Embracing Wellness with Intention: The Pitfalls of Overconsumption and the Power of Personalization
You know where to receive the tips and tools, but how do you then apply them?
All too often I see the same common mistake which is the over consumption of wellness tips and tools. Like anything, you need to practice moderation, even when it’s something that is “good for you”. Just because it’s good for you, doesn’t mean that you specifically need it. On top of that, you need to take the time to truly understand if it’s helping you or not. We don’t all need all the things. Even tho it can be enticing to want them all, trust me, I’ve been there. I get it.
You don’t need them all and you especially don’t need them all at once.
This advice comes from experience, not judgment. You should earn your way through wellness, just like anything in life, by taking the time to do it. To have an experience with it. To understand it so that you can then apply it as you see fit. It can’t simply be handed to you via this or that. You can’t take a shortcut to catapult you to the next level—you’ll miss the whole point. It’s also not a checklist to complete or get done, there is no ending to your wellness checklist so let that go. Rather, there are skills to acquire and tools to educate yourself on. There is learning to be done and that comes with interaction and your full participation. It also comes with time. I’ll keep repeating that until the demise of the “30 day anything”. 😆
This is where the moderation comes in.
If you’re trying 5 new things at once how will you what is or isn’t helping you? Plus, how can you really master any of those new things when you’re trying so many new things at once? Where do you find the time? It’s like trying to learn three new languages at once, why would you do that? Doesn’t it seem more logical to learn one new language at a time? What’s the rush??
It’s OK to experiment and try new things, that’s one of the key elements to living well and to being open to the possibilities of healing, but don’t just do something to do something…don’t bandwagon onto every trend and new product. I’ll repeat, you don’t need them all. Especially all at once or in a short period of time for that matter. In wellness, and many things in life, less is more.
If you’re the one that takes all the classes, tries all the latest new therapies, tries all the latest diet and nutrition trends, tries new supplements, is constantly listening to podcasts, reading self help books, and “working” on yourself this post is especially for you.
Reflect on the famous saying by the one and only Coco Channel when it comes to your wellness practice and routine, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” in other words, simplify.
The most important part that is all too often overlooked is the “why” behind things. I was taught at some point in school to ask “why?'“ 5 times before coming to a conclusion. I love this advice. It takes you deeper, beyond the surface. And that’s what wellness is. It’s a deep dive into your mind, body, heart and spirit.
Every new practice and therapy taking you even deeper to a place where the answers are found, where the changes are felt, and to the source of where the new questions arise from. If you go into wellness with a “this is going to fix me” mindset, it’s going to be a rough road. Rather, if you approach your wellness with a “how does this work and how will that help me specifically AND how can I apply this to my daily routine?” then your path will be revealed. You can’t outsource your inner work— your participation. Sure, you’re going to get help, but you need to understand what and why you’re doing what you’re doing… and just because you’re best friend in wellness is doing it isn’t a good enough reason for you to do it.
Stop giving away your power. If you want to be well take back your power by earning your wellness. Invest in it. And not just financially, but physically, emotionally, and energetically.
To moderate and apply things, you must first understand their impact. To understand the impact of something, you have to do it (application), observe any changes, and then make a decision from there. This takes time. If you’re still looking for a quick fix, STOP—unless you want to keep feeling like you’re on this on again off again relationship with feeling well and ultimately, with yourself. You are worth your full attention and time.
What does this look like practically?! I love giving examples and sharing stories, I find it easier to grasp things in that way.
Example: You’re feeling sluggish with a little brain fog, you hear that trying a gluten free diet might help. How do you apply this?
Try and elimination diet for at least 3 weeks. This means for 3 weeks you eat ZERO gluten. Not a bite. Remember, you are in an experiment and if you mess with on of the controls, the results will vary.
In this same 3 week period, log your food. Everything. Even that little bite of chocolate or that handful of chips. Write it all down.
In this same period, track and note your symptoms, or lack of symptoms. Less (or more) bloat, more energy, less brain fog, etc.
At the end of the 3 weeks, take at least 30-60 min to sit and review your notes. Review your experience. How do you feel? What did you learn about you and your bodies relationship with gluten? Was there an emotional component? Physical? Mental? Really take the time to sit with your experience.
Let’s say you felt much better! But you were still a little bloated. When you scan your notes, you notice that on the days you felt bloated, you had “x” item. OR, maybe you notice you felt more bloated on days that you had more stress.
Maybe “x” item was a gluten free bread or other replacement item. Check out the ingredients, make a note of what’s in there, and cont. with your experiment. Continue to eliminate gluten including gluten free replacement items for another 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks, reflect again. Maybe your bloating is better, but you notice that your stool is a little loose on some days.
You google reasons for loose stool and amongst many things, you see STRESS can cause disruptions to digestion. Bingo.
You also read/heard somewhere that deep breathing can help with stress. You APPLY that yo your findings, to your experiment. Before each meal, you consciously breathe and slow down your heart rate, your energy, and focus your mind. You do this for a few more weeks while STILL eliminating gluten AND gluten free products.
You feel better! The bloat is better and your stool isn’t so loose—yay!
CONCLUSION: you now know that gluten and gluten free products cause you bloating. You also now know that your stress levels have great impact on your stool and digestion. You now have tools to manage and cope. You know that less gluten and more deep breathing are a great way for you to eliminate bloat, brain fog, and loose stool.
You hold the power now—not instagram influencers, google, or any doc or practitioner for that matter. You hold it.
With that power you now have the ability to make better choices for yourself. It doesn’t mean you’re going to take deep breaths forever before you eat, it simply means that if you are having trouble with digestion, you now have a tool that you have tried and tested that has worked for you that you can use in the future! You know the impacts of stress on your digestion and when you catch yourself in stressful moments, rushing to eat your food, you can remember this tool that you know works for you. You can apply it as you see fit. Same goes for gluten. Unless you have celiac disease, you get to decide if and when you eat gluten based on your personal tolerance level. And you now know your tolerance level because you took the time to actually find your gluten tolerance scale. Bravo!
You see, the practice and the time is what gives you the power. It gives you agency over your mind, body, and spirit. And your choices! As you continue with this approach, slowly over time, you accumulate your wellness practice based on things that have worked and not worked for you. And, as you can see, there is no short cut. If you really want to make lasting changes you have to show up and put the work in. It’s that simple. If you tried eliminating gluten in a half ass way, you’d get half ass results. Half ass results don’t help you in the long run. They actually just waste your time and will most likely confuse your path even more.
What’s a half ass approach you say?! Let me give you another example…
You eliminate gluten for about a week, then you go out with your friends or family and everyone is having pizza so you decide that you’ll just have one piece. The next week, you are out running errands and you need to eat lunch. You’re in a rush and just “have to pick a place” because you’re hungry. You choose a deli sandwich. For the next few weeks, you “try” to eliminate gluten, but you are very inconsistent. You logged your food a few times, but it’a a pain in the ass and you weren’t consistent with that either. You’ve been so busy, you didn’t have the “time”.
When the 3 weeks are up, you don’t feel differently and you make the assumption that it’s not gluten. Meanwhile, you have no good data to work with because you didn’t take any notes AND you weren’t disciplined with you control. How can you say it is or isn’t gluten??? How can you eliminate that as a culprit for your discomfort if you don’t really know?
To make it worse, you never take the time to reflect on the changes, but your guilt keeps you from eating gluten all the time because you heard somewhere from someone healthy that you should eliminate it to be healthy. So you keep “trying” to do it. Your bloat isn’t gone. So you add another tool. You heard about a great probiotic that will magically fix things. you purchase that. You add it to the mix. You’re still having bloat and now your stool has gone from loose to constipated. You hear fiber is good for that. you try to eat more. Or maybe you should get another supplement, you hear magnesium can help. and the spiral continues… you continue externally grasping while you negate the work that actually has to be done to get the actual results you are looking for. Can you see the difference??
Sure, my suggested option takes more time and effort, yes. But that’s the way it works. It takes time, there are no short cuts, and you have to participate. Period. Otherwise, you’ll keep chasing your tail with half assed results and feel you’re at the mercy of your surroundings.
And as always, if all of this seems overwhelming, there are amazing experts to help. Don’t ever hesitate to recruit help when you need it. That’s what it’s there for. Just don’t hold the expectation that anyone or anything is going to heal you. You have to heal yourself.