It's all in your head

Have you ever been told by a healthcare practitioner such as your GP that your health problems are all in your head? It’s the last thing you want to hear, and it doesn’t help you feel better.

But, what if I told you there is some truth in the statement?

Your health is a reflection of many factors including your genetics, the environment in which you live, the food you eat as well as your lifestyle. Other than your genetics, the majority of the other factors are the result of decisions you make on a day to day basis. Think about what you ate for breakfast, how you spent your lunch hour and what time you went to bed last night? These decisions might seem unrelated to the current symptoms you are experiencing but the reality is that they do play a role in your health, and if you want to experience optimal health you need to become more aware of them.

The thing is, making good decisions about your health is vital for you to experience good health and this is more likely to happen if you are feeling well. Does that sound confusing? Here’s another way to look at it – the food you eat and the way your nurture your body can have a positive influence on your health and making healthy choices begins in your head. This can be challenging at first, but studies have shown that making one or two new healthy choices leads to noticeable improvements in a person’s health and this in turn leads to further investment in their health over time. Something else to consider is that new habits take time, so if you have been trying to stick to a new way of eating or going to a weekly yoga class give yourself some time – experts say that it can take up to a year for a new habit to form.

Having support is also key to staying on track. It means that you are more accountable and more likely to continue with your new changes. If you think about it, that’s why people will do well on structured meal plans where there are good resources to support their progress. Often once the program ends and they ‘go it alone’ their old habits begin to show up again. Support can come in many forms and many people find that joining a like minded community such as their local gym or connecting with friends who have common goals can provide them with the positive mindset to stay on track.

Finding a holistic practitioner who can support you to reach your optimal health can be very positive. Naturopathic medicine views the body and mind as connected and that our health is very much determined by the factors I have been talking about. A naturopath can provide you with a plan to reach your health goals and the support to enable you to get there. The key is to make the decision to start and once you do this you begin to feel better. And that’s when the magic begins!

So, while your symptoms are not all in your head, making some new choices, with your head, about the way that you live your life is a really positive thing to do for your health.