Andy Vasily: Darkness, Movement and Self Discovery
“I had to really reflect deeply on my own life after I lost my second brother. It was the hardest thing to kind of look at. What was it within myself that allowed me to move forward in ways that my brothers couldn’t?”
ANDY VASILY
Andy Vasily is an educator who wants to push his understanding of teaching and learning to a deeper level. Andy decided to begin blogging to share his teaching practice and connect with other educators and top researchers around the world. The value that he saw in this exchange of vision and practical applications led to an enriched professional learning journey that he has shared with practitioners and scholars alike.
This conversation is a continuation of our first conversation you can listen to here. The first conversation covered Andy’s experiences related to travel, recovery, and connection. In this conversation, we expand on Andy’s inner exploration, starting with darkness in his life and experiences. Andy shares what works for him to keep the darkness from overwhelming him. We expand on the ideas of self-discovery and reflecting on your journey to help guide others on there own.
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Show notes:
[00:04:54] Experiencing Darkness
“And, kind of mask what we have to deal with, to move forward. And for me it was, it was, growing up in a, in a family, where there was mental illness, there was, there was an addiction, there was depression. Just try to stay away from it and go to far corners of the house just to be away from it. There were five of us in the family. I was the youngest in the family, and for me, it was easy to escape as the youngest person, and just kind of find my own little area of the house to be in and then do my own thing.
But you know, it's like depression and addiction as you know, when you experience it, and you move forward, there are lots of different things that you can learn from it. And I think it took me a long time to learn the things I needed to learn to move forward and in very proactive ways in my life.”
[00:09:26] Why focus on mental health?
[00:11:17] New Year's Resolutions
[00:12:32] Moral Weigh Stations
Esalen Institute | Michael Murphy | Finding Mastery
“Michael Murphy talked about, having these, these moral waste stations. So you're driving your car down the freeway, you know, or your, the trucks are going down the freeway and then they have to pull off into a weigh station.
They get weighed, and they move on. And that's how I'm looking at this.
I'm going to pull over. I'm going to go into this waste station just to kind of evaluate what I'm carrying with me, what I need to tweak, what I need to modify, what I need to let go. But it's more obviously the truck. If it's going to pull off the road and go to the waste station, it has a destination.
So on my own pursuit and my own destination of where I'm going, this is just a checkpoint. You know, along the way. So I'm not going to set this big resolution if I want to eat better. I'm not going to put this huge pressure on myself to eat vegan just because it's good for me.
I'm just going to choose to eat better. Yeah. And then check-in along the way. And it's okay if you mess up, it's okay if you screw up, you don't judge yourself. You'll learn from it, but you try not to repeat the same mistakes.
So I think when, you know, if we kind of go back to the darkness thing, if our goal is mental wellness, then we just have to continually check-in and allow ourselves, I guess time to make mistakes. We know we're going to make mistakes and, and just learn and move forward.”
[00:14:43] Two-week experiments
[00:17:05] What is performance?
[00:18:13] Creating a vision for movement
[00:20:14] The Power of Physical Activity
“I realized that after my brother Chris died, in 2014, the one that committed suicide, and I realize, Oh my God, I've been blessed with a moving body, and I've been blessed with finding the power and movement and John Ratey, going back to Dr. John Ratey, now it's brain science.
I mean the impact of physical activity. The neurochemistry of our brain is extraordinary, and they're figuring out more and more day by day. You know, like it's, they're finding out so much more about the impact of physical activity on the brain. Being active in exercising speaks volumes for what people need to do in their darkest moments.
My brother, who committed suicide, his happiest times were when he was working out regularly, and he had done it for about five years, five or six years, and then he stopped doing it. And you know, it's just like this thing that you just gotta have in your darkest moments when it's so hard to get out of bed.
And it's the middle of winter, and it's dark outside. All you have to do is to put your body into an erect position and put your feet on the floor, and then that's the first step to move towards the door. You know, and I, firmly believe this, and I share this. Every talk that I give, every presentation that I give, I share this with educators around the world.”
[00:24:27] Physical Activity and Mindfulness
[00:27:03] Answering questions while running
[00:31:26] Positive Psychology
[00:33:10] Innate or learned behavior?
[00:37:00] Giving away what you know
[00:41:56] Self-learning
[00:43:17] Having the right tools
“It's building the tools. Right. And that's what I'm trying to do, and that's what my wife's trying to do. To develop tools and to build our knowledge of the tools. To apply the tools in our own lives and to model what that's like and then to have conversations with our boys and with our students about those things.”
[00:45:01] Andy's Routines
[00:47:28] Giving yourself permission to explore
[00:50:42] Power of social interaction
“Which is huge when it comes to physical activity is having that social interaction piece. Either it be one friend or a group of friends or even if you're running alone. But that another friend is running 15 minutes after you or whatever, you're still kind of pushing each other too, you know, be active and do these things.”
Mike Taccona: Set Intentions and Self-Experimentation
Mike and Mary Taccona: Nursing, Travel in the US and Costa Rica
[00:52:47] Recommended Books
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
