the Vitalist Lifestyle
The vitalist lifestyle is a modern term for the multidimensional approach to living with the central theme that all life is powered by an intrisic vital life force - an energetic essence that sustains health, vitality and consciousness - and making consistent daily lifestyle choices dedicated to supporting this energetic source.
In Ayurveda this is called cultivating prana, by emphasizing harmony with nature, preventative care and living in alignment with your body’s natural rhythms. Seeking and maintaining vitality is not unique to any one culture or region, the paradigm of vital essence is represented in Traditional Chinese Medicine with qi and no doubt many other cultural traditions where humans studied the science of life.
Our life force energy needs intentional care, or it will be diminished and lost within the fast currents of modern culture. It is by supporting our vital life force, prana or qi, that we can support the body’s innate healing intelligence. We need more than getting enough servings of fruits and vegetables to bolster the immune system (although this is a simple reductive example) or taking omega 3 or turmeric supplements. There’s so many avenues into the vitalist lifestyle, we all just need to find the right fit for ourselves in the moment, and prioritize that moment, as there will always be competing priorities.
Mind-body practices, whether traditional pranayama or modern holotropic breath work are methods to stimulate and tone the vagus nerve and access biochemical pathways to promote the hybrid strong-calm vibration of resilience we all need more of. Sleep, in terms of consistent deep rest is a daily restorative practice, the actual temporal window where our body heals best, though can be so elusive in modern lifestyle. Promoting ciruclation via exercise or rediscovery of old traditions like cold plunging (my home choice is the Aquavoss model 2), sauna, contrast therapy, self massage “abyangha”, are all verified by modern science to stimulate lymph flow and promote detoxification pathways.
Your nutrition choices are major area of opportunity to support vitality. Less-healthy food options will always be pervasive in our commercial/capitalist culture, and these easy choices are attractive when our energy is depleted. So here’s a few daily choices in the nutrition and herbal realm to tonify life force, and generate slower, more intuitive rhytms of life;
Alignment with nature by eating seasonal, local, whole foods
Focus on nutrient dense, unprocessed foods
Embrace fermented foods, herbal infusions, adaptogens, tonics
Try home herbal apothecary making of salves, balms, tinctures, butters
To highlight a few that I’ve been enjoying lately - my own Longevity Infusion, Anima Mundi’s Blue Butterfly Pea Flower and my own Botanical Lip Balm (the only lip balm ever in my pocket).
Would you like a personalized consult or class to learn nutrition-herbal protocols to support your vitality? Reach out to me here, we can focus on either nutritional, food and herb based internal support, or external herbal skin care to connect ourselves to nature, be free from chemically processed industrial grade preservatives or fillers, create radiantly rich and super nutritive products in your home.
To end with contemplation, try listening to this poem-song “Sit Around the Fire”, by Jon Hopkins with East Forest & Ram Dass, evoking an inner philosophy of slowing down, tending to our inner fire.
