Join Jeff in this conversation with Pilar Gerasimo, founding editor of Experience Life, an award-winning healthy-living magazine that reaches more than 3 million people nationwide.
Jeff's Thoughts: It is no accident that Pilar is founder and editor-in-chief of Experience Life! Pilar is one of the most inspiring and energizing people I know. Our conversation is as inspiring and energizing as she is - filled with insights about, health, business and making a difference.
Here are a few of our Big Ideas + Other Cool Stuff from this week...
Big Idea #1: It's Not Just Your Fault
Having good health is a personal struggle for many people. Modern society, for all its conveniences, actually makes it worse.
If you live in America, there are many forces at work that are unhealthy, unsustainable, and generally are not in your or your body's best interest. Instead of beating yourself up, consider your health within the context of your society.
The mission of Pilar and her magazine Experience Life is to wake you up to this fact and give you the tools to empower yourself through healthy choices.
The good news is that right now there is a healthiness revolution going on and because eating well feels good, healthiness is actually contagious.
This is why...
Big Idea #2: Being Healthy is a Revolutionary Act
Do you have to riot in the steets?
No. Actually you can do a couple simple things to improve yourself and the system in which you live:
- Pay attention to your body. Are you feeling weak? Do you need to eat? How are you sleeping? Simple questions like these tend to escape many people in the throes of modern life.
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Slow down. You know the saying, "haste makes waste?" Haste is not only unproductive, it can also be damaging to relationships. How many friends and family members have you not seen lately because you just "don't have time"? What are you using the time for?
Modern society tends to encourage unhealthiness both through uhealthy products and unhealthy expectations.
Healthiness then, is not only what you consume, but the quality of your time.
Does this make you want to change? You can, but if you are thinking of jumping in and taking action, consider this:
Big Idea #3: Stages of Change
Modern society tends to reward action, while completey ignoring the other parts of the process. There is much more to it than that, and the more you honor it, the more you can build up inertia to make a lasting change.
- Pre-contemplation: This is where you don't yet know what the problem is, but something is amiss. If you're being unhealthy, for example, you might notice sluggishness or feelings of anxiety.
- Contemplation: In this stage you ponder the possible actions you could take to change things. You might still be working out and defining what the problem is. You reach the end once you decide on a course of action. This is where you might determine that you want to change your diet.
- Preparation: Before you can act, you must first set the stage for the change. If you were changing your diet, you might explore different places to buy food or talk to your friends who eat healthier. Finally, you put together a plan.
- Action: This is where you execute the plan. This takes the most focused effort of any of the stages, and as a result, its the only one people generally ever see. This has led to the idea that action is the first step, which it is not.
- Maintenance: Once you have enacted a new way of living for a set amount of time, the amount of effort it takes to keep that habit going diminishes. You can coast.
- Adoption: The way of life is you and you are it.
Other Cool Stuff
Pilar talks about the healthy revolution:
- Learn more about Pilar Gerasimo.
- Read her manifesto for thriving in a mixed up world.
- Also, check out her en*theos class Refine Your Life.
About Pilar Gerasimo
Pilar Gerasimo is the founding editor of Experience Life, an award-winning healthy-living magazine that reaches nearly 3 million people nationwide. She is also the creative force behind the magazine’s health-advocacy spin-off,RevolutionaryAct.com and its mobile app, “101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy.”
Over its 11-year history, Experience Life has earned a reputation as one of the most credible, practical and forward-thinking health magazines on the market. It has garnered kudos from respected healthy-lifestyle experts like Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Frank Lipman, and has earned a coveted place on Whole Foods Markets and Barnes & Noble newsstands.
Pilar developed her Refine Your Life process over the course of more than a decade while doing her own personal work and sorting through the “greatest hits” of leading personal-development tools, systems and philosophies. She ultimately distilled a hybrid approach that combines elements of Positive Psychology with visioning, creative goal setting and what she calls “laser-guided introspection.”
An engaging public speaker and vibrant media presence, Pilar writes, speaks and presents widely on topics related to healthy, happy, authentic living. She appears regularly on a variety of radio and TV shows, and has been a guest on Dr. Oz’s Oprah & Friends radio program. She presents regularly at national conferences and retreat centers. In addition to her widely read column for Experience Life, she writes regularly for The Huffington Post and is the author of a chapbook, “Being Healthy Is a Revolutionary Act: A Manifesto for Thriving in a Mixed-Up World.” Pilar also serves as Senior Vice President of Education for Life Time Fitness.
Pilar’s central passion is empowering people to live their healthiest, most authentic lives, thereby helping to make the world a happier, more beautiful place. A Fulbright Scholar, she holds a BA with honors in Comparative Literature from Mills College. She lives with her three-legged pit bull on an organic cooperative family farm in western Wisconsin.
Website: http://www.experiencelife.com
Book: Being Healthy is a Revolutionary Act
