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Hello and welcome to The Live FAB Life Podcast!

Before I get to today’s topic, a couple of housekeeping items:

First, if you’re not already part of my email community, I’m shifting from a weekly to a monthly newsletter. As a Projector, not only will does this help me better manage my energy, in doing so, it’ll help me curate a more meaningful communication with you. The monthly newsletters will include updates on new podcast episodes, offerings, specials, personal insights and what I’m into in the moment! If you’re not get a part of the community, there’s a link in the show notes to join – its free!

Second, also free is my “Healthy x Human Design” program. You’ll want to check it out as it introduces Functional Nutrition – which spoiler alert – is not exclusively about food, Human Design, and how, when married together, bridges the gap between you and your health. You can access this free program at www.livefablife.com.

I recently had two questions posed to me. The first question was, “What do I see collectively playing out in the health and wellness space?” And then secondly, “How do I see this space evolving in the future?”

I love this question and as a Projector health coach, I feel so seen by having this invitation extended to me!

Today, I’m going to share my perspective on this in three parts – what played out in the past, what’s currently going on and what I’d like to see in the future.

I grew up in an age where social media didn’t exist. So, I learned about “health and fitness” (because wellness wasn’t mentioned” through mass media, meaning books, television, the news, magazines like Shape, Fitness, Health. Are these magazines still around? I used to have subscriptions to all of them. My friends would love to come over on a weekend because they knew I had all the good magazines; we'd lounge and watch Law and Order while reading these magazines.

This is where I got my health education from because “PE” aka physical education in school was anything but educating – all we did was play a different sport every two weeks. So, whenever I wanted to learn about something new, I’d head to Barnes and Noble, and I buy all the magazines I could find on that topic, because magazines were usually more current than books.

And this isn’t to mention the articles on health in other magazines like Cosmo, Glamor or People – such reliable sources on healthy information.

All of these magazines are how formed I formed my beliefs about what it meant to be healthy and the common theme they all projected was that being healthy meant having a certain physical aesthetic – healthy meant thin.

It took me a really like long to learn that wasn’t true – that you could be thin and still be unhealthy – as I learned when I overtrained. That was how I came to learn that you can be thin and be very unhealthy.

And so that really my wake-up call came when I was reading Runners World magazine. I’d been reading it for a few years when one of the columnists, who I’d been reading for a while wrote a column about how they’d just started running.

I was taken aback. Why was I reading her column and taking her advice when I clearly had more running experience than her?!

It really begs the question, “What do we allow to influence us?” “How do we come for form our beliefs?”

Historically, for most of us, our beliefs around health came from magazines, television – the morning shows, the evening news – and we still see these stories, particularly around the new year.

Now, with social media, things have evolved.

Not only does social media gives us access to the experts that the mass media turn to for their articles and stories, but social media also give us access to ordinary people.

It gives people like you and me a voice to share about our stories and our experiences - it levels the playing field.

But it still exposes us to conditioning.

It we have something that we’re curious about or a problem we’re struggling with, we go online and search for people who can help you with it – either based on their professional expertise, personal experiences, or sometimes neither and it’s just someone you like who experienced what you’re struggling with.

You relate to them. You relate to their story. It resonates with you.

So, you follow them, either consciously or subconsciously because you wonder if the solution that helped them will work for you too. It’s great because it can help you build awareness and learn things that we may not have known about related to what we're experiencing. You might be able to finally make sense of something you're experiencing.

For example, I've shared in past episodes that I had SIBO several times. If you're not familiar with it, SIBO stands for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. The anatomy of the digestive system and how it ties to Human Design digestion is something I cover in my Digestion 101 program. But SIBO is a digestive condition where there’s an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestines. It's very uncomfortable, very unpleasant, and it’s not fun to have.

I’d been having chronic digestive issues that felt like was more than IBS. I would not have known about SIBO if I hadn’t seen someone talking about it on social media. I followed along as they shared their experience with it and I thought, “Wow, that sounds really similar to what I’m experiencing.”

I gained awareness and long story short, I researched it, went to get checked out and sure enough, I had it.

Another example is when I had a running injury that I couldn't figure out. At that time, I wasn’t very connected to my body and all I knew is that I literally had a pain in my bum.

But one day, on social media, I saw a fellow runner doing a treadmill test. It had been determined that the runner had an issue with their piriformis and the treadmill test was part of their rehab.

I had never even heard of the piriformis before, but after watching this person share about it, I researched, then went to get checked out by a doctor and then physical therapist and sure enough, I also had an issue with my piriformis that was causing me pain.

So. social media is a great way to build awareness, learn, and connect with ordinary people.

It also creates community because you can find someone who went through what you’re going through or who’s going through it now too and you feel an immediate camaraderie with them, whether they know you or you know them. Just by following them you feel connected to them.

You feel seen because connecting with them makes you feel like you’re not the only one dealing with what you’re going through - that you're not alone.

But here's the thing that it’s so crucial to be cognizant of.

While social media can be fantastic in building awareness, educating, bringing humor, community and connection to your life, you have to always be mindful that what works for that person you follow may not work for you.

Mo two people are the same. Nor are the events and circumstances that bought you to your current state now. It’s not apples to apples, no matter how much it may seem that way.

There's will always be varying conditions, outliers, the things that make you unique - different from them and makes them different from you.

So, while you may be facing the same or similar problems, and/or even if you may both be working towards the same outcome, you may take very different paths to get there.

What ultimately worked for me to get rid of SIBO turned out to be a little different path from the person who I learned about SIBO from.

My path to healing my piriformis was very different from the path of the person that I followed who I first heard it about from.

I know that you know this and that I'm preaching to the choir, but let’s be honest - we all go to the internet to look for solutions, right? It's not just doing a search on WebMD or consulting Dr Google anymore. We go to social media.

And this what I see currently going on in the health and wellness space.

We have a problem we’re trying to solve, we find somebody that we like, that we resonate with, who's experiencing the same things that we have.

We find out what they did and what they didn’t so that we can try it too.

I’ve been asked what supplements I take, or what lab worked I’ve had done, or what plan I followed.

Well, I can tell you what supplements I take, but I’m also going to tell you why I take them because I take the supplements I take for very specific reason.

I take kelp because my last lab work showed that my iodine levels were low. I take iron because my last blood work showed that my iron levels were low. But if my next lab work shows that my iodine and/or iron levels are optimal, I’m not going to take them.

So, I understand why someone might ask what supplements I take but understand that what I take is very personalized to me and you shouldn’t base your decisions on taking supplements based on what I take. This is why I’m often hesitant to talk about supplements and this sort of thing because I know – I KNOW – someone will watch it and not understand the context and then start taking the same supplements too. It’s happened before.

This is the type of behavior that’s I currently see going on widely in the health and wellness space.

Now, looking towards the future, I see things evolving with a shift inward towards self-understanding and embracing our bio-individuality.

My hope for the future is that this trend continues, and we equip ourselves with the tools to deepen understand ourselves - how we're designed, what makes us, us, and to have a bird’s eye view on how various factors contribute to the current state that we’re in today.

And a bird’s eye view includes our personal health histories, our familial and genetic histories, factoring in environments that we’ve lived in and the environment that we’re currently in. All these things have impact on our health and well-being as it stands today.

What’s going on with your work – is your work enjoyable? Is your workplace enjoyable? Or is every day a stress-filled battle?

How’s your social support system? How are you in community?

Finances?

Are you in alignment with your Human Design? Can the tension and friction that feels like an uphill battle be alleviated by following your Strategy? Your Authority?

I recently spoke with someone who suspected they had SIBO and they asked me, “What do you think caused it?”

It’s not just one thing, it’s the perfect storm of a lot of different things happening for this condition to manifest.

It's what you do every day - how you take care of yourself. Are you prioritizing sleep? How do you process and manage stress? Are you resilient in the face of it? How do you feed yourself? Do you move your body? What’s your genetic history?

All these things matter, which is why I offer my bespoke services – a Human Design Playbook and reading, and a Functional Nutrition Assessment where together, we take a look as your design, or your personal history, family health history and what’s going on with you right now to get that bird’s eye view and see the big picture so that the action plan we put together is completely customized – “bespoke” specifically to you.

So, the next time you have a struggle, and you open the internet or social media so “find solutions” I hope that we can absorb information with context – with the understanding of who we are, how we got here, and to have the discernment to know what is correct for us at the current place in time and what’s not.

Context matters, so my hope for the future is that we can take in all the information that’s constantly coming at us from all different sources and use it to build awareness, education, bring us into community, but always with context.

And with the self-confidence and trust in us to take what you need and leave what you don’t.

And I see the trend starting to take place – that we take what we need now and leave what we don’t because what we may have needed a week, a month, a year, five years, or 10 years ago, can be very different than what we need today.

When we know who we are, how we got here, and we follow our Authority to know what’s correct for us, that’s having the self-confidence and self-trust which is the most important skills we need when living a healthy and balanced life that leaves you feeling free and empowered - free from the pressure and conditioning of doing what everyone else does or what you’d been told to do, and then empowered to pursue the path that is correct for you.

Now, I'd love to hear from you. How have you come to form your beliefs and opinions about health and wellness? Were you influenced by mass media – magazines and television like I was?

What informs your beliefs today? What do you see evolving in the future?

Find me over in the show notes at livefablife.com/287 for Episode 287 or find me on Instagram at @livefablifewithnaomi.

And if you'd like to find out more about how I can help you, go over to my website at livefablife.com/workwithme, where you’ll find my complete offer suite. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out so we can determine what’s your best path forward.

Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and attention with me. I'll see you right back here again next time. Bye for now.