Work: The Quest for Vitality

"The key to effectively handling pressure or change is to manage your energy."
— Peter Drucker

Vital Body, Vital Mind
Vitality is a "personal issue." Hence, vitality is a character issue. A pure leadership issue. All of the people who either work for you, or work with you, are looking at the way you spend your time — as well as the way you spend your energy. The way you spend your time and the way you manage your energy, illustrates exactly what you care about.

If you care about work, leadership, making a difference — then you must engage, participate and commit — to your Self!

Here are some tips, tools and advice from some of the top people in the wellness industry. There are three main categories they touch upon in the quest for vitality.

1) Diet/Nutrition

2) Managing Your Energy — Stress Management, Sleep, Exercise

3) Consciousness Work

Take them all to heart. See how they fit with your attitudes and beliefs. Then, try something new. It may bring about powerful health changes — in your life and in your work.

1. Personalize your Diet

a) Food Habits
Never skip a meal. You want your body to build itself up, not break itself down, according to Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. The idea is to eat the right amount of food more frequently throughout the day. Protein is the main material to rebuild your body. Every time you eat a meal, you need to eat a protein, a real carbohydrate, and a healthy fat. This is a balanced meal or snack. Eating a protein without a carbohydrate breaks you down. Eating a carbohydrate without protein builds too much fat. Eating balanced amounts of them together is the key to keeping your energy vital.

b) Supplements
Dr. Schwarzbein reminds us that as we age, our ability to process food and make orthomolecular molecules becomes less efficient. Therefore, supplements are not only beneficial they are necessary. The core supplements she recommends for people with a healthy metabolism are:

• A multivitamin and mineral
• Omega-3 fatty acids
• Stress B complex
• Calcium and magnesium

People under large amounts of stress can use additional supplements to help the body function better by reversing oxidation, improving mood and energy, and helping the body build lean body

tissue and burn fat. (See The Program by Diana Schwarzbein, M.D. Health Communications, 2004)

2. Manage Your Energy

a) Stress Management
Stress is harmful to your health. "Being busy" is a stress. And being busy is one of the most common obstacles to finding ways to reduce your stress. You can't get rid of all your stress, but you can definitely learn how to manage it.

One of the keys to "thriving in tumultuous conditions at work" is the ability to manage your energy, and your emotions. Emotional intelligence — EQ — is a business skill. Can you be steady when things are difficult, challenging, or emotionally rough and confused?

In her book Emotional Yoga, Bija Bennett offers an entire program of practices, emotional inquiries, self-observations, physical exercises, breathing techniques, meditations and rituals that can help you:

• Take responsibility in shaping who you are and what you feel.
• See your emotional experiences as feelings and moods, rather than "how things are."
• Open yourself to the possibility of healing troubling or challenging emotions.
• Change your attitudes and beliefs.
• Understand how your emotions can help you to develop character, intelligence and wisdom.
• Increase your Emotional Intelligence.

(See Emotional Yoga: How the Body Can Heal the Mind, by Bija Bennett, Simon& Schuster, 2002)

In addition to developing emotional intelligence, there is another critical element to reducing your stress. And that is: getting enough sleep to give your body the rest it needs.

Not sleeping enough is a physical stress that hugely impacts your health, and your work.

b) The Power of Sleep
Dr. Rubin Naiman, in his book Healing Night (Syren Book Co., 2006) gives us a startling summary of the present epidemic of sleep disorders that take a substantial toll on our health, well-being and productivity.

"Disordered sleep, suppressed dreams, and disturbed awakenings all tangle together into a dense obstruction of awareness...Our very consciousness is damaged and downsized. We lose sight of the bigger picture, our peripheral vision, our imagination. Far too many of us live in a kind of foggy bubble — a chronic, low- grade, and insidious daze. But somehow, we manage to conjure sufficient energy to

maintain our relentless drive."

A few essential sleep tips:

• Control light and darkness — for dusk, use dimmer switches to lower light levels. For evening, lower black out blinds. For dawn, use drape draw timers.
• Proper bed placement is essential for your space. The art of Vastu says that your head should be pointing East.
• Use lavender oil to relax.
• Avoid caffeinated beverages in the afternoon or evening.
• Do something relaxing before bed — take a warm bath, meditate, read.
• Over exercising late in the day can over stimulate your body.
• Refined sugar is also a stimulant. If you are not falling asleep easily, or find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, stop or decrease your alcohol intake.
• And work on stress management techniques.

Most importantly, start by making the time to sleep and give yourself enough hours in bed. Get at least eight hours of sleep every night — more if you are sleep deprived.

c) Exercise
The best exercise depends upon the needs and interests of the individual. There is no "ideal" exercise. For the purpose of metabolic healing and health, Dr. Schwarzbein recommends a moderate cross-training exercise program that incorporates resistance, flexibility, along with an average amount of stimulating cardiovascular exercise.

Helpful Exercise Tips:

• Vary your exercise routine to keep it interesting and to avoid overuse injuries.
• Exercise three to five days a week, rotating your exercise routines.
• If possible, keep your workout schedule consistent to around the same time of day.
• Work out with a personal trainer if you have a hard time keeping to a schedule.
• Have the proper shoes and equipment for your chosen activity.
• Learn some breathing techniques and allow the breath to initiate your movement.

And the best time to exercise is: whenever you can!

3. Always Choose Consciousness

From a spiritual perspective, practicing your "internal work" — every day — transforms your sense of purpose,

activating, on a regular basis, a higher sense of why you are here and why you are doing what you are doing.

It is always good to ask, what is my role in my work? Does it align with my soul? Or is it just about my goal? Inquiring into the deeper purpose of your work and asking fundamental questions about your higher identity and intention, keeps you aligned with your highest professional endeavor.

When you remember who you really are, you remember your interconnectedness with everyone and everything. Whether you are an employee or an employer, it is your job to transform your workplace into a place of empowerment, creativity, imagination and joy.

See the opportunities that are always lying around. Is it an opportunity or a chance to address an issue that strategically affects the entire organization? Is it a chance to do something great, not only for yourself, but for others? It's all about attitude. How you answer that question, says everything about who you are and how you see the world.

"Shifting the workplace from a hierarchical structure of domination and competition to a new paradigm system of cooperation and partnership is a spiritual challenge for our generation," says author Marianne Williamson.

"From more enlightened work relationships will emerge more enlightened goals...We will work to re-create our society in the image of our better selves, and then we will know that the meaning of work, and the joy of work, lies in dedicating our work to (God)."