0:00:07 - (Rich): Yo, what's good? And welcome to find more balance, a podcast about creating space to show up for yourself in relationships, in business, and in your communities. My name is Rich Jones and I'm a certified wellness coach, career coach, and master's track and field athlete. I mentioned in the last episode that we're going to focus a portion of this year on showing up for yourself. And this season is all about showing up for yourself in terms of your physical health and well being. So in this episode, I'll distinguish between physical wellness and physical well being. I'm going to highlight some of the challenges millennials like myself are facing as we accept that we're no longer diehuth. And I'm going to leave you with a challenge. So let's talk about the difference between wellness and well being, particularly physical wellness and physical well being. So, physical wellness and wellness in general is about the specific habits, behaviors, thoughts, mindsets, and choices that you're making on a daily basis. It's the activities you choose to get movement and build fitness, whatever that means to you. It's the recovery activities like massage, stretching, dry sauna, cold plunge yoga. It's making food choices over time that support the life that you want. It's going to bed at a consistent time and anything else that you're doing to ensure that you get good sleep. It's creating space for meditation or breathing exercises so that you can recharge throughout the day or so that you can get yourself back on track in terms of energy and focus.
0:01:27 - (Rich): Physical well being, on the other hand, is about the state and shape that you're in. And when I say shape, I don't mean appearance. I mean that can be part of it, how you feel about your appearance, but I'm talking about, are you able to live the life you want physically? Do you feel capable of physically performing at a high level? I don't just mean in the gym. That could also mean at work, showing up with the right energy, being able to have the resilience to get through difficult seasons. How's your mobility and flexibility?
0:01:53 - (Rich): What them vitals do? What them vitals do? When you go and get your checkup, what do those numbers say? Is everything in the correct ranges that it's supposed to be in? So with well being, it's a lot more holistic. There's a lot more data to it. How are you at this moment and at this point in time? I think about well being, particularly when I'm on the Runway and I'm going for my first jump or whatever jump in track and field, I'm a long jumper and a triple jumper. And when I'm on that Runway, I need everything to be clicking. I need to feel good physically. That includes my flexibility, that includes my energy level. That includes feeling strong, that includes feeling positive, optimistic. That includes feeling healthy, not having any illnesses. There's a lot that goes into that, and I like to feel that way on a daily basis, too, but especially when it's time for high performance. And so when we talk about physical wellness and well being for millennials, we have to acknowledge we ain't the youth no more. Just like I said earlier, we ain't. Doesn't mean that we aren't youthful in spirit, but physically, we ain't the youth. I'm sorry. This is something that I'm working to accept, too. And so there are a few dimensions and challenges that we need to think about, particularly in this season of life. So around movement, there's the challenge of desk jobs that wreak havoc on our hips. Because we spend so much time sitting, there's not getting enough physical activity again because we're so focused on work and bouncing from meeting and meeting. And then if it's not that, it's bouncing from work to a personal or family commitment. They're starting to feel the impact of use it or lose it in terms of flexibility and mobility, where things that were easy before now might feel a bit difficult, or you might feel a bit more stiffness and tenderness than you felt before. And then there are all the various activities inside and outside of work that are pulling us away from the physical activities that we enjoy doing or want to get into.
0:03:36 - (Rich): And so those are just the challenges around movement. When it comes to nutrition, there's the common issue of not having the time or the energy to cook. There's not getting the food and supplements we need to get the results we want, because life is running us instead of us running our lives. There's doordash and delivery services being so easy to access and oh, so expensive. And a lot of times what we're ordering on there may not be the healthiest by conventional standards, but it's fast and it's easy.
0:04:03 - (Rich): I'm extremely guilty of this, too. And then when we're really focused on nutrition, let's say we're at the extent that we're on a diet, there's the feeling of being around family and friends and wanting to enjoy the experience. I can actually remember one time that I was out for a work dinner when I was in Austin, Texas, for a trip and I was doing the keto diet at this time, which is high protein, low carb, getting a good amount of fat. And we went out for this dinner, and there's all these carbs in the table, all of these things that look absolutely delicious, and I couldn't try them. And I'm sitting there just looking at what everyone else is eating, wishing that I could have it. And that doesn't feel good. Whether it's on a work trip, whether it's a work lunch, whether it's a personal lunch, whether it's the holidays, you're sitting there, you're watching what everyone else is eating, everyone else is enjoying the meal, and you're sitting there thinking about the strictness and rigidity of your diet, and that if you should fall off with something by chance, should you break that diet, then you might as well just throw the whole diet out the window. You know what I'm talking about. You know exactly what I'm talking about. And so that's some of the issues and challenges that we face specifically as it relates to nutrition. But then we get into something like sleep hygiene.
0:05:09 - (Rich): So many of us know that we need to get more rest and that we don't have the best habits currently, or that we're highly reactive in terms of how we think about sleep due to all of the other commitments that are in our lives, all of the people who are demanding our attention, all of the various places that we need to show up. And then for many of us, there's the struggle not only to get to sleep, but also to stay asleep. And that's been my challenge for years.
0:05:32 - (Rich): I'm to a point that I know if I don't take my sleep medication, I'm not going to get the amount of rim or deep sleep that I need to get the full benefit of rest and going through all of the cycles. And the last bucket that I'm going to talk about is building healthy habits, because it's a challenge for so many of us to build new habits, to maintain habits, given everything that's happening around us. The more money we're making, the more responsibility we probably have in many cases.
0:05:57 - (Rich): And that makes it hard sometimes if we're not intentional about scheduling and intentional about creating the space to take care of ourselves physically and do those things that we want to do or build the muscle, not just physically, but the mental muscle, to do the things that we want to do or create the lifestyle that we want. And yes, taking your medication does count as part of physical wellness. So the last bucket that I'm going to discuss here is building healthy habits. And yes, it's something that you could sprinkle through everything, but I mentioned this specifically because it's so core to what wellness is about. And with the many demands that we may have in our lives as a result of family, children, work, caregiving, which is also family, community commitments, it can be hard to build that momentum, especially when life really gets lifeing and it's turbulent. And maybe you're traveling a lot and it's hard to keep the same diet, or it's hard for you to find the gym to be able to do the exact series of exercises that you want to do. So you end up doing nothing at all. Not saying that I'm speaking from experience, but I'm speaking from experience.
0:06:55 - (Rich): And how do you balance all this out with that busy schedule? How do you balance this with everything else that's happening in your life? And so habit formation is definitely something that we're going to spend some time on this season. In fact, everything that I've outlined here as a challenge or as a topic, we're going to spend some time on. And sometimes those episodes, it'll be just me. Other times, I'm going to be talking to someone who I know personally, who's helped me along in my journey, or I'm going to be talking to another expert or someone in the field who can help shed insight and have a meaningful conversation.
0:07:26 - (Rich): So that is all that I have for today, but I want to leave you with a challenge. Well, actually, if I'm saying I want to leave you with a challenge, that means it is not all for today, but I'm going to go ahead with the challenge, and that is to define what balance means in the context of your physical wellness and well being. And when you're thinking about this, I want you to eliminate all the shoulds, what you think you should be doing because of something you watched, something somebody told you.
0:07:48 - (Rich): What does balance mean in the context of your physical wellness and well being for you? What is the most authentic version of that? Focus solely on what you want. I want to reiterate that solely on what you want because it's so easy to have external factors come into our thinking, and I encourage you to even talk it out with someone, if helpful, and to have them keep you honest. If it feels like you're getting off track and getting away from self now, I'd love to know what you come up with. So there are a few ways to do it. You can drop me a note at info at findmorebalanced.
0:08:20 - (Rich): You can hit me up on threads IG or LinkedIn at Richrunst Track, and you can also comment on the video version of this episode on YouTube at find more balance. So until next time, give care to yourself and most importantly, be well.
