Season 6 Episode 92

Listen to part 2 of our Create Your Best Life series and learn a simple way to increase your energy and enthusiasm and build your sense of vitality. 

Show Notes:

Episode Summary:

Do you have a zest for life? Are you energetic in body, mind and spirit? Are you enthusiastic? Do you want to be?

Today we are talking about how to create your best life by paying attention to one of three important buckets, the buckets you need in order to create your best life, today it’s your vitality bucket. What exactly is vitality and how do you get it?

Vitality is key to living a purposeful life. Listen to this episode because we are going to wake you and shake up everything you think you know about vitality!

In this episode:

This is the second episode in our series on Creating Your Best Life. In episode 91, we discussed Jonathan Fields three buckets metaphor for creating a good life from his book How to Live a Good Life. Those buckets are vitality, connection, and contribution.

The idea is that in order to create your best life, you need to have a balance of all the things in those three buckets. When one bucket empties too much, everything is out of balance. Your life satisfaction is lower and your happiness declines. The goal is to make sure you are refilling each of those buckets regularly.

Introduction:

Our topic today is vitality.

Michele: Paula, I’m pretty sure we have never used that word on this podcast before!

Paula: I am 100% convinced that we have not used that word ever on this podcast.

Michele: When I think of the word vitality, I think of the old classic TV show I Love Lucy. In one episode, Lucy is hired to star in a TV commercial for a tonic that will increase your vitality. It’s called Vitameatavegimin. Its slogan is “Spoon your way to health.”

Unbeknownst to Lucy, the main ingredient is alcohol. As she goes through the numerous takes, taking a spoonful of the tonic each time, she slowly becomes drunk. She starts out reading the script which says, “Are you tired, run down and listless?  Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular?  This tonic will solve all your problems.”

It later takes it comes out, “Are you tired, rundown and listless? Do you pop out at parties? Are you unpoopular?” By the end she can’t even talk straight!  Vitameatavegimin comes out as Vitaveatyvee meeny, miny, moe!  If you have never seen this episode, head over to You Tube and check it out. It is a good laugh!

Well today, we’re not trying to sell you a tonic. Nor are we recommending alcohol to solve all your problems! But we are going to talk about vitality. Not vitality you can buy in a tonic, but vitality you can find in your life.

What is vitality?

When we talk about vitality we mean being strong in body, mind, and soul. We mean the ability to be energetic and to grow. Think of a related term- your vital organs. Those are the organs most essential to life.

Here are some concepts that are connected to vitality:  Sleep. Exercise. Nutrition. Hydration. Movement. Strength. Mindfulness. Gratitude. Nature. Peace. Calm. Optimism. Breathing.

There are also words connected to vitality that are the opposite: stress. Anxiety. Burnout. Pain. Depression. Anxiety. Those are the things that affect vitality in negative ways.

Here are some lesser known or unexpected aspects of vitality:

It’s slowing down and paying attention. It’s having a growth mindset. It is about having purpose in your life because having purpose gives you energy.

Think about something that you love to do, something that is fun and that has meaning. How do you feel when you are doing it?

Michele: I find vitality when I am sailing-I definitely feel a zest for life, like I am alive and running on all cylinders. That’s a great feeling.

Paula: For me it is travel. When I am in a new place and learning new things, I feel alive. All of my sense come alive and I am full of energy. I know there are people who don’t love to travel, they don’t like to get on a plane or a train in a place they don’t know, but that energizes me. That brings vitality to me.

Michele:  I  agree with that. I also love to travel. Vitality is in the little challenges. I remember when we were invited to speak in Germany. We took trains around. Neither one of us speaks German, but we were able to figure out how to get the tickets and how to get around in Germany without a car. We conquered that challenge and at the end of the day, that feels good and gives you a lot of energy, it really does make you feel alive.

The things we love to do bring us that life force- that vitality, and definitely help to fill the vitality bucket.

Here is another example that came as a surprise. Being super conscious of all the negativity in the world, or all the problems, has a strong negative affect on your vitality. Negative things drain you. It’s negativity bias. What you focus on grows. The more negativity you see, the more you look for. It is a vicious cycle. It affects your vitality.

The opposite is also true. You can fill your vitality bucket by focusing on the positive. That’s what we want to focus on in this episode.

How to gain vitality by filling your vitality bucket:

You have likely heard all the advice about the importance of exercise, nutrition, hydration, sleep etc. Those things are certainly important and we both personally work on those areas in our own lives a lot. We aren’t health coaches, or medical professionals and so we will leave that discussion to experts in that area. Nor are we counselors who are trained to deal with trauma, depression or anxiety.

As educators, we have discussed stress and burn-out, both at presentations and workshops. We’ve also created podcast episodes for those topics. They are Episodes 7, Prevent, Eliminate and Reduce Stress, Episode 13. Mindset Shifts to Change Your Life,  Episode 16 Real-Self-care and Episode 39. Self-Care and Empathy with Books that Transform.  You can follow the links to those episodes to learn more about decreasing stress and burn-out.

Today we want to focus on the good stuff.

Filling your vitality bucket with positivity.

We have an activity for you today… but first let’s talk about why.

We want you to focus on the fun stuff, the positive things, the joyful things. Focus on things you love and things that make you happy. Choose the things that are meaningful to you. Choose things that light up your life!

When you choose you- and the things that you love, you value yourself. You value what you put in your head. When you look for all the good things, you feel more positive.

When you choose yourself, you will do what’s best for you. That includes things like healthy eating or exercising. You will become more mindful and make better choices. You stop ignoring your own wants and needs. So often we take care of others and ignore our own needs. Focusing on the positivity brings us back to ourselves and our needs.

The weariness lessens, and the lightness begins to grow.

You reconnect with yourself and become more concerned with what you think than what others think of you.

You become more vital as you examine who and what matter every single day. You remind yourself to do what is important, and what is special.

The Daily Joy Project:

Here is the activity!

Every day for the next thirty days, notice and comment on one positive or special thing you see or hear or experience. Maybe it is something that made you smile- or laugh. Choose something that made you happy or something playful. Choose something that allows you to express your real self. Make special note of it.

For 30 days, every day, focus on something positive that day.

Keep a photo on your phone.

You can post a picture on Facebook or Instagram.

You can write a note in your planner or calendar under each day.

You can write in a journal.

You can text a friend who is also doing the activity.

Here are some hints to help you accomplish this challenge to build joy and vitality:

We’ll be doing it with you. Watch our Inspired Together Teachers Instagram and Facebook pages. Like the post or send us hearts!

Try doing this with your students. Challenge them to bring in and share joyful moments or something special or happy things.

If you are not comfort doing in publicly, do it in private, but just do it.

Share with one friend and do the challenge together.

If you haven’t noticed anything,  your negativity bias might be kicking in. In that case, spend 2 minutes doing something you love. Paint. Read. Walk outside. Dance in the living room. Make a smoothie. Engage in a hobby that you love and do it for no other reason that you love it.

We’re not going for perfection. No judgement. If it speaks to you of joy, it’s yours.

Michele’s friend Teresa started a similar project in order to deal with the death of her son. She needed to focus on living during a very difficult time. She called her project “Extraordinary Moments”, and she posts something every day-it’s is now on day #2273 and counting. Her motto is, “Every day has extraordinary moments, you just have to look for them.”  She has talked about how this project has brought her joy and given her purpose and helped her to focus on the positive things in her life. We love the sentiment and the purpose of this project, and how such a simple thing can be very powerful.

We also encourage you to join us by finding your own joyful things or moments and share with us or share in our Facebook group. The links are below.

Conclusion:

We end this discussion of vitality with this quote from Jonathan Fields.

“Real happiness comes not when you choose to be happy, but when you discover the things that make you happy and then do them.”

Go out and look for what makes you happy, what fills you with joy and then find more of that in your life!

Recap:

If you want to create your best life, you need to be healthy in body, mind and spirit. If you want to be energetic, enthusiastic, and have a zest for life, you need to engage in things that light you up. You can fill your vitality bucket in hundreds of ways. Consider everything you know about physical and mental health and do those things, but don’t forget to look for the joy in every day.

Challenges are more fun when you do them with a friend or two. Share this podcast and this episode with a friend, and do The Daily Joy Project together!

Quote:

“Real happiness comes not when you choose to be happy, but when you discover the things that make you happy and then do them.”

Jonathan Fields

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More About Inspired Together Teachers:

Are you a teacher struggling to balance your best work with your best life?

If you are dedicated and caring but often overwhelmed and exhausted, join us at Inspired Together Teachers. We’ll give you inspiration, strategies and tips that help you navigate life’s challenges as a stronger, more confident, and more joy filled person, both in and out of the classroom.

Inspired Together Teachers will give you practical tools to experience more of what matters most in your life.

Co-hosts Paula Schmidt and Michele Vosberg are award winning educators with the experience and skills to help teachers thrive in life and work. They’ve taught at all levels, worked with thousands of teachers, and conducted workshops around the world. They are also the authors of the #1 best-selling book The Inspired Teachers Journal: A Weekly Guide to Becoming Your Best Self.

Paula and Michele would love to have you to join them on their quest to lived inspired lives.

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