters through all of life’s ups and downs.
To live well, we need resilience—the ability to recover and adapt. This depends on how well our brain and body systems work together, respond to stress, restore balance, and protect long-term health.
This page introduces practical ways to support your brain and body so you can keep doing what matters to you.
How Resilience Supports Longevity
Resilience is the ability to respond to life’s demands with strength and stability—physically, mentally, and emotionally. As we age, this becomes more important for staying well and able to do what matters most.
Resilience depends on how well key systems in the brain and body are working together. These include:
- The nervous system, which regulates stress, rest, and recovery
- The visual and balance systems, which keep us steady and safe
- Movement and coordination systems, which support strength and independence
- The immune system, which helps us heal and stay protected
When these systems are supported and connected, they form a strong foundation for long-term health, energy, and confidence in daily life.
ThriveNinety’s PEDAL™ approach
Simple, science-backed approach
that provides a framework for what your brain and body need to stay resilient. Each element supports key systems - like the nervous system, the visual and balance systems, the proprioceptive system, and the immune system. Used in combination, they reinforce each other, creating a rhythm where each element helps the others work more effectively. Over time, using simple tools that touch these five elements offers a steady cadence that becomes the foundation for being resilient, living well, and maintaining vitality.
PEDAL™ Your Cadence for Resilience:
-
Pacing: Protect your energy by understanding your body’s signals at a deeper level and knowing when your system is overtaxed. This includes balancing physical and mental activity but also managing environmental stressors.
-
Exercise: Gentle, consistent movement to maintain brain-body connections, muscle strength, balance, movement control, and general capacity.
-
Diet: Food and approaches that lower inflammation, stabilize blood sugar, and give your body the building blocks for repair.
-
Alignment of the nervous system: Practices that regulate overactive stress response of the autonomic nervous system that also support sleep, focus, and emotional steadiness.
-
Loosen: Movements, stretches, and breathwork to release tension held in tissues, and improve flow and circulation.
Three Tools to Try Right Now
Click on the links at the bottom of each section and follow the video to feel the benefits.
Ankle Movement Control
Mobility exercises that focus on movement control train the body to use a joint’s available range with precision, improving stability, coordination, and load-sharing across tissues. They support enhanced brain-body functions.
Smooth Eye Movements
Eye exercises strengthen the connection between the eyes, brain, and body, supporting better focus, balance, and coordination. They can improve how efficiently we process visual information and adapt to changes in our environment. Smooth Pursuits track a moving target with steady eye movement.
Activated Stretch
Activated stretches combine lengthening with gentle muscle engagement, which helps nourish tissue and allows fascia to move smoothly, improve joint stability, and enhance neuromuscular coordination. This active approach teaches the body to control and enhance its range of motion rather than just passively access it.
We at ThriveNinety™ offer free resources, live workshops, and programs with expert-led guidance to help you build resilience at your own pace. Everything we do is grounded in science, lived experience, and practical support so that you can build sustainable habits with real impact.
Please reach out to us if you have questionsWho is ThriveNinety:
Andrea Henkel Burke is a former biathlete who has won two Olympic gold medals and eight World Championship titles representing Germany. Throughout her extensive competitive career, she gained invaluable experience in overcoming setbacks and understanding how to optimize physical performance. Andrea is also an expert in nutrition, a seasoned personal trainer, and a certified therapist in psychoneuroimmunology. She is renowned for her ability to distill complex topics into clear, actionable insights. Passionate about healthy living, Andrea’s goal is to be skiing beyond the age of 90. She is driven by her dedication to supporting her own health and the well-being of her clients.
Katie Brennan is an economist, analyst, and strategist with nearly 25 years of professional experience in the US and UK, including over a decade with the National Health Service in England. She has collaborated closely with clinical leaders, patients, and academics to find innovative solutions to complex health issues, improve health outcomes, and provide better value care. In March 2020, Katie first experienced Long COVID, facing symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, breathing difficulties, elevated heart rate, and brain fog. When diagnostic tests and clinical advice did not offer a path to improvement, Katie utilized her professional background and research skills to seek solutions. Her journey towards recovery, enhanced by her collaboration with Andrea, transformed her understanding of complex but simple tools that support longevity and well-being. Katie is now committed to sharing her knowledge to help others affected by post-infection conditions and supporting people who want to be resilient to live their best life.
