While good health enhances and helps signify vitality, it
can’t deliver all of vitality’s benefits. So, what is the secret to sustaining our vitality or getting it back?
Reconnecting with What Nourishes
Dan Buettner, bestselling author of The Blue Zones, is an expert on human longevity and vitality. He’s found that vitality has as much to do with social, emotional and mental health as with physical habits. For instance, diet and exercise play a big part in vitality, but so do things like a sense of life purpose, spirituality and community.
Identifying vitality zappers is equally important. Con-
stance Grauds, a registered pharmacist, shamana (female sha- man) and author of Jungle Medicine, explains that traditional medicine men believe human disease and suffering is caused by disconnection and that its root is a core fear, or susto. She believes that most Americans are chronically afflicted by susto, living in the grip of one type of fear or another virtually all the time. Grauds suspects that Americans’ excess susto has some- thing to do with chronic anxieties, pressures and “little fears” they face every day: job stress, money worries, social pres- sures, relationship troubles and so on. The net outcome is a massive vitality drain. To plug “energy leaks,” we need to build connections to the things that energize and sustain us, such as meditation or prayer, healthy food, loving relationships and mindful exercise, says Grauds. “Energy and vitality come from the joyful things we do in life that are simple, free and right under our noses,” she observes, “like petting your dog, watering your garden and taking a few deep breaths. “Vitality is a measure of the life force within you,” she continues. “When we’re connected to our sources of vitality, not only do we have more energy to be more active and get more done, but we’re engaged, we’re present. We feel that flow of life force pumping through us.”
Where to Start
Americans are slowly waking up to the fact that we need
to value our vitality more deeply or we risk losing it. It’s best to review vitality zappers and enhancers daily or weekly and repair minor leaks before a trickle becomes a torrent. We can start by finding a place of stillness. Consider meditating, keeping a journal, praying or just walking in the woods while asking our self how we are doing and feeling and what we are missing or longing for. Listen for the signals that say certain connections may have come loose, and that other factors may be pulling too strongly. “Plugging into life is the key to more vitality,” says Grauds. “Find ways to connect to the world outside yourself.”
Catherine Guthrie is a freelance writer based in Bloomington, IN. Connect at CatherineGuthrie.com.
May 2010
27
7 Ways to Spark Vitality
n Get outside n Cultivate community n Be a lifelong learner n Stay calm n Honor promises
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