Whole-life Health and Fitness: Experience Life Magazine
You’d never know it, but I have built such a routine of life-balance in my Burlington existence that I have trouble making the effort to get “out and about” and actually meet people, in person. But, every time I do manage to get on a plane, the new friends I meet across the country make it so worthwhile. Plus, my creativity is jump-started!
Pilar Gerasimo, editor-in-chief of Experience Life magazine, was one of the people who made a lasting impression on me during my recent Minneapolis/St. Paul trip. Because life balance and health/wellness are my personal passions as well as her magazine’s focus – we had a lot to connect over! To give you a sense of why I so enjoyed talking with her and hearing about the magazine, I’ll give you an extremely paraphrased look at her 3 dot circle theory of whole-life health and fitness (which she wrote about in her Jan/Feb editor’s letter):
The first dot is that landing point in life where a person wants to get back to being healthy physically (through eating right, exercising, and so on). The second dot is where all that thinking about being a “better you” physically leads to thinking about the whole mind/body connection and re-examining belief systems. After starting to think about all that, no one could help but take the larger view and consider sustainability – which is the third dot. In Pilar’s words, when you get to this dot the question that begs an answer is: “Energetically, economically and ecologically, do the choices I’ve made work for the long haul?”
Just visualize a circle with one dot leading to the next leading to the next and starting all over again (I hope to post the image of this in the next few days). Simple, yes, but powerful.
Anyway –
There is also a marketing to women lesson in there (of course). Women see things holistically, so 3 connected dots will mean more to them than an extreme diet program or visions of six-pack abs.
Living life happily and healthily is not a trend. Rather, we can hope that it becomes a constant pursuit in a whole-life existence.
The magazine’s tagline, “Healthy. Happy. Real.” – and the idea of whole-life health and fitness, in general – is motivating and inspiring, for both men and women. Still, women are the early adopters in this realm, and they’ll be the ones to spread the word about both the magazine AND Pilar’s 3 dot life plan.
(The magazine, published by LifeTime Fitness, is available via subscription and at newsstands. Here’s a link to find the newstand nearest you).
