Reflection 1:
What sparks aliveness in you?
HEALTH CONCEPT: The Importance of Renewal, Leisure, Enjoyment for Health
Has anyone ever asked you that question? WHAT SPARKS ALIVENESS IN YOU?
Or perhaps some other version like: What do you absolutely love to do? What brings you joy? What will cause you to lose track of time? What really renews you?
All of these questions get at a very significant part of the MIND-SPIRIT aspects of living life in a manner that brings about renewal and joy and other positive emotions. From a health standpoint,
positive emotions and activities that bring about that sense of enjoyment and renewal are health promoting. Studies have shown that the health benefits to leisure activities that one enjoys are numerous, and include reduced stress, improved mood, improved productivity, decreased heartrate to name just a few. Any activity that can bring about a decrease in stress has a direct impact on positive emotions of enjoyment bring about the relaxation response in the body which counteracts the stress response.
While we know the benefits to doing that which sparks aliveness in us, we often do not take the time to put these activities and experiences into our lives. Why is that? The reasons can be numerous! However, it does come down to prioritizing self-care—prioritizing what is in your long-term best interest.
Coaching Challenge:
This past January, I was asked similar questions by my practice partner, Dr. Greg. He and his wife, Michelle, our nurse, were going to be away with family for a week and Dr. Greg said to me, “Karen, you should consider getting away in February and do something you’ve always wanted to do or go somewhere you’ve always wanted to go! What would bring you real renewal?”
I truly struggled with that question! And as a good coach does, he let me sit in the uncomfortableness of not being able to immediately answer a powerful life question. Also, he did not let me off the hook for exploring that question for possible answers. He encouraged me to reflect on what truly sparks “aliveness” for me and asked probing questions to help me walk around in possibilities that resonated for me. I truly struggled with coming up with a place to go or something specific to do. I thought of beach vacations, warm destinations, but nothing specific and concrete came to me as renewing and “sparking aliveness”. I struggled with considering who I might ask to go with me on vacation, and also realizing it was short notice.
What was really at the core of the difficulty, however, was not the specifics of a place to go and a thing to do, but there were deeper questions blocking my ability to decide on time away. That is often the case when we struggle with life decisions and life situations - - there often are deeper issues at play and other questions that would be helpful to ask and answer before you can answer the original question! Many of these issues that block us in making choices in our life can be unconscious. They often have roots in our prior life experiences and in patterns of thinking and behaviors we have developed through our lives, but that are not serving us well in our present circumstances. For me, I couldn't make an enthusiastic decision until I understood some of deeper questions I needed to answer first, such as:
“What feelings do you experience when you think about taking time away?”
“What messages do you hear in your inner dialogue when you think about spending time specifically focused on your own renewal, recreation, and self-care?”
“What do you need to let go of so that you can enthusiastically embrace arranging your time away?
“What do you love to do and how can you incorporate that into time away?
Oh my! This was some deep inner work! Yet, it was so transforming as I worked through the answers to these questions. No wonder I was having difficulty deciding where to go and what to do with some time off! I was struggling because I had some past thought processes, behavior patterns, and triggers that involved self-care and vacation time, and these were no longer
serving me. As I worked through the above questions, it was clear to me that I had some feelings of guilt for taking a break, feelings of not deserving a long break because being productive has always been a high value and priority in my life, often at the expense of my own health and well-being. My inner dialogue swirled around these negative and restricting thought and behavior patterns. Once I was able to name these false messages and past life patterns, I was able to change that internal dialogue and messaging to what was actually true and authentic - - that taking time away for renewal actually brings greater energy and effectiveness….that everyone, including me, deserves to take a break and do things that bring “aliveness”….and that time away on a solo vacation can be a real adventure, can be a retreat-like experience that can bring about healing and growth, and that this would be a great opportunity to celebrate the life I find myself living after some seismic life changes in the past few years. What a shift in perspective!
Once I was able to name what was holding me back, refute the negative messaging as "not true", and reframe the whole experience as an adventure for real renewal and exploration, I was able to make some incredible choices that have been life transforming! I could then start to answer the original questions and take action to make it happen.
What sparks aliveness in you?
What is someplace you want to go or something you really want to do?
What would bring you real renewal?
Something that sparks aliveness for me is biking! I find great joy in cycling and re-discovered this activity about 8 years ago. In the nice weather, I often bike 15-30 miles a few times a week, especially around Presque Isle and in the McKean region near Erie. Biking is a big part of my life.
It is also happened to be winter in Erie and I definitely wanted warm weather! So, I looked up the best cycling areas in the warm part of the country and ended up with Tucson, Arizona—listed the cycling capital of the south! They have a beautiful 153-mile paved dedicated bicycling / jogging/ walking path that surrounds the whole city and even traverses through some desert terrain in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains! I made arrangements and had the most wonderfully renewing time biking the Tucson LOOP and hiking in the state and national parks —a true adventure that brought about deep joy as I embraced doing that which sparks aliveness in me! Had I not spent time delving into powerful questions, I may not have had the insights and clarity needed to choose this renewal time away doing that which I love. And from a health standpoint, doing something you love doing reduces stress and its negative impacts. In our practice, we use a biofeedback device called Heartmath that measures heartrate variability, which is a biomarker for looking into our autonomic nervous system and stress response. As the week went on, my heartrate variability values improved, giving hard data to what we all know is true - - spending time in activities for self-care, renewal,
and enjoyment brings about improved mood and greater health and well-being!
COACHING CHALLENGE:
Take some reflective time to answer these questions for yourself:
WHAT SPARKS ALIVENESS IN YOU?
What is someplace you want to go or something you really want to do?
What would bring you real renewal?
What do you need to do to take action to make your renewal a reality?
If you have trouble answering these questions, visit the other questions in the green type above and do some inner work around what feelings come up for you, any negative inner messaging, and what you might have to let go of in order to take action on bringing more “aliveness” into your life. Then return to these questions in the Coaching Challenge after gaining some insights and clarity.
Integrative Medicine Practice: Quick Coherence
A practice to support you in bringing awareness to what sparks “aliveness” in you, to improve your overall health and well-being.
Bringing into your mind positive feelings, positive memories, positive experiences can bring about a relaxations response and can improve a biometric value called Heartrate Variability. Heartrate variability (HRV) is the variation of time between each heartbeat. A healthy balance between the sympathetic nervous system (stress response) and the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation response) results in greater beat to beat variability. When a person is stressed, the sympathetic nervous system gets activated and takes over, and the beat to beat variability decreases.
HeartMath is a biofeedback program that uses heartrate variability in its calculation of a biometric measure called Heart Coherence. Poor Heart Coherence values (or HRV) is associated with poor health, while a greater Heart Coherence value (or HRV) is associated with better health. Emotions such as frustration result in poor heart coherence with a resulting chaotic heartrate variability tracing. Positive emotions, such as appreciation, produce good heart coherence values and an ordered sine wave-like tracing indicating good balance between the symptathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
You can improve your Heart Coherence (HRV) through mindfulness techniques that activate positive emotions. One technique called Quick Coherence is described below.
We recommend practicing this mindfulness technique at least twice a day, and more often during stressful situations.
Mindfulness Technique—QUICK COHERENCE: (1-5 minutes, or longer as desired)
STEP 1: Heart Focused Breathing: Focus your attention in the area of your heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area. Breathing a little slower and deeper than usual. (Breath in 5 seconds & breath out 5 seconds).
STEP 2: Activate a Positive or Renewing Feeling: Make a sincere attempt to experience a positive or regenerative feeling, such as appreciation or care for someone or something in your life. You can also choose to visualize a place or experience or memory that generates a positive feeling, something that sparks a feeling of “aliveness” in you.
Author of Reflection: Dr. Karen M. Willenbring MD, On^Point Integrative Medicine, Erie, PA
For Continuing Medical Education (CME) Credits for this Reflection#1 in the Integrative Insights for Better Health and an Inspired Life Written Reflection Series, please email us at info@onpointimed.com and request the CME link to be emailed to you.
Each Reflection in the series has 2 Category 1 AMA PRA Credits available.
Cost is $50 for the 2 credits. Make checks payable to: On^Point .
Mail to: On^Point Integrative Medicine, 510 Cranberry St., Suite 220, Erie, PA 16507
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