Your ‘Zest’ is a magical quality … living life with a sense of adventure, excitement … being motivated in facing challenging situations and being in love with life!
To put in in a much more simple way, when we have ‘Zest’ … we’re living!
Our zest is a measure, a reflection and indication of our vitality. It’s what inspires us, lifts us up, propels us forward and breakthrough our barriers … it’s a dynamic expression of our aliveness!
Those who have zest exude enjoyment while approaching various tasks in life. This joy may be an excitement we have, as a reflection of our enthusiasm, willingness, courage and passion we exude.
Our passion for living may be described as a delightful, exhilaration with exuberant experience … a ‘zeal’ or otherwise just simply known as ‘love’. Hence with ‘Zest’ we love life more!
It’s difficult to imagine someone who’s highly zestful to be unhappy. Also, as being almost a magical quality, we may say that our zest is almost an extra-ordinary super-human strength that we have. So, we may ask, where does our zest come from?
Our ‘Zest’ has specific components. One component, is the virtue of courage. Zest may be said to be living life with a sense of excitement, approaching life as an adventure, being motivated, in facing challenging situations. Zest is said to be, essentially a concept of courage, and involves acquiring the motivation to complete challenging situations and tasks. Those who have zest exude enthusiasm, excitement and energy while approaching tasks in life. Hence, the concept of zest involves performing tasks wholeheartedly, whilst also being adventurous, vivacious and energetic. Enthusiasm is much more than just a general interest in something. More-so, it may be described as an eagerness, drive, keenness and exuberant expression of life!
I suggest that to measure our zest:
As we awake, in the morning how to we look forward to the day? Also, throughout the day, as our level of eagerness and willingness to get started on a project. How well we participate in life, rather than just being a spectator from the sidelines.
How satisfied do we feel, as we retire at night with our satisfaction of what we’ve done throughout the day. Our measure of zest my be reflected by our calling, and satisfaction to our work and life in general. Also by our creativity and artistic expression,
Zest may be assessed by how much of a positive attitude we have, how well we approach a situation. How zestful are you in your everyday activities?
In our work situation, Zest could also just simply be our morale, a positive attitude or perspective. It seems that those who love their job have the highest zest, while those who have low job satisfaction have the lowest. In such individuals, it may seem that the character of ‘zest’ can be almost contagious.
I discuss about ‘Zest’ in much more detail in the upcoming Awakening-Awareness’ course. Later, in this course, we’ll examine how to to set the tone for enhancing our zest. However, for now, the two main ways of promoting zest is with improving our health and physical fitness. Hence, also our vitality. When we have ample vitality, we feel more alive!
Also, our ‘Zest’ can be cultivated through enhancing our thoughts and resolving our emotional issues. We can cultivate an enhanced zest with good habits. Being aware of our thoughts and our overall mental outlook can be enhanced and sustained through some simple ‘life-style’ practices.
An enhanced Zest for life can benefit us in so many ways. It’s intrinsically linked to our well-being on a physical and mental levels. It’s also linked to so many other areas of our life, such as our productivity, relationships and lifestyle in general. Our ‘zest for life’, physical and psychological well-being affects our performance. Increasing zestfulness is highly likely to increase our happiness.
Zest can be applied in every aspect of life to bring out a more positive change in our life. Zest, along with gratitude, hope, curiosity and love, are important aspects of building a positive character. Those with the high levels of zest tend to excel in their chosen spheres of life and lead happier, brighter lives.
To boost our Zest, more emphasis needs to be placed on developing positive characteristics such as a positive gratitude, hope, curiosity and love. A good Zest encourages strong positive emotions that can benefit us. Zest is most likely linked with higher levels of life satisfaction. With a high zest, also comes a healthy curiosity, appreciation, gratitude, hope, and humor. This is because it is associated with living in the ‘here and now’.
Zest seems to also grow with having accomplished some goal, achieving results and attaining some sort of success. Hence, this suggests that firstly, there’s some sort of a challenge too be conquered to therefore gain success. Hence, it also suggest some sort of adaptability, resilience and building of our strength and character.
Other ways to help cultivate more zest is by believing and acting ‘as if’ … which basically involves a “faith-based” approach. Adopting strong body language and positive verbal affirmations may help, as well as a ‘faking it until you make it’ approach. That is, continued until that increased enthusiasm is a reality and an increase in zest is a reality.
Another approach is to take an inventory of your strengths. Simply, as we acknowledge and work on cultivating these strengths we can observe correlations with an enhanced satisfaction with life, and zest. We all have certain strengths that we can build on. Just as Zest can be an important characteristic to cultivate life satisfaction, also visa versa. As we strengthen our character, we also enhance our wisdom, self-empowerment and well-being. Along with reclaiming our self-empowerment, also comes wisdom, increased happiness and zest for life!
Remember when we were young, as a young child excited about the day ahead of us. Especially when on holidays, being in anticipation about what adventures await us. As you awake, how do you feel about the day ahead of you? How excited are you to jump out of bed and get into your day? Simply, rate your the level of enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life you’re feeling with a number from 1 to 10.
Then again, as you’re retiring at night take a moment to reflect back upon the day and observe how satisfied you are about what you’ve achieved, how you participated and the satisfaction you feel. Again, now as you reflect, simply rate your the level of enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life you’re feeling with a number from 1 to 10.
Remember, we’re not conducting any medical diagnosis here, we’re simply monitoring how we are … and to make an honest assessment. To get it a bit more grounded for those who wish to grasp the nuts and bolts of it all, it’s about living a better life!
Your ‘Zest-Test’ is an easy, simple test to assess your enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life. This initial ‘Bronze – Zest-Test’ is simple short quiz and should only take just a few minutes to complete, then you’ll get a basic ideal of your level of ‘Zest’ … as an indicator to help assess your enthusiasm, vitality, joy and passion for life.
To get started – do this simple ‘Zest-Test’.
Later if you wish, you may choose to progress to the more involved levels of ‘Zest-Testing’ as you’re ready.