Many, if not most, people today are dealing with chronic, lifestyle driven health issues. These issues could be diagnosed health conditions but often they are sub-clinical, lingering symptoms that doctors are unable to fit into a well-defined diagnostic box, like digestive complaints, low energy, skin rashes, mood swings, poor quality sleep or food intolerance. Many of these health issues are reversible yet people learn to live with them.
This raises an important question: what is stopping people from doing the work to bring their bodies back into balance? There are many possible reasons for this, including overwhelm, confusion about what to do, conventional medicine’s focus on symptom management rather than root cause resolution, and certain environmental influences that are partly outside our control.
Additionally, there are a few myths around healthy living that stop people from taking action. Let’s have a look at what these myths are and unpack them.
Myth: Healthy living is boring and restrictive
One of the reasons that people ignore nagging signs and symptoms or choose pharmaceutical interventions over diet and lifestyle changes is that they fear having to give up the good things in life. We take immense pleasure in a good meal, a drink, or smoking a cigar, and we are terrified that we are going to have to give up all these pleasures to pursue long-lasting good health.
Life is all about balance. If you have put into place habits that support your health on an on-going basis, if you are strong, healthy, and without any symptoms; you can be flexible. If, on the other hand, you are pre-diabetic, overweight, dealing with chronic allergies or gut issues, you need to first restore your underlying imbalances. You will need to be careful with your diet and lifestyle choices until that balance is restored (and yes, it can be!). Once it is, you will have built enough resilience to step out of your normal “healthy” routine from time to time and have that drink or enjoy a slice of cake.
Myth: Whatever happens,happens. It’s all part of a plan
Some people choose to believe that our life is predestined, written in the cards and that everything is part of a larger plan. They choose to throw all caution to the wind, because hey, whatever happens, happens.
Relying on destiny alone is a dangerous strategy, especially if your choices have the potential to significantly impact your future quality of life and the lives of the people that depend on you. Ignoring your symptoms can lead to a long path of declining health that involves medication, doctor visits, hospitalization, and other treatments.
A better strategy is prevention and arming yourself against environmental influences that interfere with your ability to be your best. This means doing the work to find out how to support yourself in the best way possible, while allowing destiny to do the rest.
Myth: There is a magic bullet
Who doesn’t like a shortcut? Advertising strategies are often created to tap into this desire: “purchase our product and your happiness is guaranteed: you will look beautiful; your spouse will love you and you will feel great.” The world of health and wellness is no exception. We are continuously bombarded with promotions for diet strategies, supplements, or other interventions that make you think you have found the answer to all your problems.
In health, everything matters: what you eat, how you move, how you talk to yourself, your relationships, stress levels, the quality of your sleep, your connection to something bigger than yourself, and your environment all influence how well you feel. You are a complex being and everything in this perfectly designed structure called your body-mind is interconnected.
Health optimization requires you to address the entire foundation and all the imbalances that exist. If you think you can short-cut your way out of this, think again!
The good news is that that optimal health is within reach, and it isn’t as complicated as you may think. It requires a personalized, step-by-step, approach that I have written about in my book “Unlock Your Health.”
Choose to be the healthiest you can be and prepare to live your best life.
(Monique Jhingon, Functional Nutritional Consultant and Author)
