Does life feel weirdly overwhelming to anyone else lately? Like, if someone asks you to do one more thing, you might just physically implode?
Between the constant bombardment of noise - political, social, work, life - the utter saturation of social media content, the demands of doing all the things, and schedules that allow for zero down time, I feel like we’re all walking around like a bunch of existentially exhausted, over-soaked, soggy sponges. There’s no more room for anything else.
We done.
We’re busy and connected, but more disconnected than ever before. We’re constantly consuming things - food, drinks, content, noise - yet never filling the void. Our kids are on 3 sports teams each, we see people constantly, yet we haven’t had a real, meaningful conversation with anyone in ages. We’re trying to do all the things for our health, but we’re more burnt out than we’d like to admit.
If you’re feeling that way, you’re not alone.
Because you’re in this place of absolute max capacity, the thought of putting one more thing on your plate is too much.
Believe me, I get it.
That’s where things get tough for me, because what I’m asking of you feels like a lot - changing your habits, what you eat, how much you sleep, adding in exercise. Honestly, I think the thought of it alone is too much and it becomes a non-starter.
But I also know that taking care of yourself, especially now in the midst of whatever this is we’re all doing to ourselves, is more important than ever. And it doesn’t have to be all-consuming, complicated, or soul-crushing.
Your health is the most important commodity that you have.
I also know that if you started making a few small changes, you would absolutely feel better.
And when you feel better, you want to keep going. And when you keep going, you see changes. And when you see and feel positive changes, you end up more energized, thinking more clearly, more resilient to stress and your ever-demanding schedule.
So instead of asking you to jump into a 6-week program, or go all in on overhauling your health, let’s just talk about something so simple that you can do from the comfort of your own brain and body.
Just observe.
Seriously, that’s it. All I want you to do is pay attention.
How do you feel when you eat certain foods?
How do you feel when you get a good night of sleep vs. a crappy night of sleep?
What happens when you don’t eat all day?
What happens when you drink a bunch of sugary drinks in the morning?
How do you feel when you workout vs. when you don’t?
You’re already doing the things, now it’s just about making some conscious connections between the choices you’re making and the results they’re having. You’re simply observing.
Observing yourself and how you feel as a result of the choices you’re making is going to show you exactly what you need to see. You’re going to very quickly see some low hanging fruit.
The things that are so obviously having a positive or negative impact on your health.
The things that are the easy fix. And right now, we all need easy.
You feel like garbage the next day when you stay up til midnight scrolling on your phone.
You feel bloated every time you eat bread, pasta, and baked goods.
You crash hard in the afternoon when you drink sugary drinks in the morning.
Your workouts suffer when you’re fasted vs. when you’ve eaten something.
You have sustained energy every time you eat a good, protein filled breakfast.
You have more energy all day when you’ve gone to bed by 10pm.
You don’t even have to go searching for these things - they’ll appear if you’re paying attention.
So give it a try. Observe.
And here’s an extra tip: take the emotion out of it. Pretend like you’re observing someone else’s life. Treat it like a scientific study and just gather data. When you do X, the result is Y.
Once you have that info - the power is yours to do with it what you want. If your goal is to feel good, feel your absolute best, then the answers become very simple and you just get to make a choice.
Do you want to feel better, or do you want to stay the same? If you want to feel better, then you’re going to have to do things differently. If not, things will stay the same. But don’t worry, we’ll get to that next time.
For now all I’m suggesting is for you to be present in your body and start getting some feedback. The answers will come to you. All you have to do is pay attention.