Health has been hard. I want to emphasize the has as a past-tense explanation. Because while it might have been difficult, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to live complicating health. It’s only difficult because we’ve let it become that.
Perhaps not you personally, but the endless external ideas about what health means are overwhelming, even confusing, but only because we’ve neglected to understand health for what it is. And in the process, we’ve over-romanticized the outcome of health that we’ve neglected the process.
When you romanticize the outcome while hating the process, you create a fantasy of health rather than the reality of it.
I get it. The end goal is enticing. I don’t think anyone can argue that we’d love to rock our skinny jeans and never have to worry about getting sick again. We’d love to arrive at that destination of health forever and always.
But health doesn’t look or work like that. Honestly, I think that’s more of a gift than we let ourselves believe. Health is a flow. It’s growth and movement that is changing as we change. Because of that, it requires you to embrace the process.
The process of living health makes it personal and practical.
In this podcast, we talk about romanticizing the process of living healthy and the top five ways to stop complicating health so you can start living it.
Complicating Health is a trap.
I’ve spent too much time complicating health, only to realize that was preventing me from living it. Even as a nutritionist, I had difficulty deciphering what was up and what was down. I was so confused in the web of health that I didn’t know what was good or bad.
No wonder so many people are confused.
It feels like someone is promoting something different everywhere you turn, leaving you to question what is right for you. The confusion and overwhelm are part of the reason I quit health over six years ago. I hated the chase health had become. I didn’t realize then that quitting health would open me up to see it in a new way.
To see it as personal. As simple. As something to be lived, not chased. That’s why I’m passionate about this topic.
Confusion is a distraction that keeps you from living out health. When you break up with the fixation that health is confusing or even complex, you create the space to see it in a new way. To see health as possible and even as part of you.
But the only way to get there is to change your view of health. Here are five ways to stop complicating health so you can live it.
5 ways to stop complicating health
01. Romanticize the process, not the outcome.
The only way to change your view of health is to redefine it. Health is not a noun. It’s not a place you arrive or a destination you achieve. It’s a verb. Health is the action you take. Understanding that allows you to shift from romanticizing the outcome to romanticizing the process.
Humans don’t engage with things they hate or feel unsafe. That means you have to fall in love with the acts of health. You have to fall in love with moving your body, feeding it nourishing food, and living in a community. Really, you have to fall in love with yourself. In the process, you engage in loving acts.
Health is always about what you do to support your body. It’s a process, and when you spend more time engaged in the process, you will reach the outcome. But the only way to engage the process is to find joy and pleasure through it, even in and most importantly in the difficult acts of self-discipline.
02. Embrace the struggle.
Every good thing comes with a cost. Costs are part of achieving the rewards. The most important question you can ask yourself is, what is worth the cost?
But instead of seeing it as hard, difficult, or even a struggle, all emotions that will naturally keep you stuck repeating old cycles, you must know the purpose. You have to see the good in the struggle. It’s the only way you’ll engage with hard things.
The struggle has to have a purpose. When you embrace that purpose, you can embrace the struggle.
All good things take work and self-discipline. In some cases, it comes with a temporary cost. But the wisest person is the one who can see beyond it to the other side. You can see the reward in the struggle, and that reward helps you embrace the struggle.
03. Focus on Fewer Things
Feeling overwhelmed is one of the highest forms of complication. Often, we create our own overwhelm by trying to focus or fit more things than are humanly possible on our plate.
Instead of toying with the all-or-nothing mentality that forces you to fixate on every living and breathing second of your life, pick one or two things you want to focus on and become a master at them.
Don’t diminish the power of the interconnection of everything we do. One thing can affect a multitude of other things. Engaging in one healthy activity will affect others because it’s changing you, which means changing what you engage with.
Don’t get overwhelmed in doing everything, but focus on doing just a few things really well. I promise it will change all the rest without the added work.
04. Commit To Doing
One of the most significant shifts from romanticizing the outcome to romanticizing the process and uncomplicating health is to do something. It’s easy to overanalyze what the perfect thing is to do, but perfection in health doesn’t exist.
The only thing that matters is that you do something. You take action. You create health.
It may be wrong, but the only way to know is to try. And when you know, you can shift and produce action in other ways. That’s the living power of growth. Doing something produces energy, and that energy produces motivation to continue.
Don’t wait for motivation, but do something to create it. Health is action. It’s what you do.
05. Change The Story Daily
The story you believe is the story you live out. If the story of health is full of complicated narratives and overwhelming ideas, you’ll never make progress. You’ll forever and always work in circles, wanting health but hating the process.
To break free, you have to change the story. You have to shift your belief from what felt impossible to what is possible.
Changing the story changes the outcome because it changes your thoughts, creating your actions. But changing the story doesn’t automatically diminish the complicated story of health. It will take time to overcome that, so you must stay persistent.
Daily, you have to remind yourself health is not complicated. It’s an action. One thing can change a multitude of other things.
Remind yourself daily the new story about health, that health is simple. Health is inside of you. You have all of the resources and tools to live it out. Now, choose to do that.
Additional Resources To Stop Complicating Health
My passion at The Living Well is to help you uncomplicate health and live it! I’m passionate about making health simple. Proving you have everything you need to live it inside of you.
Weekly, I share the best tips and lifehacks I’ve lived to help you get healthy and live happy. I believe happiness is the only way to live healthy. Sign up for my newsletter here.
I’ve rounded up a few additional resources I thought you might like!
