Dr. Jeffrey Gladden says vitality comes from regularly challenging your body, nervous system, and brain in safe, incremental ways. Mastering new skills like slacklining or using a Bosu ball triggers endorphins, oxytocin, and dopamine. Progressive challenges build growth, confidence, and lasting happiness.
The bones like to be challenged. The muscles like to be challenged. The nervous system likes to be challenged. The brain likes to be challenged, right? And yet we kind of are in this comfort society, right? Where it's like, well, I'm comfortable in my chair and I get that. But really the key to vitality is really continuing to challenge yourself, you know, in safe ways, incremental ways. But I find it really kind of exhilarating, quite honestly, to feel yourself get better at something. It's really, it's kind of one of the joys of life is to feel yourself get better at something, whether it's learning medicine or whether it's learning to balance on on a slackline or an endo board or, you know, a Bosu ball or whatever you're working with, right? So there's a lot of joy that comes out of it. And I think that's something that people miss. They feel like they have to do it because it's like a thing to do. But actually that mastering something, that learning something, that challenging yourself creates so much joy. Then you get all the endorphin rush and you get some oxytocin out of it. You get a lot of other things that are super helpful to us, right? You know, you make a great serve, you make, you win a match, right? There's a lot of dopamine, a lot of, you know, a lot of joy that comes out of that.
