One thing most people miss in health is the element of safety. It’s the secret to health that most people overlook or neglect while searching for a quick fix. But without safety, nothing changes. Learn why inside this post.
Most people want to live healthy. The question isn’t about desire. It’s how do you achieve it?
I got into the health space to save people from their health struggles (namely weight loss). I thought if I could help you lose weight, I could make you happy, and this passion fueled my work.
But five years in, I realized many people are fighting through health, doing all of the ‘right things’ and not getting results. These same people have poured their lives into something that has never given back to them. A problem so large that it left me questioning the method of chasing health. I realized there had to be something different.
I realized we are missing health because we’re neglecting the only thing that creates change within your biology, your level of safety. No matter how many “right things” you do, if your body isn’t safe, it won’t change.
The outcome you experience is directly related to your level of safety.
It’s the untold truth about health and the very thing you need to understand to change. Inside this podcast, we dive into how to create safety inside your body and produce the outcomes you desire. Stop being your own worst enemy and create the lasting change you’ve been looking for by unlocking this secret to health.
There is a multitude of things your health might be missing. Not just wants but things you need. But underlying all of these is one of the most overlooked and underrated necessities of human change and health.
The Secret To Health: safety.
Safety is a human necessity.
If your body feels unsafe, it will stay stuck in old loops. Doing things you don’t always like, potentially even hate, but as long as they’ve kept you safe, you’ll continuously repeat them.
A lot of times, what is safe is also comfortable, pleasurable, and enjoyable. Things like:
- Eating ice cream after a hard day
- Binge watching Netflix
- Drinking a glass of wine to settle down at night
Of course, not all of them are enjoyable. Anxiety can be an all-consuming beast that openly eats some of us alive. But it’s a beast we welcome into our lives because it makes us feel safe even if we know it is a false perception of reality.
All of this proves safety is the top priority for your body. Safety equals survival, and survival builds patterns your body deems safe.
The hierarchy of safety.
I find no coincidence in understanding how the hierarchy of safety relates to our ability to change.
There are two components required to meet your biological safety needs:
- Biological needs like nourishment, rest, and energy.
- A healthy psychological perspective.
Both are needed to experience change and make it last!
As Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs shows, your physiological needs determine the health of nearly everything else in your life! Including how you love, relate, live confident, forgive, think, and create.
I don’t want to pass the blame on the health space, but I think we need to put a spotlight on it, shining a light on the way it has messed with our physiological needs through deprivation and restriction, and even sheer neglect that has changed everything about our life.
Allowing you to fall back into old patterns that build deep-seated beliefs, keeping you stuck in old cycles.
Not because anything is impossible but because you’ve learned to neglect the things that create safety in your life, therefore, neglecting the things that make change possible.
Creating safety starts with your body.
You are more than a body. But your body is the vehicle for you to live and experience life this side of eternity. The health of that body is the first step in regulating the safety of the whole.
We’ve flip-flopped the equation.
Health is not about neglecting your physiological needs for the sake of change, but change requires you to meet them.
Physiological safety is determined by:
- How deep or shallow your breaths (deep breathing is one of the best ways to trigger safety).
- Meeting the caloric and nutritional requirements of your body.
- Hydrating your body (not to confuse that with fluid consumption).
- Getting adequate sleep each night.
- Having suitable clothing, you feel comfortable and confident in (I’m not making this up. It is a real trigger of safety).
- Having adequate shelter to keep your body safe.
When you mess with any of these needs, even if someone calls it ‘healthy,’ you risk firing your safety bells, leaving you running back to your old patterns. Not because you choose to but because your subconscious drive to survive felt necessary to keep you alive.
Proving you didn’t get here on purpose.
- You didn’t choose to gain weight. It’s what your body determined was safe.
- You didn’t choose to binge.
- You didn’t choose to engage in that behavior.
- You didn’t always choose your addictions.
It’s not to excuse these patterns but to remind you that you’re not a failure because of them. It’s just a misunderstanding the world has led you to believe. Making you feel like you have more power when it’s actually making you powerless.
The Secret To Health: Safety begins by meeting your body’s needs.
It’s no surprise that the secret to change is creating safety. It’s choosing not to neglect your health for how you look but choosing to nourish it, knowing it’s the only way to change.
You have to meet your physiological needs. You have to fuel your body with energy.
Don’t overcomplicate it. Just show up and do something.
Health is action. It’s what you do.
5 ways to Create Safety In Your Biology
01: Eat for nourishment, not based on calories
How you nourish your body is the number one indicator providing information on safety to your body. An undernourished body (even if it’s well-fed) triggers the body to move into conservation mode simply because it doesn’t have all the nutrients it needs to complete the job it was designed for. Instead of looking at food based on energy, understand it based on its nutrient value.
02: Prioritize Rest + Play
Work and even stress are necessary in life. Arguably, your body craves them. The problem is not stress but a lack of balance within it. Prioritizing rest is critical to the health of your body, but it also helps you reach the relaxation state, moving out of the stress response and creating balance. The same is true for play. Play isn’t just for kids. Adults need to find that sense of adventure, curiosity, and time to kick back and enjoy life. It’s not a wish. It’s a need.
03: Plan Your Days and Meals
Inconsistent meal times create stress and fear inside the body, especially when this has become a consistent and repeated pattern. Inconsistent meal times create an obsession with food because you live uncertain of when and what your next meal will be. Meal planning can diminish this stress by creating a rhythm, taking away the last-minute panicked decision that often leads you to swing by your favorite drive-through.
A plan creates safety because it leads to more certainty. I’m always a fan of planning in all aspects of life. Not to create a rigid structure but to set boundaries keeping you on the path you want to move in. This planner is your ticket to success if you need help planning meals and life.
04: Work on Your Mind Loops
Your body repeats loops. Loops and cycles provide a system of safety, especially inside your mind. That’s why you tend to repeat the same thoughts day after day and get stuck in patterns of emotions. But what you think builds the perspective that filters your life. A negative perspective keeps the body stuck in survival, preventing you from experiencing any real benefit from positive change. In change, you must understand the power of thought loops and how to shift them. Learn the power of creating healthy thoughts here.
05: Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
Change is going to require you to do a lot of hard things. Scary things. Uncertain things. Things that will fire off the alarm bells of your inner security system. Ultimately creating change takes discipline to engage with things you don’t necessarily want to do, like walking away from your creature comforts. But you’ll more likely engage with these things if you recognize it won’t be easy, but you have the tools to support yourself through them.
Want to learn more + Unlock the Secret To Health:
Do you want to create change, change the power of your thoughts, unlock the secret to health and live differently? To live healthy? Check out these resources that will help you learn more, and follow along inside The Weekly Fill to put it into action!
