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138. We Need More Aliveness · Impact Ready

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  Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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  your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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  Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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  energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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  make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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  Hey, team, hope you're having a great week.
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  Thanks for being here today. In this episode, we're talking
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  about something that I think is one of the most important
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  measures of a fulfilling life, and that is aliveness.
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  Because at the end of the day, isn't that kind of what we're
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  all after? Aliveness, not just to check off
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  boxes or go through the motions, but to feel alive, to wake up in
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  the morning with energy and curiosity and that spark that
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  makes us grateful to be here. Actually think aliveness is one
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  of the most important traits about people who are really
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  impactful in their lives. It's a certain kind of energy, a
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  vibe, something magnetic that draws people in and it makes a
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  huge difference. Think about the kind of person
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  that you're attracted to in your life, whether it's romantically
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  or platonically, who are the people that you're drawn to or
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  that you want to listen to or follow?
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  I would bet they all have a certain degree of aliveness that
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  emanates from them. What I've noticed from people
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  lately is those who are complaining that they're not
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  enjoying their lives, or they're not finding a lot of joy in
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  their day-to-day routine or they're not accomplishing what
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  they want to accomplish in their world.
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  What I'm noticing is the common theme for many of these people
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  is they're not displaying a huge degree of aliveness and a lot of
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  that has to do with their daily routines.
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  It has to do with their habits and their systems in their
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  lives, what they're investing, their time and their resources
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  and their energy into. Their level of aliveness is low,
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  and because of that, they're not getting the outcomes that they
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  want in their life. A lot of these people talk about
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  their relationships not being very fulfilling.
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  They're not connecting with people very well, or they don't
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  have a lot of great friends, or they just haven't found a
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  partner that they can really share their life with.
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  They've connected well with in their career.
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  They're feeling a little stagnant and stuck, or they're
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  getting looked over for promotions or they're feeling
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  like they're not accomplishing what they want to accomplish.
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  Their projects are kind of going sideways.
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  They're not hitting their deadlines.
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  And then from a physical standpoint, they're not feeling
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  confident in their body. They're not moving very much in
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  their day. Exercise is not a priority for
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  them. And so their biological energy
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  is kind of low. They would often say their
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  energy is between a four and a six out of 10.
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  And so across the board, their aliveness is pretty low.
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  And there's a lot of reasons why I think this is happening.
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  As a society, we're spending a lot of time on screens.
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  We are very sedentary. For the most part, people are
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  sitting for six to 10 hours a day with work, and then also
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  they're coming home and sitting on the couch and watching TV or
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  Netflix, or they're scrolling on their phones for two to three
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  hours after work. Americans in general are
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  exercising much less than they used to.
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  Our activity level has gone way down.
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  We're not fueling ourself with the best food, and so our energy
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  levels aren't as high. We're not sleeping as well.
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  In fact, we're not prioritizing sleep in the same way that we
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  used to. The recommendation is 7 to 9
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  hours of sleep. And the majority of Americans
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  are getting much, much less than that.
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  And so you can imagine, yeah, we as a society are feeling a lot
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  less aliveness than we used to. And I think in general this is
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  pretty problematic because when we're not feeling that spark for
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  life, we have less general satisfaction with life.
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  We have less motivation, our productivity goes down, we're
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  connecting with people less. And overall, I would just say
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  we're in a lower frequency place than we want to be.
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  We always talk about the difference between being low
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  frequency and high frequency. It's just the the frequency that
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  you can associate with different emotions that we're feeling when
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  we're not feeling and experiencing aliveness in our
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  lives. We feel more of the low
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  frequency emotions, things like apathy, depression, anxiety,
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  hopelessness, boredom, resentment, bitterness, things
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  like that as opposed to the high frequency emotions like
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  enthusiasm and joy and creativity, hope, appreciation,
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  gratitude, etcetera. So the question becomes, how do
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  we create more aliveness in our lives?
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  And I wanted to share three things that I think are very key
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  to creating more aliveness. Their novelty, connection and
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  challenge. So let's start with novelty.
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  Our brains are wired to crave novelty.
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  Novelty is anything that feels new, fresh, different from the
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  routine. Now, when I say novelty, it
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  doesn't just mean booking a flight across the world,
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  although travel is a fantastic way to wake up that sense of
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  wonder and newness. But novelty can be as simple as
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  trying a new workout or taking a different route to work,
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  rearranging your space, or learning a skill that you've
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  never touched before. Think about the last time you
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  traveled to a new city. Everything felt heightened,
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  didn't it? The colors, the smells, the
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  sounds. Your senses were alive because
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  your brain wasn't running on autopilot.
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  I vividly remember this backpacking trip that I took
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  with my brother when he went to study abroad in college.
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  It was my first time to Europe, and we packed our two weeks with
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  as much as we could. We went to four different
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  countries, and I remember more about those experiences than I
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  remember about my last month. There was a specific day trip we
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  took when we were in Interlochen, Switzerland, where
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  we went canyoning down this long mountain stream.
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  We were all wearing wet suits, trying to navigate these rocks
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  and these natural water slides and jumping off cliffs and
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  climbing down things, trying to get down this mountain.
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  And it was awesome. It was so spectacular and
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  incredibly hard, but I can remember so much about it.
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  It was so new. It was so adventurous that I can
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  still remember how cold the water was.
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  I can remember jumping off this one Cliff into this deep pool of
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  water. I can remember going down this
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  natural water slide and hitting this one specific rock on my hip
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  on my way down. I can even remember the beer and
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  the cheese and the bread that we had for lunch on the bus ride
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  home. That's what novelty does, and
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  without it, life can start to feel a little flat.
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  We get stuck in routines that make us efficient.
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  Yes, but not inspired. If we can inject novelty, even
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  in small doses, it will keep us present and creative and
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  engaged. So if you've been feeling a
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  little dull in your life, ask yourself, where can I add a
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  spark of newness into my routine this week?
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  The second way to create aliveness is through connection.
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  And I don't mean surface level, How's the weather conversations.
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  I mean, the kind of connection that makes you feel seen and
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  known and understood. You know, humans are social
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  beings. We are social creatures and
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  we're wired for connection. We're wired to thrive in
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  relationships. Quality relationships in
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  specific are what fuel us. Whether it's laughing with a
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  close friend or sharing a a vulnerable moment with your
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  partner or your spouse or meeting someone new who expands
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  your perspective. That type of connection reminds
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  us that we're not alone in this world.
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  And that's so important. Even these small moments of
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  connection can shift our energy. It could be something as small
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  as a smile from a stranger, a conversation with your barista,
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  or a genuine compliment from somebody that actually lifts
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  your nervous system out of stress and back into presence.
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  You know, when I was a teenager, I used to run this three mile
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  loop around our neighborhood. And I remember noticing that
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  every time I pass somebody else who was running and we waved at
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  each other, I'd run a little faster for a few minutes.
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  Even at 15 years old, I was noticing the power of human
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  connection. And I still notice that when I'm
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  running or I'm passing somebody on the street and we say hello.
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  When we isolate as humans, we wither.
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  When we connect, we come alive, that aliveness that we crave.
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  And the beauty is that connection isn't just about
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  receiving. It's also about giving.
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  So when you pour into others, when you show up with curiosity
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  and care and compassion, it amplifies your own aliveness.
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  So you can ask yourself today, who can I connect with in a more
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  intentional way this week? The third way to create
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  aliveness is through challenge. Now, this is kind of a tricky
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  one because on the surface, challenge can feel really
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  uncomfortable, but deep down, we're built for it.
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  We are built for challenge. You know that you've felt that
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  in your life. Growth is one of the awesome
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  things that comes out of challenge, and growth is one of
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  our core human needs. We don't want to be stagnant.
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  We want to stretch and expand and prove to ourselves that
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  we're capable of more, that we are capable of handling things.
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  Now, there are two types of challenge.
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  There's the challenge that we choose in our life and the
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  challenge that we don't choose. And the ones that we choose are
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  things like setting a fitness goal or starting a business or
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  taking on a project. These types of challenges give
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  us purpose and direction and satisfaction of earning our
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  growth. They're the ones that make us
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  feel empowered. The challenges we don't choose
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  like life's curveballs or setbacks or losses, you know,
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  losing somebody or somebody getting sick in your life or
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  dealing with an injury or an illness.
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  Those can feel a lot harder, but even those have the potential to
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  create aliveness. When we decide to rise up
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  through them, they force us to build resilience.
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  They show us how strong we are. Without challenge, life is
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  pretty easy, but it's also empty.
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  And when we have challenge in our life, yeah, life might be
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  harder, but it's meaningful. Your brain, your body, your
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  spirit, they all thrive on being stretched and going through that
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  expansion and that growth. One thing I want to add to this
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  is that it's really important to get in the practice of choosing
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  your challenge, being the organizer or the architect of
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  your own challenge, rather than simply only reacting to the
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  world's challenge. That challenge we choose versus
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  the challenge we don't choose. When we choose our own
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  challenge, we feel a sense of empowerment and agency.
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  It's of our own design, and so we feel powerful in that.
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  But when we are only ever responding to life's challenges,
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  then we tend to feel more like a victim in our life.
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  It can feel a little bit disempowering.
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  It can feel like, why is this happening to me?
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  Trust me, I've been on both sides of this.
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  And what I've learned is that the more challenge that I can
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  choose in my own life, the more empowered, strong, resilient I
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  feel. And it makes me better able to
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  handle the type of challenge that life throws at me.
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  The type of challenge that I didn't necessarily choose, and
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  I'm very much living that right now.
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  And so I feel very confident in saying that both types of
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  challenge build resilience and character, but we have to
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  practice our resilience by choice.
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  So if you feel like you've been coasting a little bit in your
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  life, not really experiencing a lot of challenge, maybe not
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  choosing much challenge, ask yourself, where can I invite a
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  little bit of challenge into my life in a way that excites me
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  instead of drains me? So those are the three ways that
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  you can create more aliveness, novelty, connection and
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  challenge. And when you bring these into
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  your life, you break free from being an autopilot.
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  You wake up your senses, you engage your heart, you stretch
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  your capacity. And that's why aliveness is so
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  important because when you feel alive, you don't just exist, you
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  expand, you influence, you have tremendously powerful impact.
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  So my challenge to you this week is to choose one of these three,
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  whether it's novelty, connection, or challenge, and
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  take action on it. Just one small step to remind
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  yourself what it feels like to be alive.
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  Because that spark, that's the stuff that life is made of.
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  That's what we're here for. So I hope this helps.
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  I hope this spurred on some insights for you.
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  I'm glad that you're here having a wonderful week.
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  And as always, team, thank you for being ready to Impact.
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  Thanks for listening to Impact Ready.
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  I hope today's episode inspired you to own your impact and
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  recognize that you are powerful. By elevating our energy and
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  awareness, we can create exponential change in this life.
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  If you enjoyed today's insights, share them with a friend and
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  subscribe to the show for more. I truly appreciate you.
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  Thanks again for being here.