New Host Site.

I've decided to switch my blog to tumblr. I feel it will be better for me.

Please follow the link there :)

onehealthyway.tumblr.com

Make the Move.

This song has really made a drastic impact on my life and I don't have any reasons why. Over the summer, after I first heard this song, I felt the need to just get out of my apartment. So I did, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I don't know why but it put me in such a good mood. Hopefully it can do the same for all of you.

Enjoy!

The Traveler and the Swamp.

Once upon a time, there was a traveler on horseback that finds himself facing a swamp, and he doesn’t know whether to go around or wade through. The traveler questions a local boy, asking him whether the swamp has a hard bottom, and the boy says yes.

So the traveler guides his horse into the swamp, and they begin to sink deeper and deeper into the muck. The traveler shouts to the boy, “I thought you said it has a hard bottom.” To which the boy replied, “It does, you’re just not there yet!”

The moral of the story, take chances in life no matter what the outcome. Without taking those risks, you really aren’t learning anything.

Until recently, I lived my life on the sidelines, barely taking any risks. If you must know why, it’s because hate failure and denial. I was so afraid about how my actions would affect the way that people viewed me, as well as how I viewed myself.

We can’t let anything or anyone stand in the way of our goals and dreams. Here’s a wonderful quote from the late Randy Pausch:

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!”

Within the past 24 hours, I recently took a very big chance on something. It’s been something that I had been wanting to for a while, and I am still awaiting the outcome. But whatever the outcome, I’m not afraid of failure. Maybe there will be a brick wall that appears as a result, but honestly, my goal is worth fighting for.

So you’re probably asking yourself, what happened to the traveler? Well that’s were that story ends, but the only way to find out is to go through that swamp yourself and take that chance. But know this, no matter how things turn out, at least you can say you have tried. Through chances we learn and experience things, and by doing so end result is us just living.

Stories

For the past week, I've been re-experiencing one of my favorite television shows of all time, Dead Like Me. Its a dark comedy about a girl named Georgia who is unexpectedly killed at age 18, and is given the job of becoming a "grim reaper," taking the souls of people before they die.

It was really a wonderful series that tackles some of life's questions. Watching an episode tonight, a very interesting quote came up that I thought could be applied to the philosophy of this blog. George's grandmother, a free spirit who spends her days traveling and enjoying life, and her mother, who spends her time in the home worrying about household chores, get into an argument about each other's lives. Here's the part that struck me the most:

Mother: "You just love to parade around with stories all about your wonderful free spirited life."

Grandmother: "Stories don't happen to people inside."

It's true, they don't. You need to get out there and experience life, to talk about it. It's plain and simple. If you sit around your house (apartment in my case) and don't do much with yourself, there will be nothing of real interest to convey with others. Even the main character even realizes that even-though she died at such a young age in her life, she never truly experienced life, and living through her afterlife doesn't seem to be the same.

If anyone tries to have a discussion with me, I often find myself talking down their throats for hours. I've just experienced so much in my life and I enjoy telling every detail about it, and it's all from living.

It's really a shame the series got cancelled a few years back. Both seasons as well as a movie are available on DVD. I HIGHLY recommend the show to everyone. You'll probably see me making more references to the show actually, seeing as a lot of the stories do apply to this blog.

I'll let it slide if you guys don't get out and live for a few days due to you experiencing this wonderful show, just enjoy watching every minute of it! :)

Motivated Minds -> Moving Bodies

“Look at us! Why don’t we do this more often?” my good friend Gab said to me during a little trip we took through the Flat Iron district one day. Her words alone are proof to me that this concept works.

Why don’t we, though? What prevents us from getting out there? My theory is simply because we don’t know what we’re missing. That very lack of knowledge is the reason why we aren’t motivated to do so.

In the example of Gab and myself, we spent our first year of college in her room. She would sleep, and I would take pictures of her covered in random objects that I found. To us, that was fun, but we didn’t have any idea of what was out there waiting for us.

That day in Flat Iron, Gab and I literally fell in love with all these little stores that we stumbled upon. We were in heaven when we found this one store particular, Fisher Eddie’s, which sold amazing plates, glasses, and silverware for about 99 cents each. The events of that day proved to us that there is so much more out there, just waiting to be discovered.

So why don’t we? Why don’t get out there and live today? Today! Together! Let’s get out there, and experience everything that this city full of life has to offer! One excursion, like Gab and mine is all it takes to get you the mind motivated, and the body moving. So get out there and live! Altogether now!

Live.

“But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?”

-Albert Camus

No one can experience true happiness without living out that happiness. The only way one can actually live out that happiness is to simply go out and live, and enjoy every moment of it. We shouldn’t spend our days hidden within our own private lives. It leads to nothing but boredom and exhaustion.

I’ve experienced this concept first hand. This past summer I lived alone, sulking around my apartment, dwelling on things that had recently went wrong in my life. I spent each day pacing around in my apartment, bored looking for something to do, but with no motivation to take action at all.

My biology professor once spoke of how studies have shown that captive animals in zoos tend to develop erratic behaviors, one being the aforementioned pacing back and forth. By confining these animals and striping them of their freedom, you also remove any form of excitement in their lives.

So there I was, like the caged snow leopards at the central park zoo. I desperately wanted to break free of the boredom I had imprisoned myself in, but unfortunately, I was too comfortable within my cage to even consider leaving. In the end result, I would always find myself in a worse mood than I had started the day with, and I would retire to bed only to wake up and repeat the process the following day.

It’s hard to believe that anyone can be bored and alone living in such a large city as New York, but somehow I had managed to do so. Personally I was never the one to make friends with strangers. But I tried, and in most cases failed, and thus remained alone in my empty apartment.

Although I had a few run ins with some friends every once in a while, the real interactions with people I had, were the days I had spent working or interning. So I would run away to my past life, back to the people I had waiting for me back in Long Island.

I would smile and laugh with my friends, but it was all just empty. None of them knew what I was going through, or probably even knew any way how to help, but it was fine, I was home and away from all the problems that awaited me back in the city.

Looking back now, I realize there’s so much that I could have changed to make it possibly one of the best summers of my life, but that’s just foolish. If I’ve learned one thing in the past few months, it’s to live in the present, and towards my future, and not dwell in the past.

There is so much to do in this city. It was buzzing with of life, yet I hid from it. I don’t know why, I just did. But then again, I had no motivation to do anything with myself.

Then one evening, towards the end of the summer, I just went out for a walk. I walked all over. Metric’s Collect Call was playing through my iPod headphones, and I was soaking up everything there was to see, enjoying everything this city had to offer. It was that day, that I decided to go out and live.

No more sulking. No more pacing. I was free. Free of the boredom, and ready to start living my life. Let me tell you, it feels amazing.

So I offer this to those of you who are interested. Leave whatever has bothered you in the past, and get out and live. Live in the present. Live for yourself. Most of all, live out that happiness.

I’ve found my happiness in life, my OneHealthyWay you can say, and I want to share it with everyone who reads this. Through this blog, I will be chronicling everything; from the adventures I take to the people I meet. I want to inspire happiness in all of your lives. So together, let’s get out there and live.

-Eric Vitale