Less Stressing. More Living.
About Finding Contentment
Vitayla is about finding happiness, calm, and contentment amid the chaos of our lives. You will find tips, strategies, and techniques to allow you to move out of a state of stress quicker and enjoy more peace within yourself.
When was the last time you felt contentment? True contentment.
Meaning, at peace with yourself.
That feeling you might get from lying in a hammock between two palm trees with the ocean waves lapping on the shore in the background.
Not a care in the world. No pressing deadlines. No buzzing messages on your phone.
And, if you can recall that feeling, how long did it last?
Was it just a fleeting moment? Were you able to sustain that feeling for 30 minutes? An hour? More?
Like most of you, I have always had my head down pushing forward.
There was school, university, then grad school, then work, then more grad school. And more work. Throw into the mix marriage, kids, moves, and all the other life challenges that people encounter along the journey of life.
However, over the past 10 years or so, I have been actively working on how to find contentment.
That feeling of lower stress, being more present, having more energy.
Not just while at the beach on holiday or in the mountains or during a long weekend, but seeking contentment, less worry, in everyday activities and in life.
Master your Mindset for Greater Success and Happiness
The mind works in mysterious ways. However, there are proven strategies and techniques that truly happy and successful people use every day.
Reduce That Monkey Mind
As a serial entrepreneur, I have always had monkey mind. My head was always coming up with new business ideas or new ways of doing things. And I was mostly living in the past or in the future.
Reflecting back, I’m not even sure that when I “felt” contentment that it was genuine. Because the feeling was mostly fleeting, temporary at best.
As an undergraduate I studied mechanical engineering. Then I earned a graduate degree in aerospace engineering. That all seems like a long time ago and certainly long forgotten, but my search for true contentment has certainly been more on the practical side of things. What strategies could I utilize that are actionable, understandable, and science backed?
At other times during this journey I have expanded my mind by opening up to ideas or experiences (such as silent mediation retreats, visits to ashrams, yoga retreats) that I did not consider scientifically backed or I guess you could say at first impression were more woo woo.
Two particular books that stand out in my mind are The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman and 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works by Dan Harris.
Sharing Those Golden Nuggets
There were several key concepts (that I will be writing about) just from those particular books that have really helped move the needle in terms of getting to a state of contentment.
If I could really be 5% or 10% happier, more present, less worried from these learnings, how much more could I increase the level of this state? Another 5% to 10%? Or even more? And how long could I maintain the state?
Every time I discovered what I started calling little golden nuggets, it not only added a piece to this gigantic puzzle I have been trying to figure out, but motivated me to seek more pieces.
Throughout this site I share tips, strategies, and techniques I have learned (and continue to learn) to significantly improve my life during this journey of exploration of what’s going on in our minds and bodies. (More on my story here.)
It is about how to move out of a state of stress quicker and how to find contentment in life.
And then stay in that state for longer periods of time.
The Evolution of Vitayla
As I write this, history is unfolding for multiple generations – a pandemic has swept the globe. Millions have been infected with the COVID-19 virus.
Here in Chicago we are in the middle of a stay at home order because of the novel coronavirus. During this time I have been doing more thinking about all these concepts, ideas, and strategies that I have been learning about over the years.
Questions were percolating:
- Would it be possible to bring all these explorations into a single idea?
- Could I preserve these concepts from all these different sources that I have found most useful for me that are not taught in school? Might my kids even learn these ideas earlier than I?
- How might I be able to share these proven concepts with more people than just my family, clients, and friends?
- Might I be able to work on the one resolution that I have been unable to consistently achieve? (that would be writing)
It has been during this time of family isolation that I had my aha moment. 10 years in the making, mind you.
One night as I was getting ready for bed everything just came together.
I couldn’t fall asleep. I tried clearing my head by writing down all the thoughts that were racing through my mind, but I was just too excited. My brain kept refining previous thoughts. Updating versions.
The aha moment was the conceptualization of Vitayla.
And I would share Vitayla via this site.
What exactly is Vitayla? That my friend is my very first post. Read on . . .
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