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Our third entry into this little mini project is a doozey! A common conversation and "ah-ha moment" with clients, and a REAL BARRIER to allowing yourself to be a healthier happier human.
My next favourite point on Gretchen Rubin's Secrets of Adulthood list is....
Most decisions don't require extensive research
*Imagine this point is flashing in big, bright letters and almost intensifying as you stare at it; so much so that it nearly is hitting you in the face!
This is a hot topic in health. And to be honest, it's not always easy to approach from the practitioners side. We in no way shape or form want to discourage clients from researching how to better their health. That's a great thing that they care about their health. Unfortunately, the reality is most people are searching, researching and "learning what can be done", but are doing nothing. Instead of getting healthier and getting better at leading the healthy lifestyle they choose, they're getting better at thinking about it and researching it.
Reality Check Points to Consider
-To best take care of your deep health, you don't need to do anything fancy, earth shattering or new.
-To improve your deep health you HAVE TO TAKE ACTION (not just think about it or talk about it).
-To learn what works for YOU, you have to EXPERIENCE it yourself. Then adjust accordingly.
-Information you learn is great - If you USE it. Many of us are caught in the trap of "learning how to be healthier" and doing NOTHING for any amount of time to see how it works out.
-The longer you research / look for information, the more likely you are to confuse yourself, overthink, overanalyze and inevitably scare yourself out of doing something. You'll become good at searching rather than doing.
-In our information overload world, how do you know what information will take you down the right path for you? Just what sounds good? What is similar to something you've heard before?
-Today (April 16th, 2024 as I'm writing this post) I just Google searched "Healthy Habits". From that search Google gave me 559,000,000 options of websites to choose from. Google also gave me the most popular websites first (very kind eh?). But does popular mean right for you? Does popular mean credible information?
Back in the Day
Maybe I'm dating myself here, but I was FORTUNATE enough to live in the pre-internet world, where information was definitely tougher to come by. I'm not saying the internet is bad. As many professionals are eluding to, such as Cal Newport and Dr Greg Wells, it's not that our technology is bad, but rather HOW we use it can be a detriment to our health and wellbeing.
Before the era of information overload that we live in, you self-experimented. You'd either get a small piece of information you could try (or not) OR you would just try something and adjust as you go. It was pretty straight forward. There was very little overthinking. Now, we have access to anything and everything, all the time and we can bury ourselves in "research", info and even planning how we might want to do something for our health. Even in our information abundant society, self-experimenting and experience are your best teachers. These two acts will tell you if something is RIGHT or NOT ... FOR YOU.
To Ease Your Mind
To conclude this post let me point out another piece of reality. For the general population (that's most of us), deep health can be achieved with very basic practices and mindsets...
We DO NOT need to specialize in something.
We DO NOT need to know everything about every spectrum of our deep health.
We DO NOT need to break down the chemical make up of our food to math equations and micronutrients to eat well.
WE DO NOT need to do any one thing to be healthy - there are MANY things we can do.
We DO NOT need to know everything about health, physiology and the human body ... Because you WON'T.
Remember, professionals who work in the health and wellness industry (Health & Wellness Coaches - that's me! - , doctors, physios, athletic therapists, massage therapists, chiropractors, nutritionists.... ) experience and study these subjects DAILY for an entire career, and are ALWAYS learning new things. NEVER "catching up" ; Because that's not how nature works. In health and wellness, we WILL NOT EVER know everything (another reason why we have specialties within various professions - to help narrow the focus).
As the regular, every day human beings; Let's start taking ACTION and DOING things to improve our health, rather than constantly seeking "all the answers". We DON'T need to know WHY it works for us in many cases - We simply need to know THAT it works.
*Side note - This is another argument for hiring a Coach! This is what I've learned in my career after 20-years of not understanding the impact this has on clients. A Coach can help you with your mindset, your approach and help you form a "functionally effective reality" with your health and wellness pursuits. A Coach can help "reel you in" during those times when you're overthinking, overanalyzing or even being stagnent because of it.
Want to chat more about how a Coach can help? https://www.zenergywellnessstudio.com/wellness-health-habits