Have you ever felt overwhelmed when making health-related decisions?
With the large amount of health information available today and the heightened emotions many face when experiencing health challenges, it’s easy to become overwhelmed quickly.
Today, let’s discuss overcoming overwhelm when making health-related decisions. I’ll provide you with a simple process to decrease overwhelm and increase clarity.
Simplifying Health
Before we dive fully into today's newsletter, I want to zoom out and simplify the concepts I explained in Wednesday's newsletter with a visual to help us understand the inputs we need to create optimal health and well-being.
When you look at the bigger picture, remember you are a body of water. Your cells are made of over 99.9% water. The images in the visual below represent the inputs you need to ensure that water stays clean, healthy, and functions properly. When the water in our cells is disrupted, we often experience health challenges.
I've created a simple graphic below for the more visual learners to understand some of the inputs that create optimal health by maintaining the water in our bodies.
Shifting Your Mindset Around Health
As a society, we've been taught to look for the ‘magic pill' when it comes to improving our health. We want that one magic pill that will change everything and make our health 100% better… forever.
The truth is that working with your health is a process that will grow, change, and evolve as YOU grow, change, and evolve. Think about the seasons – you need different foods and practices to support your body as the seasons change. And as you get older, your body's needs change as well. It only makes sense to see our bodies as living, breathing, ever-evolving beings.
Approaching your health as an ever-evolving experiment rather than a static state that you're looking to ‘fix' once and for all creates an open, flexible mindset around your health.
And, as you begin to experiment with and explore what your body needs in this stage of your health journey, it’s important to be conscious of how you approach those changes.
Overcoming Overwhelm
Have you ever tried to make multiple New Year's Resolutions at one time and ended up feeling completely overwhelmed?
When you try to change too many things at once, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and fail at making lasting, meaningful changes. For some, this can lead to feelings of defeat and giving up.
As you approach your health journey from this new, flexible mindset I described above, the one powerful shift you can make is to focus on one meaningful change at a time.
Instead of trying to change everything all at once, I invite you to start by making changes in one area of your health. I know this sounds simple, but by changing one thing at a time, you can track if it’s actually working and make adjustments as needed.
I invite you to ask yourself the following questions to identify your starting point with those changes. If it’s helpful, you can pull out a journal and reflect on these questions to help identify your next steps:
- What area of my health am I struggling with the most?
- What, specifically, am I struggling with?
- What changes have I made in the past that have worked?
- What changes have I made in the past that have not worked?
- What resources, education, or people might I need support from to fill in the gaps in my understanding to create meaningful, positive change?
As you start to develop an understanding of your actual problem, it becomes easier to identify its solutions.
As an example, if you identify that your most significant challenge regards the type of movement your body needs as you go through cancer treatment, instead of looking at all of the options and information surrounding how to heal through cancer, you can focus your time and energy in the area of movement.
Instead of listening to every podcast about cancer and exploring every complementary treatment option, you can reduce overwhelm by focusing solely on the area of movement and exercise until you find the solutions you’re looking for.
Once you integrate those changes, you can move on to the next area you'd like to shift.
Remember that the first solution you try when you start focusing on movement solutions might work or it might not. But with an open and flexible mindset and a commitment to focusing on that one area, you can find the solutions that work best for you over time.
Taking one step at a time might sound easy, but many people forget this as they navigate the decision-making process.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments. What’s the one area of your life you’d like to begin with that relates to making positive changes in your health?
Much Love,
Dr. Katie, The Conscious Oncologist
The doors to my virtual practice are OPEN
Are you or a loved one currently going through treatment for cancer or other chronic disease? The doors to my virtual practice are officially open and I would love to support you in healing the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual root causes of disease. You can learn more on my website katiedeming.com and click the ‘BOOK ME’ tab to schedule your 1:1 consultation.
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DISCLAIMER:
This Blog in its entirety is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider regarding any medical questions or conditions.
