Are you over-complicating your health?

I've been facing my own health struggles over the last few months as I'm recovering from a period of stress. 

In this episode, I share what I've been facing over the last months (and exactly what I'm doing to get back to vibrant health!)

In this episode you'll learn:

1. Where you're over-complicating your health (and how to make wellness simpler!)
2. 5 Key Foundations to optimal health (that you've probably forgotten!)
3. Strategies for simplifying your wellness journey
4. Why trying to regulate your nervous system can be a waste of time in managing stress
5. How to identify your core "stress wound" (and how to heal it!)

Links:

1. Menstrual Cycle Syncing 101: Optimizing Nutrition, Exercise, Self-Care, and Work to Unlock Your Hormonal Advantage (podcast episode)
2. 8 Pillars to Vibrant Health (and Where to Focus for YOUR Optimal Wellness!) podcast episode 

Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be SO grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

I’d love to connect with you on IG: www.instagram.com/bindistables

Visit my website for more resources and ways to work with me: www.bindistables.com

Chapters

• 0:04 Back to Basics
• 6:04 Benefits of Daily Nature Walks
• 9:56 Back to Basics

Transcript

Bindi: 0:04

Welcome to the Vibrant you Podcast. I'm your host, bindi Stables, and here we talk all things wellness and vibrant living. You'll learn about integrative health, functional medicine, holistic biohacking and enjoy raw and real conversations on personal growth, mindset and motivation. Raw and real conversations on personal growth, mindset and motivation. Optimize your body and mind and become the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant. You Enjoy the show.

Bindi: 0:35

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Vibrant you. We are switching it up today and I am actually recording this on a little walk that I am doing a little sunset walk, and so I'm inviting you with me, and you might hear some birds chirping, you might hear some roosters, you might hear the odd car go by, but the reason why I'm recording on a walk today is I feel a little thread of inspiration come through as I'm walking, and that is to return to the basics when it comes to our health. So this is something that I am coming back to again and again. I remind my clients all the time is sometimes when we're crossing different health experiences, whether we have something going on with our gut, our energy, our mood has been lower than usual, we're having some sleep disturbances or having some issues with our hormones, wherever we're at in our healing journey, it's really easy to get caught up in all the really complicated stuff. I know for me, sometimes my mind forgets the importance of the basics and I go straight to what are the supplements I need to be taking, what are the expensive therapies, what practitioners do I need to go to? And so this is really just a message or a reminder that there is so much in the basics and if we are not eating clean food, we're not eating organic, we're eating processed foods, we're eating out. You know, we're not getting our several thousand steps a day, we're not drinking enough water, we're not sleeping effectively, we're not having time in our day to rest and unplug. You know, all these really fundamental, basic and super important things to consider when coming into optimal health. If we're missing these things, then we're really missing the foundation, and all of these fancy therapies, all of these sexy supplements that are so fun to take, will really only get us so far if our foundations are not in place. So this is something that I've been really coming back to with my own health.

Bindi: 2:31

I am human, just like everyone, and of course, these last few months I've actually been crossing my own health struggles. I went through a little period of stress, more than usual, had lots on my plate, took on way too much. I'm sure some of you can relate saying yes to things. My body was saying no, not super on top of my menstrual cycle sinking, you know, which is how we eat and nourish ourselves and practice self-care in alignment with our natural feminine hormonal rhythms and I have a whole podcast episode on that that we'll link up in the show notes if you're interested in learning how to sync your eating habits, your exercise habits with your menstrual cycle to really unlock your hormonal advantage. But I have not been doing all that. I must say that I have fallen a bit off the wagon and I have been working more than usual. I have not been managing my stress so effectively and so I've been feeling it.

Bindi: 3:26

You guys, my last few periods have not been dreamy. They've certainly been not optimal and I've actually had a lot more pain and cramping, which really only happens to me when I know that I'm out of alignment with my hormonal rhythms. And, of course, I work with women in this spot all the time. I am my own ideal client, and the advice that I'm always giving the women that I work with that I'm really reminding myself of right now is to come back to those basics. So that's my invitation for you is where are you outsourcing so much of your health into these fancy, sexy things? Where are you over-complicating your health? Where are you finding gaps? Where can you find gaps in your health and wellness foundation? So let's go through a few key areas, and this is really what I am zooming out into and getting back into a rhythm, getting back into a strong foundation of to really optimize my health and hormones, as I'm in my own little healing portal over here in these last weeks. So I'm coming back to exercise.

Bindi: 4:28

So this is a big one and I really realized that over these last few months of it being more yeah, just experiencing way more stress in my body than usual, I noticed that the usual exercise that I was doing was really starting to deplete me. So, meaning my daily gym routine and Pilates routines, you know, I remember about a month ago leaving a Pilates class and not even a HIIT class, like, don't get me wrong, I like my HIIT, depending on where I'm at in my cycle, but really it was just a good old 50-minute Pilates class and I left the class absolutely shaking. Like I sat, uh, in the cafe to go grab my, my breakfast and, um, as I was, like I did it was sometimes I'll bring my computer to the cafe and do a little work in the morning um, before taking my clients and my hand was literally shaking as I was typing in my password to get into my computer and this was a really big sign to me that my body was in a state of depletion, that I was in a state of hormonal like heading towards hormonal burnout, which burnout if you've never experienced. It is not just a buzzword, for I'm tired, but it means that you have the lab tests to prove it, and I've been in burnout before, a couple times actually, and I do not. I know the warning signs and I do not want to go back to that spot because I know the challenges of it. I know how hard it is to get out of bed, I know what proper burnout does to our mood, our energy, our hormones and then, of course, how that impacts literally every other area of our life. So I'm coming back to movement in a different way.

Bindi: 6:04

For the last three weeks, I have let go of all forms of exercise besides walking, and it's not very sexy, it's not very exciting, but I must say that I am getting so much out of my sunrise and sunset walks every single day. So right now I am in this amazing biohack wellness stack experience, going on this sunset walk for you, with you. So I'm in nature, right, that's the first bio stack is I'm in nature. Right now. I'm walking through nature. I am absorbing all of these negative ions that nature produces. I'm earthing or I'm grounding right. So I'm getting on the earth, I'm getting exposed and in connection with the earth. Oftentimes what I'll do at the end of the walk is I'll take my shoes off, I'll do some stretching in the grass or I'll just plant my feet or lay my body on the earth for a nice little shavasana or relaxation.

Bindi: 7:00

So we're getting the negative ions, we're getting nature, we're getting sunlight. So, especially for my sunrise walk, we're getting that sunlight on our skin and in our eyes in those early morning hours. Now this is so powerful for our circadian rhythm, this is so powerful to reset that dineural rhythm inside of us, our sleep-wake cycle, and it helps with serotonin production. We're getting vitamin D, you know, with the sunlight on our skin. So such a powerful way to start our day is with this morning sunlight. Now the other thing that we're getting is we're moving our bodies when we walk. So you get this beautiful flood of endorphins and dopamine and all of these amazing chemicals that make us feel really good.

Bindi: 7:41

And then sometimes when I go for a walk with a friend or often I've been running into my friends on my morning walk a lot of the people in the community that I live will get out nice and early and go for a walk. Then it's this beautiful social time and I get to stack, you know, these wellness habits with hanging out with a friend and, of course, then you know, when we're in community and in connection, we get this nice boost of oxytocin, which is so invaluable for our mood, our energy levels and so on. So that's one of the main things that I'm doing is I'm really coming back to movement and coming back to the basics. Even with exercise, sometimes we overcomplicate it. We think, you know, unless I'm doing these crazy training workouts or we're doing crossfit or these really intense you know movement classes or practices, that we're not getting the benefits. But sometimes we just really need to zoom out and like how much are you moving in a day?

Bindi: 8:30

I had no idea, you know, before the pandemic I was so active and for work, I was active and I was constantly walking around and moving around and you guys, I'm I wonder if anyone can relate but literally the pandemic hit and I was like, wow, online work, opening up my virtual practice. That's amazing. I have freedom of location, I can work from anywhere in the world and I love this so, so much. But I had no concept of how sedentary I had become and this is coming from someone who really prides themselves on being active and being healthy and taking care of myself. But the truth is is you can be doing an hour of exercise every single day, but if you're on your computer all day or you're sitting in a desk all day or you're sitting in your car on a commute for hours in the day in traffic, you know that is sedentary living. Unless we're really active and moving around throughout the day you know, moving around in the office or walking up and down the stairs in our apartment buildings you know that we're really not getting the level of activity that we need. So another thing that I'm coming back to is food so healthy, organic, nutritious, delicious food, which is so, so important. So I'm really coming back to the basics Now, one of the things that I kind of let myself slip on right, and I really, you know, compared to the average person, I'd say I eat extremely clean.

Bindi: 9:56

We eat organic as much as possible, we cook at home as much as possible, we eat a very wide variety of plant-based foods. But one thing that I was really lazy on is in eating out, and especially with seed oils. So this is a big one and I've really, over the last few weeks and months, like really asked every single restaurant that I eat at what types of oils they're using when they cook. And these are healthy, vegan, plant-based restaurants that I never even considered to ask, I never even thought to ask, because they're meant to be these super clean, amazing places. And as I'm asking all these restaurants what type of oils they use in their cooking, I'm so shocked A lot of these restaurants are using seed oils.

Bindi: 10:47

So the last I asked two restaurants today, because I'm just on this mission right now to really just notice where are the gaps? Where am I missing the foundations? Where am I taking all the fancy, sexy supplements but still eating seed oils from time to time, and sometimes frequently. If it's a busy day and I'm eating out two meals that day, then twice in that day I'm exposed to highly inflammatory, toxic, genetically modified oils, which is not going to kill you once or twice, but when you're taking it again and again or twice a day, this really does have such a cascading effect on our body and this inflammatory process that goes on inside of us.

Bindi: 11:26

Okay, so that's food, really clearing out the seed oils, really coming back to the foundations of nutrition, really like looking at my labels again, like what products have I, just like you know, bought once or twice? And they just be like I don't drink oat milk, I don't drink almond milk unless it's fresh and homemade. But even just looking at like some of my sauces in my fridge or condiments and whatnot, and just noticing where I got a little bit lazy, like oh, it's harder to find the clean options. I'm just going to get this, I don't eat it too often and that's great, having a balanced mindset and not being in extremism is great. But I realize again that that kind of yeah, being lazy, I'll call it being lazy in some areas over time has added up and I've been noticing the effects of those little gaps, those sneaky little spots that I've let go of or became a little too lenient on, and the impact that I've noticed that has had on my body, my mind, my spirit and so on.

Bindi: 12:26

Another area that I'm coming back to, another basic hydration. So this is something like seems so funny, right? Drink water, drink clean water. You probably have some sort of water filter at home that you're drinking. I assume most people you know that are listening to this podcast. You have an awareness of. You know you're not drinking too much tap water. You're trying to drink more clean, filtered water of some degree, but are you drinking enough?

Bindi: 12:50

So that's something that I really realized is like unless you're really tracking, we don't actually know how much water we're drinking in a day, and if we're not aware of how much we're drinking, then we can't possibly know if we're drinking enough of how much we're drinking, then we can't possibly know if we're drinking enough. So what I've started doing is I just have I have a one liter reusable water bottle that I love. I love that it's eco-friendly, I love that I'm not using plastic and what I do is it's a one liter bottle and so I just know that I need to drink two to three of those a day, right? So different bodies need different levels of hydration. Of course, I live in the tropics, I'm down here in Bali and it's hot and sweaty all of the time, so I need a little bit more water here than maybe someone in North America that doesn't have the same level of heat here. You know, in your country as here, but typically as an average person, we want to be drinking at least two to three liters of water filtered water per day. So, again, if we're not tracking, then it's really hard to know what that is. So I highly recommend if you're just drinking out of glasses, you know, that's great, but to really have a measurable, easy to measure way of measuring your water, just go buy a liter water bottle and then you just fill it up two or three times, right? So I usually finish my first water by breakfast, right? I always hydrate upon waking. I hydrate a bunch when I'm on my morning walk and then usually a little bit when I finish my walk. That's one liter, and then I just know I need to drink two or three more of those throughout the day.

Bindi: 14:16

Okay, and then there's one more area that I'm coming back to the basics with, and that is really stress. So this is one that we constantly need to be working on and focusing on when it comes to optimizing our health is really just being aware of our stress levels. So of course, I try my best. You know I love my yoga, I love my breath work, I love my, you know, evening routines and all of these things that help me manage stress. But one of the biggest things that I've noticed over this last while my response to very natural stressors that I've just been noticing a bit stronger of a reaction to than what I would normally experience. So what I've been really zooming out to is less about trying to manage stress through practices and trying to calm and regulate my nervous system through things like yoga and meditation and breath work. That's all so, so great, but something I've just really had in my awareness lately is what is my deepest core wound, what is my stress wound that is causing me to react so significantly to all the different events of life around me? Like, what is it inside of me, inside of my mindset, inside of my you know patterning, my belief system, that is causing me to have these larger than needed reactions to certain events, right? So, for example okay, this is, I feel, a little bit shy sharing this, but I'm going to do it anyway.

Bindi: 15:43

So I was at this therapy the other day, which is an amazing therapy, and it's called EBOO E-B-O-O Extracorporeal Body Oxygenation and Ozonation. It's an amazing therapy for detoxification Maybe. I was there and there was four tables inside of the main room to do this therapy and all four of the tables were about to be occupied and so there was one small room kind of like off on the corner alone on the opposite side, like nobody's coming in or out of it. And I walk into the room and there was four other patients to be treated with this Igloo therapy and they assign, you know, the four other people, those treated with this eboo therapy, and they assign, you know, the four other people, those beds in the main room and I was the last one, and so they assigned me the bed in the other corner and it's kind of like it's Indonesia, right.

Bindi: 16:32

So it's a bit dingy, it was a bit dark, it was gross, it's kind of far removed and it was impressive the little voice in my head that popped up and what happened was it was kind of like I was feeling a little irritable, I was feeling a little bit annoyed, you know, just like the nurses just like couldn't get it right in my experience, and I was just feeling like not my happiness be calm, normal, self, right, and it was really sweet. I was like what's going on inside of me, like why am I feeling so irritable? And it was really cute to bring to my awareness that a core stress wound was triggered inside of me and one of my deepest core wounds our deep core wounds are the fixed beliefs that we formed in childhood about who we are, how the world works. And it's just like these core beliefs that really filter all of life's experiences through this filter, helping us to interpret and make sense of ourselves and the world around us. And one of my deepest core wounds is that I'm not important or I don't matter, or I'm not significant. Okay, and for one person, you know, they could have sat down for this therapy and been taken to the other room and if they didn't have this core wound of I'm not important, they would just be like oh great, I have this like peaceful room off to myself, nobody's going to bug me, all good.

Bindi: 17:43

But for some reason, or for very obvious reasons, this core stress wound was triggered and my mind interpreted that moment and interpreted me going into this other room as oh see, look, I'm not important enough, I'm not significant enough, I don't matter. That's why they're just putting me in this like, like putting the puppy in the corner, kind of thing. Now I can laugh about this because it wasn't a conscious like. It wasn't a conscious thing, I wasn't consciously thinking oh see, the nurses don't care about me, I don't matter. But what I could notice was I was a little bit like sticky and felt like a little bit irritable, felt a little uncomfortable, felt a little bit cautious and even nervous about the therapy, which had nothing to do with the nurses and everything to do that my core stress wound was touched and I was having a moment of experiencing this wound that I don't matter, right? So this is where so much of the mindset work really comes in.

Bindi: 18:36

So, by becoming aware and identifying that core stress wound, whatever that is for you, right. Mine might be that I'm not important, I don't matter, and yours might be that the world is cruel and you know you're not safe, right, the core wound could be I'm not safe, or I'm not significant, or I'm not lovable, or I'm not worthy, right. And that becomes the filter upon which we see the world and any minor inconvenience in our day will trigger this wound inside of us, and that is what we're responding to all day, every day. So you can be doing all the yoga in the world and everything possible to regulate your nervous system, to calm yourself down, but, again, unless we're really taking care of that core stress wound that is really the underlying source of so much of the dysregulation that we experience, then our yoga and our breath work can really only do so much. So that is all for today.

Bindi: 19:28

I am so glad that you came on this walk with me. This was so much fun and, if I check back and the sound quality was a-okay, maybe I'll do more kind of podcast episodes like this, where we'll do little wellness walks and I'll just share the musings of my soul and what I'm experiencing in life and thoughts and realizations that I'm having, and hopefully they can inspire you too. So that is my takeaway for you all Come back to the basics. Where are you over complicated things in your health and wellness journey? Where are the gaps that you can really zoom out, see the bigger picture of your health and start to fill in that strong foundation for optimal health and well-being everything from cleaning up your nutrition to getting more walking, walking more steps in a day, you know, working on those core stress wounds, drinking enough water, really coming back to those basics, because it's in those basics that we unlock true optimal health and well-being. I'm sending you so, so much love from a beautiful, sunny sunset and I'll see you back for another episode real soon. Take care.

Bindi: 20:28

Thanks so much for listening. If you loved today's episode, please spread the love by subscribing and leaving a review, or if there's someone in your life that you think could benefit from this conversation, please share this episode with them. I would love to hear from you over on instagram at bindi stables, or visit my website, bindi stablescom, to connect and work with me. Thank you so much again for being here and I'm celebrating you in this journey of becoming the happiest, the healthiest, most vibrant you.