The Big Problem With "Wellness" That Is Preventing Your Success

I was reading a quote from a friend recently that had some good advice:

"I do not trust the thoughts that my brain manufactures when I'm stressed, anxious or depressed.

I recognize my thoughts are equivalent to my state of being and that I should center myself before making any important decisions."

They are right - when we are feeling stressed, anxious, and depressed, our thinking literally becomes limited.

This is a product of how our psychology is designed.

Feeling stressed, anxious, and depressed are all symptoms that there is a lack of energy (Mg-ATP) in our system, which then turns into "danger" warnings in our psychology.

When these warnings go off, our brains stop being creative and go into "survival mode".

It seeks the fastest, most efficient way to get out of whatever perceived "dangers" exist.

However, the fastest and most efficient paths often aren't beneficial, and it leads to more problems quickly.

So working to center yourself and reduce stress, just as wellness professionals suggest, has some benefits.

However, there is a larger problem that most Wellness professionals are completely unaware of which prevents you from having long-term success.

The Dis-Stress Problem

Any time our body experiences Dis-Stress, certain parts of our physiology react to help us "survive".

It's an automatic process that we generally don't have much control over.

When the processes begin, certain neurochemicals get produced in the body, which is extremely energy (Mg-ATP) demanding and takes a heavy toll on our body's resources.

Our bodies will utilize anything currently available to create this energy and the neurochemicals to "survive", even if it isn't the "optimal" or "best" way to do it.

See, the body is really smart, and has come up with a lot of backup plans in case something isn't ideal.

It is great in some ways, but terrible in other ways.

Why is it terrible?

Well, based on a variety of factors - from food production, to medications, to the general lifestyles we tend to live - our bodies are missing many of the essential building blocks that are required to produce these neurochemicals and energy.

However, there isn't a direct way for our body to tell us this.

The best it can do is go into anxiety, stress, and depression as a way to attempt to get us to do something about it.

However, since this feels exactly the same as stress from work, relationship stress, or any other kinds of problems we all experience, we don't recognize the deeper problem.

The body goes into survival mode, the survival mode is energy intensive, we are not putting enough of the right building blocks into our bodies to turn the survival mode off...

You can see the problem.

What's worse is we are told that if we just "center" ourselves, or do meditation, or red-light therapy, or ice baths, or take medication, we will get better.

But then we don't.

Over time one of two things happens.

It gets dramatically worse, very quickly, and we break down and crash.

Or more often, it slowly gets worse, often imperceptible until it is too late.

Sure, you may do one of those "solutions" and get a short form of immediate relief, but the underlying problem is getting worse.

Instead of "getting better" your "baseline" is slowly dropping and you begin to adapt to a "New Normal" that isn't normal at all.

You become "Centered" in the moment, but your "Center" today is worse than last week's "Centered", and significantly worse than last year's "Centered".

You know it's true.

None of us want to admit it, but we all know it's true.

Deep down, we feel it's all slipping away.

The Leadership Impact

As a Leader, it is your responsibility to alleviate the stresses that are occurring with your team.

But how can you do that when you can't even do it for yourself?

How can you take on the burden of other's stresses when you can barely hold yourself together?

You can't, no matter how much you want to.

You have felt your baseline getting worse over the years.

You have probably been told it is because of aging, but that's not true.

In fact, according to science, we should feel significantly better at handling stress as we get older, not worse.

By design, we stress less of an issue as we age.

But you know you're feeling worse.

One more straw might be all it takes to go into burnout.

Or more likely you've been burnt out for a while now, and that straw may break you completely.

You are supposed to create solutions, but you can't.

There's too much stress, anxiety and depression.

Your mind is in survival mode, eating up more resources.

You've tried meditation, journaling, setting aside time to think, time-blocking, expensive therapies, and retreats.

They all feel like they work in the moment - that's the "finisher's high" though.

A week later, or a month later, you're back to where you were as the high wears off.

Likely it feels worse, and you're right, it is worse.

Your baseline is continuing to drop.

The world tells us this is "normal", because a large majority of people are experiencing the same thing.

The truth though, is that it is not normal.

We are all just so sick, and anxious, and stressed out, and depressed that we no longer know what "normal" is supposed to feel like.

It isn't even your fault - the science showing that more and more often we are being born without the building blocks we are supposed to get.

So we didn't even know what "normal" was growing up.

You likely have never actually experienced "normal".

No matter how "centered" you become, it isn't helping with the real problem.

As you continue to Lead, your ability to succeed dwindles until it is all over.

The Solution

Every problem has a solution though, even this one.

You need to understand what your body "truly" needs to thrive.

I use that word intentionally - we shouldn't want to just "survive", we should seek to live amazing lives where we thrive.

But it won't happen until we repair our stress damage, and truly fix our baseline at a microscopic level.

For stress damage specifically, you need to understand the relationship between three primary minerals - Magnesium, Iron, and Copper.

There is over 100 years of scientific literature (including Metastudies) that has looked into this relationship, but very few people have taken the time to read that research and put the pieces together.

It's something that I specifically studied and got certified in so that I could understand it at a deep level to help Leaders.

The short of it is that when we feel stress, anxiety, and depression, this becomes unbalanced and causes huge problems all over our bodies.

Fix that balance, and you can fix the stress, anxiety, and depression you feel.

Fix that balance, and you can have the ability to look at your life and challenges clearly.

Fix that balance, and being "centered" doesn't have to be something you struggle to do.

Fix that balance, and you will have the ability to Lead at new levels.