There is a lot of confusion about the term vitality. The distinction between lifestyle and vitality is not always clear. That is why I start by defining lifestyle and vitality, making the distinction between them clear.
What is lifestyle?
By lifestyle we mean all behavior that influences our health. It concerns all the conscious and unconscious choices we make every day that influence our health. A lifestyle coach is therefore someone who helps people live healthier lives. A commonly used approach when it comes to lifestyle is the BRAVO approach. This was developed by the NISB (Netherlands Institute for Sport and Exercise) and divides health into five themes. These are: Exercise, Smoking, Alcohol, Nutrition and Relaxation. The themes speak for themselves. In recent years, the Z for Zitten has also been added and BRAVOZ has been used.
What is health?
There are different disciplines and professionals within healthcare with varying definitions of health. For a long time, health was described as the absence of disease and disorder. This definition was later adjusted, as it no longer covered the content. We can define health as a state of general well-being, in which there is no physical injury or illness. The definition of health according to the WHO:
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and disability.”
Machteld Huber has focused on 'positive' health and drawn up a new definition of health. This reads as follows:
“Health is the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of the physical, emotional and social challenges of life.”
This definition differs from the aforementioned definition in that it mentions the ability to adapt and direct one's own life. The difference therefore consists of a component that has to do with personal leadership and autonomy. This has more to do with vitality, but does not yet fully cover it.
What is vitality not?
When we think of vitality we think of energy. We have an image of old people who still jump through life. In the Van Dale we find the following for vitality and vitality:
vi·language (adjective)
powerful, energetic: a vital old man
vitality
energy to live; spirit
These definitions do not cover everything. Energy and life force mean nothing. It's abstract and you can't do anything with it. Vitality is more than just energy, because even someone with little energy can be vital. It is important to mention that vitality does not equal energy. After all, someone can not consume enough fluid and calories and still be vital and feel energetic. Vice versa, someone with sufficient calorie intake may feel tired and empty.
Research into vitality started with subjective vitality. Subjective vitality is the energy that a person perceives themselves, described as 'feeling alive'. In this definition, vitality is strongly related to illness, pain and physiology. Please note that this is not about excitement, for example anger and hostility were experienced as non-vital. However, this definition also takes into account the influence of psychological factors on vitality. Subjective vitality is strongly related to the satisfaction of needs for autonomy, bonding and competence. But variables such as self-development are also linked to vitality. Investing in extrinsic life goals such as wealth, celebrity and status is negatively correlated with vitality. Working on autonomously motivated goals increases vitality, and autonomy appears to be predictive of vitality. Furthermore, vitality is linked to productive coping with stress and resilience to physical stressors.
What is vitality?
Vitality is flourishing based on self-determination. Flourishing is the answer to our desire to get more out of our lives. It is summarized as experiencing high levels of emotional, psychological and social well-being based on self-determination, personal development, meaningful relationships and a meaningful life with clear direction. Vitality is about determining your own value and making choices that correspond with it.
A simple example is that lifestyle (health) is about everything your mother used to say to you: 'Go to bed on time, eat your vegetables and get off the couch'. Vitality is about everything your mother did not discuss with you: for example, was she really happy with your father? Did she have doubts about whether she raised you well and was she satisfied with the choices she made to work or stay at home?
Another distinction is that lifestyle behavior is immediately visible, but vitality is not. For example, I can see what someone puts in his or her mouth, and I can see if someone is overweight and goes to the gym. However, we cannot always see whether someone feels autonomous, is happy and experiences meaning.
We will illustrate the difference between lifestyle and vitality using a number of examples:
– Someone who wants to lose weight and exercise more, so that he/she can age healthily falls under lifestyle.
– Someone who wants to lose weight and exercise more, so that he/she has a better relationship with his/her partner falls under vitality.
– Wanting to stop eating meat because someone has read that meat increases the risk of cancer falls under lifestyle.
– Wanting to stop eating meat because someone wants to live sustainably falls under vitality. Someone who wants to do strength training for better bone density and to function better in daily activities falls under lifestyle.
– Someone who wants to do strength training to gain more self-confidence and control over his life falls under vitality.
As shown in the examples above, in practice it is often about vitality. People are unwilling to pay for their health until it becomes a problem. Much more often, people come to a fitness center, personal trainer or lifestyle coach because they are dissatisfied with themselves, the way they live, the choices they make or the degree of control (autonomy) and meaning they experience in their lives. People come to lose weight, but appear to experience a lack of autonomy or meaning. Vitality is important because people think they come for lifestyle, but in reality they often come for vitality. In addition, lifestyle is a luxury product. Someone who experiences need frustration and lacks meaning or direction has no opportunity to engage in lifestyle. Someone who is going through a contested divorce has no bandwidth or energy to focus on losing weight.
Remy Jean Le
Enforce Master Trainer
remyjean@enforce.nl
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