Running Out of Gas? Promoting Your Personal Vitality

Not enough time in the days? Not your usual energetic self? Fatigue setting in?

Maybe it’s time for that body tune up. Refill the tank, fix some old worn parts – you get the idea. Sounds pretty good, eh?

We each have a particular vital force within us that is unique. Like finger prints, each person is different from one another because of a host of factors but before we get into that topic, let’s look at the larger picture.

Biological systems resemble the design that we have put into our other energy powered systems. So for the sake of illustration, let’s say our body works like an automobile engine. A whole bunch of complex parts requiring specific conditions to work. Leave out one of those conditions and it’s a no-go situation.

Put all of those ideal conditions together however and you have an operating machine.

In auto engines, we can call this “running”. We know that it is present when the engine works but there is no specific part that can be called “running”. It is just part of the function of the machine and not an individual part.

In the same way, your body has a great number of parts and functions that provide us with a working model that, in holistic circles, is referred to as “vitality”. The sum of the functions being greater than the number of parts, this is our biology’s value-added program.

Now vitality is an elusive thing once we go to look for it. We cannot create it but we know when it is present in our bodies because things work. We have brain activity, respirations, heartbeats, etc. but we also recognize that it does not stop there. The variability of vital functions varies from one individual to another.

The absence of vitality is something we refer to as “death” because the functions have ceased. Somewhere along that spectrum between death and the beginning of vitality (birth), is where we live.

As you may have figured, our vitality is dependent upon a number of factors, not least of which is our physical make up. Someone who has abused themselves with toxic substances like smoking, alcohol, poor nutrition, and other toxins, will have a much lower vitality than someone who has cared for themselves better. Factor in genetic predispositions and things get pretty complicated but we start to see why some people get sick and others don’t when exposed to the same situation or illness.

So there is not some new age magic or other special magic bullet that improves our vitality on its own. Health and vitality do not come from a pill or concoction. They come from caring for the bodies we have with the supports necessary to strengthen them. Eating balanced diets from nutritious sources, getting adequate rest and exercise, and engaging in positive social interactions all go to restoring our bodies and keep us up and “running”.