Written by: Anna Letitia Cook, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
How can we best combine zing and zen to improve life – both professional and personal?
Well, it is all about incorporating my formula for 'Holistic Wellness and Success' – the 4Fs
What are Zing and Zen anyway?
Zing ‒ a quality that makes things interesting and exciting; enthusiasm, energy: a lively, zestful quality. Zen ‒ relaxed, not worrying about things that can't be changed: feeling at peace, calm. Wouldn't you like to have these qualities guiding both your professional and personal life? I know I would!
That is why I focus so much on trying to improve my lifestyle so I can ultimately achieve my best type of Zing Zen Life :-) This means different things to different people... For me zing is when I am full of both physical and mental energy, good spirits, positive outlook and feeling healthy from having eaten properly, exercised and slept properly AND am working creatively on things I enjoy with people I like. Zen is when I can sleep easily, laugh happily, don't have stress and pressure (or at least not unmanageably so) and normally am surrounded by nature and have a dog or two around me... (as well as doing some yoga - lol). To live your best Zing Zen Life you need to incorporate my formula for holistic wellness and success, the 4Fs! Fuel, fitness, freedom and fulfilment. So, what do these really mean? Well for a start they include so much more than just the obvious!
Food (fuel), fitness, freedom and fulfilment!
Why is the word fuel there in brackets you might ask? Because some people are impassioned by magnificent meals, Michelin star chefs and a drop of x, y or z, to raise the taste to new heights… Others (heretics like me, particularly as I used to live in France, the ‘alleged’ centre of gastronomy and ‘haute cuisine’) are more interested in how our body and mind are best fuelled and nourished by what we eat… I personally still like something to taste delicious, light, refreshing and adapted to me, normally a very different concept to those enamoured of the servings of the Michelin-starred chef’s hat brigade!
What is the Oxford dictionary definition of these words?
Food – Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth
Fitness – The condition of being physically fit and healthy
Freedom – The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants
Fulfilment – Satisfaction or happiness as a result of fully developing one's potential
Yes, in essence, I agree with these definitions but there is so much more… in fact, the dictionary definition of essence takes us much further into the depths of each – the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something abstract, which determines its character.
Fuel includes food but isn’t just protein, carbohydrate and the rest, it isn’t something that you should have to watch, count or think of in regard to how you look. It has a much deeper and more significant role in happiness, life and success. As food, it is also nature’s greatest medicine. What you put into your mouth is what gives you energy, it can also poison you to a lesser or greater extent depending on your choice. Your food not only feeds your body but also your brain, your mind and your emotions. This ‘fuel’ is the main key to how you react and act. Eat the wrong thing and you feel awful, ill, depressed, tired and can’t think let alone raise a smile, make a choice or take a decision. Fitness includes physical health and wellness but also helps us sleep better, work harder, reduce stress, increase and channel energy into the tasks and direction we choose. The fitter we are the more energy, positivity and motivation we have for doing something with a skip and a smile… So much better and more rewarding a feeling for ourselves and all those around us rather than crying alone into a glass after a long and disappointing day, ramping one more notch up our stress ladder… When we are fit, so exercise regularly, sleep well, meditate or do similar peace-and-happiness-inducing routines we re-source our inner energy both physical and mental. This enables us to face all challenges with calm, objectivity and interest. It gives us energy and endurance as well as confidence and self-respect. It is a sign we love and are happy with ourselves… this spreads out to those around us and makes their days just that little bit happier too. You should try it!
Have you ever heard about Ayurveda? Developed many thousands of years ago, it is still one of the world’s most powerful and effective mind-body health systems! What does it have a strong focus on? I’ll give you a clue, food and fitness play a very large part!
Freedom is fundamental! It covers many areas and can mean many things to many people, but freedom of choice is the most life-giving and inspirational. For that, we need to have freedom of thought… Often we don’t realise how much we are influenced or even controlled by others, their opinions, their wants, their goals and consequently we forget our own. Sometimes it is just that our own are long and deeply hidden so we need to gently peel back the layers to get back to our source.
For example, my mother always thought it was terrible to have a career. She thought in doing so we aren’t a good wife/mother. She was also totally against divorce… Each time I got a promotion at work she tutted and criticised, when I set up my first business with babies at home, she showed her full Irish temperament and didn’t spare me her opinions in full colour – lol. For a long time, it meant I felt a huge amount of guilt and always dithered about what I did. It took me ages to accept and understand what I really wanted and to accept that she was having her reaction because she was totally overwhelmed by her own lack of freedom of choice and lack of knowledge of inner self. She was an incredibly talented and capable woman but didn’t think she had the right to a career and a family. Such a shame and such an inspiration for women nowadays who can have this freedom! It really is worth fighting for.
This is just one example, but think back, why did you choose the field you are in today? Why did you choose the studies you did? How many of your values and beliefs are truly yours and not acquired from outside influences and other peoples’ visions of what is ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’… It can be mind-blowing when we start to delve into it. Look back at my SCOPE process and the exercises in it to refresh your memory.
When you make a choice, how ‘free’ is it? I don’t mean you must become some warrior courting controversy at every turn. Our aim is for peace, happiness and fulfilment but I am sure a few little tweaks in your thoughts could allow you more freedom of choice and the opportunity to be the real you!
When you are truly free you feel it mentally – such a sense of lightness, of confidence, of well-being. It fuses strongly with fulfilment. Try it…
Fulfilment ‒ Such an amazing, thrilling, all-enveloping pleasure when we have it. Knowing you are doing everything to your best potential, giving your utmost, in the flow, more than content with your skills, attitudes and talents, fascinated and passionate about what you are doing, enjoying the direction you are taking and path you are on, curious about all that surrounds you. All of this both personally and professionally. Energised, dynamic, happy!
Don’t you want to find fulfilment? It is a big topic, so we will go into this more in a later article…
Put all these together and what do you get – A truly wondrous you!
A quick exercise for you to start along the right path… If you think of these 4 pillars – fuel, fitness, freedom and fulfilment – what ranking (from 1 to 10, where 1 is the lowest/worst and 10 is the highest/best) would you give each one in your life at the moment? Just have a think and mull over what you could include or exclude to make these just a tiny bit better...
Make a list of your ideas and next time we can go a little deeper, explore a little further together with some tips and ideas to help move towards your Zing Zen Life.
Follow me on LinkedIn, and visit my website for more info! Read more from Anna!
Anna Letitia Cook, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Anna Letitia Cook is an international career development and wellness coach, author, speaker, radio/tv presenter, passionate about helping clients find clarity, energy and fulfilment in their life choices ‒ their holistic success.
She created her first company in the entertainment industry at age 32 before switching industry and moving into international real estate. Midlife approaching, hungry for a dynamic change, she refocused her experience, founding her current business to help professionals shape and energise their own future.
Creator of the 'SCOPE' and '4Fs' processes for career, fulfilment and holistic success and author of ‘Unstoppable Goddess: Every Women’s Guide to Freedom, Fulfilment and Success’, Anna was awarded United Nations Women's 2016-2017 Global Champion for Change @ Empower Women.
Anna is the presenter of the radio tv shows WomenUP 'Inspired Women' and 'Beyond the Bottomline.
Her motto: Living life holistically – Career and wellness together!
