Why talk about spirituality on a Healthy Living podcast? Because it’s a vital part of your health and happiness. How do you cultivate your spirituality? Being present. When are you present? Who knows - but if you’re not taking time to be present, you’re not likely to see your bigger purpose, what really fulfills you, or how you’re connected to The Bigger Picture. Listen in and dive into our first conversation on spirituality.
Trying to get healthy and stay healthy is f-ing hard! Everybody struggles with some aspect of it, no matter what they look like or what they tell you. There is no magic formula - a healthy lifestyle is a choice we need to make daily. Join Amy as she supports, informs, and entertains you on your journey toward health.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
[00:00:00] Hey, here's Amy J. I'm a nationally board certified health and wellness coach and this is Healthy AF.
[00:00:07] In this podcast, I'll be bringing you all things health from the newest health strategies to how to tackle those personal roadblocks that just will not let you move forward.
[00:00:18] So buckle in. We're going to be inspired and instructed and dad gum we're going to have a little fun on Healthy AF.
[00:00:26] Hey everybody and welcome to another episode of Healthy AF.
[00:00:32] I am so excited about this month all month we're going to be talking about spirituality.
[00:00:37] And you might think yourself why is a health coach talking about spirituality? Well let's just dig in and get real here for a minute.
[00:00:44] For one thing, it's on the Duke Will of Health, trained at Duke and I really love their will of health and they call it fulfillment in purpose.
[00:00:54] Now interestingly enough when I first became a health coach, they sure enough had it on the will of health and spirituality.
[00:01:00] And a couple of years later when they revamped, they renamed that section fulfillment in purpose.
[00:01:09] Fulfillment in purpose or spirituality or connectivity or feeling your source is so important.
[00:01:19] And you know you can find hundreds of research studies that say people who are the happiest have some sense of a larger belonging or a bigger purpose in their lives.
[00:01:32] And on the converse you can find lots of studies that say people who are struggling with depression and other mood issues are just feeling like me.
[00:01:43] Feel like they don't have a larger purpose or they don't know where they are.
[00:01:48] So I'm 51 right?
[00:01:51] I've had a long time to wonder what my purpose was.
[00:01:56] Think I knew my purpose realized actually know that wasn't my purpose then like oh that was my purpose then but it's not my purpose now and where am I going right?
[00:02:05] So it's a journey to be on.
[00:02:08] So how do you journey?
[00:02:10] And that's where most of my work comes in is that unless we take the time to actually carve out for ourselves.
[00:02:21] What our spirituality connectedness fulfillment and purpose in our lives is then we don't feel driven, inspired, comforted by any of that.
[00:02:43] So how do you do that?
[00:02:47] How do you discover your big, why am I on the planet?
[00:02:53] I mean that's a big huge question.
[00:02:56] Massive.
[00:02:58] And it is likely to be different when you're 50 than when you're 25.
[00:03:03] I know mine was shift.
[00:03:06] A lot has changed and you know I really kind of hope it's different when I'm 70 than it is now when I'm 50.
[00:03:18] So let's just talk a minute about how do you get there with all my work with people and with my own work with myself that's been the
[00:03:30] most time intensive is my work with myself and my own spirituality.
[00:03:38] Presence being present is a necessity.
[00:03:46] You can't discover your spirituality without being present.
[00:03:54] So the question is when are you present?
[00:03:58] I talk a lot about people living their lives asleep.
[00:04:03] I did.
[00:04:04] Total autopilot, total default mode.
[00:04:07] Everything was a reaction to whatever life was throwing it at, throwing at me.
[00:04:12] Like what did the kids need?
[00:04:14] Where did they need to go?
[00:04:15] What was their schedule?
[00:04:17] What did the husband need?
[00:04:18] What did work demand or volunteer demand?
[00:04:21] You know what did a friend ask me to do?
[00:04:24] And very little of my time was spent in real presence with myself and becoming aware of who am I and what is important to me.
[00:04:41] So when I talk to people about being present, I hear some common themes and we'll see if they're common for YouTube.
[00:04:51] I hear being still.
[00:04:55] I hear reading devotional.
[00:04:59] I hear being in church services or 12-step meetings.
[00:05:06] I hear out in nature.
[00:05:08] I hear out in nature a lot.
[00:05:11] Seems to be a really big driver.
[00:05:15] I also hear at the CrossFit gym.
[00:05:19] I hear sometimes when we're out walking, sitting with a friend in prayer, in meditation.
[00:05:30] You have some really common ones but here's the flip side.
[00:05:37] I also hear that sometimes we're not aware and awake and present when we are doing those things.
[00:05:50] The very thing that you used to feel so connected and drawn to and aware of yourself and aware of your purpose in the universe can also be done with a lack of experience.
[00:06:05] On the flip side, things that you never thought you would do to create your presence.
[00:06:18] Sometimes create your presence.
[00:06:20] I'll give you an example and I've said this one before.
[00:06:24] Maybe not this way.
[00:06:26] The other day I was at the gym and I've noticed that my life has been kind of max lately.
[00:06:34] I have a client who describes it as wash rinse repeat.
[00:06:39] It was kind of feeling wash rinse repeat, go, go, get stuff done, hit the to-do list.
[00:06:46] I hadn't been into the gym in a minute, probably three or four weeks.
[00:06:51] I got in there and the workout was a death by burpees which for those of you who don't know is one burpee on the first minute, two burpees.
[00:07:01] Then you rest the rest of that minute and then two burpees on the second minute, rest the rest of that minute, three burpees on the third, so on and so on.
[00:07:08] You got a 20 minutes now at some point you're not going to be able to do the burpees in that minute.
[00:07:15] For me that capped out at 11. I got to the 11th minute. I did my 11 burpees and I was like toast.
[00:07:22] So I rested for the 12th minute and then I chose the number 7.
[00:07:28] So I did seven burpees each minute for the rest of those minutes.
[00:07:34] Seven was just hard enough to keep me having to focus on getting the burpees done and then resting adequately before the next minute started.
[00:07:51] And I noticed how I wasn't thinking about anything else but getting through those burpees.
[00:08:01] And I stopped at the top of each minute before I started those burpees again and I checked in with me, hey Amy, do you still want to this?
[00:08:11] Because you don't have to do this if you don't want to do it anymore.
[00:08:15] And each minute I was just sort of said, okay, yeah, I kind of do want to do this so I kept going.
[00:08:23] A little bit afterward, I think it was later in the day I've gotten home, I've gotten a shower and started working and I noticed how full my creativity was.
[00:08:34] There was a little bit more of a bounce in my step, a little bit more positivity.
[00:08:38] And I felt more connected to me and I realized that when I am working out and I'm at a spot where I'm still in charge of whether or not I want to finish, I was still asking myself like, hey, I'm checking in with you.
[00:08:53] Do you want to do this?
[00:08:56] I'm not on cruise control, I'm having to put some effort in but also I'm not dying and zoning out like Amy just listened to the music and zone out it'll be done soon.
[00:09:08] I'm present.
[00:09:11] That was so clear for me that I could be present under those circumstances and it surprised me.
[00:09:21] So the point is sometimes when you're doing stuff that requires some focus, you do feel that sense of presence and connectivity.
[00:09:36] If you're not spending time in presence in yourself and becoming aware, I would even say, dare I say checking in right?
[00:09:48] Am I still doing what I want to do?
[00:09:51] Does this still feel good? Am I still willing to walk this path?
[00:09:56] What's my body telling me?
[00:09:59] What's my heart rate? How's my breathing feel? Is this something that I feel like serves a greater purpose?
[00:10:10] Do I feel connected? Who do I feel connected to?
[00:10:16] Is it animals? Is it trees? Is it the ocean?
[00:10:20] And one last thought.
[00:10:24] We've already said, well you can't really tap into that fulfillment and purpose if you don't have some times that you're present and you're checking in with yourself right?
[00:10:35] But also the question always comes up about well what about spirituality, religion, is it God?
[00:10:44] Is it stop the debate? It's on the will of health, okay. That tells you it's a key component to your health.
[00:10:56] If you're stuck in trying to figure out what specific belief system is the right belief system to put in your will of health so that you can have your spirituality and your fulfillment, just stop it.
[00:11:13] It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you ascribe to a Christian theology, it doesn't matter if you align more with a Buddhist framework.
[00:11:28] It doesn't matter if you simply go outside and feel connected and belonging to the universe.
[00:11:38] What matters is that you have a connection to something that is outside you, that also lives inside you and that is greater than just you.
[00:11:56] And that will help you remember like man, you're really super important. You matter.
[00:12:05] So get present and notice you because you are precious.
[00:12:12] And also your little just speck of dust.
[00:12:17] Thanks for being with me on this little head trip. I'm really curious what you're thinking about in your noggin right now and where you're out on your spirituality, your fulfillment, your purpose, how it's changed through the years.
[00:12:34] Whatever it is give yourself some grace.
[00:12:38] And for next time subscribe like and share. And thanks for being with me on Healthy AF.
[00:12:46] Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Healthy AF Podcast. I hope that it has helped you create a new possibility for your health and sets you into action to go get it.
[00:12:58] If you want more information or if you want to connect with me, visit my website at myhealthylife.coach.
[00:13:05] And don't forget to hit the subscribe button so that each new Healthy AF episode will be sent directly to you.
[00:13:13] Let's take you from where you are to where you want to go.