Episode 313: Your Energy Isn’t the Problem—Your Wellness Plan Is
If you’ve ever wondered why the “just wake up at 5am and grind” routine doesn’t work for you, this episode is your permission slip to stop forcing it—and start understanding how your energy actually works.
You’re not broken. You’re just trying to follow wellness advice that wasn’t designed for your energy.
In this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on why your go-to wellness practices might be doing more harm than good and calling BS on the performative self-care trends and hustle wellness that leave you burned out and blaming yourself—and how Human Design gives you the blueprint to stop forcing, start flowing, and finally feel better in your body.
Listen to the Episode:
“If there’s one thing that I‘ve been advocating over the past decade of doing this work is the concept of bio-individuality—not just knowing that we’re all unique, but accepting it and truly understanding this because you when embrace the truth that there is no one on earth exactly like you, you stop holding yourself to standards set by other people.”
Read the Transcript:
Hi there! Welcome to The Live FAB Life Podcast, I'm your host. Naomi Nakamura. If you’re new here, and this is the first time we're meeting, I’m so glad you’re here! Let’s dive in, shall we?
If you’ve ever looked at your planner or Google Calendar, and thought, “Man, I’m doing all the right things, so why do I still feel like crap?”
Well, my friend, I want you to know that you're not alone in feeling this way--and you aren’t the problem.
The wellness world has fed us the same bland advice for years, regurgitating the same things in different Instagram sponsored posts over and over again.
“Wake up at 5am!” “Drink your celery juice!” “Meditate!” “Journal!” “Move your body!” “Spend the first 30-minutes after waking up in the sun!” “Power through your day! “Hustle hard”! “You can rest when you're dead.”
Meanwhile, your energy is quietly, or perhaps loudly, screaming. This. Is. Not. Working.
If I had $1 for every time over the past decade that I’ve been doing health coaching, I heard, “I feel really bad about myself because of all the things that I guess I should be doing, but I'm not…” I’d be considerably richer than I am right now.
Now, don't get me wrong, I’m not here to dog on wellness. I LOVE wellness. In fact, I recently went on a road trip to Los Angeles--that's why we didn't have a podcast episode last week, I needed some R&R time--and I spent some time in Santa Monica.
One of the people in my travel group wasn’t as familiar with Santa Monica and I am and commented, “Wow, there's a lot of wellness places here.” To which I said, “Yes, yes, there is.”
All those wellness places are why Santa Monica is my go-to place in LA.
I love all things wellness, well, maybe not celery juice, but I love journaling! And meditation truly calms my nervous system and on those nights that sleep eludes me, a sleep meditation helps me fall asleep and sleep restfully. And I don't work out because I “should” or because I “have to”. I do it because I love it. I truly do.
The point that I'm trying to make is--well, there's a couple of points.
If your wellness plan isn't working for you, don't force it. You can't do all the things.
I once heard someone say, “You can do anything and everything, but you can't do them all at once.”
Because when you try to do “all the things” especially all at the same time, it becomes counterproductive.
It becomes stressful and adds to your existing stress load. You feel anxiety about the things that you “have to do today” and guilt about what you’re not doing.
“I’m so tired and want to go to bed but I still have to write in my journal.” “I’m exhausted but I “have to” get a workout in.” “Oh, I didn’t take my supplements today – let me take all 10 of them at one time just before bed.”
At some point it all becomes the antithesis of what they're intended to be, why you’re doing all these things to begin with and what you hope they’re doing for you.
If this is you and you find yourself relating to any part of this, and you blame yourself, you hate your body, you berate yourself for “not having enough discipline to stick to the plan”, or you believe that your mindset still isn't strong enough, this episode is for you. And this episode is your permission to stop; just let it all burn down because the truth, my friend, is that there's nothing wrong with you.
There's nothing wrong with you. Your energy isn't broken. It's been misdirected.
Most of the wellness brands assume you’re a robot. They expect that you’ll respond to their products and solutions the same way that everyone else does.
As I was putting my thoughts together and preparing for this episode, I did a quick scroll on Instagram. I have the word “wellness” in my Instagram bio, so I get hit with all of the wellness ads.
All the different powders, green juices, devices - all the things that claim will help get rid of your stress, fix your bloat, and have you feeling unparalleled energy.
I’m not saying these things won’t help, but if there's one thing that I‘ve been advocating over the past decade of doing this work is the concept of bio individuality--not just knowing that we’re all unique, but accepting it and truly understanding this because you when embrace the truth that there is no one on earth exactly like you, you stop holding yourself to standards set by other people.
I’d like to say that you no longer compare yourself to others, but I think that’s something that’s so ingrained in us, but I can say that, at least for me, when I look at someone else and subconsciously compare myself to them, there’s a different context, energy if you will, behind it and it's somehow kinder in nature.
And not only are you bio-individually unique, you’re also someone, a human being, an individual with a completely unique energy system too – different from anyone else's.
When your energy doesn’t match the wellness plan that you’re earnestly trying to adopt and stick to, guess what happens? It doesn't work. And it leaves you feeling off, bad about yourself, maybe even a little depressed.
But you keep pushing, you keep telling yourself that you’re not doing a good enough job of sticking to your plan. You need to try harder.
My friend, that’s a clear path to a spectacular crash and burn situation.
Whether it happens through physical exhaustion, mental overwhelm, emotional outbursts, something happens that’s the direct opposite of what you hoped your wellness plan would’ve done for you.
Does any of this sound familiar? Or better yet, does any of it feel familiar? Maybe you’ve already experienced something like it. Maybe more than once.
So, let me say this loudly - it's not about trying harder, it's about doing things differently. It’s not about treating symptoms and putting band aids on root causes.
That app that you download to track your steps, or your macros won’t address why you’re not moving or why you feel the need to track your macros to begin with. It never asks you to track your capacity or how your energy flows.
They tell you to drink your green juice (and by the way, I actually like green juice, I find it refreshing), but that green juice won’t get your nervous system out of survival mode because it won’t address what’s causing it to be in survival mode to begin with.
Diffusing essential oils, getting a massage – these things won’t fix your stress because it doesn’t address what’s causing your stress to begin with. Because when the diffuser runs out and the massage is over, the cause of your stress is still there.
You’re sold a morning routine, but will that morning routine support how your energy flows?
Listen, none of these things are inherently bad, but are they the right solutions for you? Do they address the root causes of your concerns? Will it address the real reason that you're stressed, the real reason you’re not sleeping, why you’re really burned out?
They're treating symptoms, not the system—your system. Human Design changes this. Your design changes it. Your Type, Strategy and Authority tell you how your energy works--your energy, not mine, not anyone else's.
They tell you when you're meant to rest, when it’s time to act, and how to make aligned decisions. The definition of your energy centers tells you where you’re prone to conditioning.
Your design illuminates when you're being conditioned to do what's popular and trendy versus what's personal and correct for you.
Because your wellness practice should feel relieving, supportive - like a breath of fresh air--not bring about resistance.
It starts first with stop trying to emulate and copy whatever the latest trend is and or whatever the influencer you follow on Instagram is doing and start listening to what’s true for you.
Easy to say, not so easy to do, so here's a simple three step reset to create a wellness rhythm that actually works for you. And remember what I always say-- simple doesn't mean easy, but simple is the best place to start.
Step 1: Tune In
Start daily check-ins. Throughout the day, ask yourself questions like: What does my body feel like doing?
This is the first thing I ask myself when I wake up in the morning. I go to bed with an idea of what kind of workout I want to do the next day, but when I get up, I ask myself, “What does my body feel like doing today? What’s it capable of today? Where is my energy pulling me?
I might’ve gone to bed with a plan to do a kickboxing workout in the morning, but when I wake up, my body says, “Nope, it's slow yoga today.”
Let’s bring this back to energy flow:
Projectors, are you resting enough before you reach your burnout? Ask yourselves, “Have I had any rest today? Has it been enough? Or am I on the brink of burnout?
Generators are you saying yes to things that you actually want to do, or are you saying yes because it's expected of you? Are you on autopilot and going through the motions?
It’s practicing self-observation with non-judgment. Longtime listeners have heard me preaching this for years. Truly tune in and listen to what your body is saying without any judgment. Just take note of it.
When my body isn’t up for the workout that I had in mind, I can either do something gentler and slower or sometimes, it’s not physical tiredness, I just don’t have the mental capacity to put myself through a workout. For me, this is a bigger red flag for burnout – when my mental capacity slips. And when it happens, it’s time for a complete rest day with no judgment about it.
I’ve learned to let go of the “no pain, no gain”, “you can rest when you’re dead”, “just push through and do it” mentality.
And when I practice self-observation, I naturally start to reverse engineer the situation, “Why am I feeling so low today?” Was my sleep disrupted? Why? Is there something on my mind that’s weighing me down, bothering me, an issue that’s unresolved and not yet dealt with?”
Tune in with daily check ins for self-observation with non-judgment.
Step 2: Track your alignment
Anyone who knows me in real life will tell you that I love to track things, sometimes obsessively.
Part of it is mental support (not having to remember so many things) but most of it is loving to witness the transformation – a new habit formed, consistency, progress.
I track my workouts, not just that I worked out, but the different kinds of workouts that I do. I track chores – reminds me when it’s time to water my plants, and sometimes I even track calories, but not for the typical reasons you might think.
When I track, I ask myself questions like, “How did I feel eating this meal?” “How did I feel after I ate this meal?” Did it make me feel energized or drained?
You all know I love my Oura Ring - it's helped me tremendously. The ring tracks stress patterns throughout the day. Lately, I've been paying attention to my stress levels after I eat. Did certain foods spike my stress levels up to the “engaged” or “stressed” zones? Why? Why did I stay in a “Relaxed” or “Restored” state after this meal? Was it what I ate? Or the timing of when I ate? Or the circumstances and conditions around my meal? Did I eat something that my system had to work extra hard to digest?
I track to find patterns, clues if you will, of things that maybe I’m overlooking and haven’t connected the dots to yet.
I track, “When I feel most creative during the day?” Because that's the best time to do my focused work. For me, it’s in the mid-to-late mornings. This is what it means to tune into my natural energy flow which allows me to do my best to structure my day so that I can do my most important tasks during that time. Another question I ask myself is, “When do I need to pull back?”
I’ve found that I get antsy in the late afternoons. That’s when I feel that I've had enough screen time, I’ve reached my limit on sitting on my desk chair—it’s time for me to either get moving or shut things down and call it a day. So, not the best time to do focused work.
I believe that hacks are band aids on root causes, but this is my productivity hack to track how my energy flows and in doing so I can track my alignment. I can tell when I’m forcing and pushing, and surprise, surprise, -- whatever I try to do or produce when I’m forcing and pushing is never my best work. It almost feels like a waste of time.
So, a bit of a behind-the-scenes preview just for you, my podcast audience. I’m in progress working on a new offering called, “Food, Mood, Design: Decode Your Body Signals.”
In this offering I’m going to teach you a framework on how to systematically tune in and observe, track and then what to do with the data you collect.
If anything that we’ve talked about so far in this episode resonates and has you nodding your head, or you’re curious and want to hear more, this new workshop is for you. Go to the show notes at www.livefablife.com/313 for Episode 313 and sign-up to get on the waitlist for it.
My goal is to have it ready by early to mid-May – no later than mid-May.
I realized that I talked about this process here and there for years, but never actually taught it in a structured, standalone offering. And it’s questions I’m often asked about and find myself repeating the same things so I’m finally doing so and its coming soon!
Now, I haven’t forgotten step 3 in my 3-step plan!
Step 3: Trust your authority
Your Human Design Authority is your built-in decision filter. It tells you if something is a “yes” or a “no.”
If you haven't yet experimented with following your Human Design Authority, give it a try. There’s no better time to start than the present – right now.
Because here’s the thing - I can talk about Authorities all the time till I’m blue in the face. I can tell you about different Authorities. I can have guests talking about how they follow their Authorities - I've done podcast episode series on the different authorities - in fact, I have in a podcast series.
But no matter how many times I talk about it and you listen about it, the best lesson, and the most important answers to your questions on your Authority will come by your personal experimentation with it.
Start simple by using it to make day-to-day choices – the seemingly mundane ones. “What should I eat?” “How should I move my body today?” “When is it time to rest?”
Your wellness practice shouldn't be about following rules. I'm giving you permission to let your wellness practice be about resonance and what works for you.
If you're genuinely ready to honoring your energy here are three things that I recommend you stop doing immediately:
Stop forcing yourself – to finish a workout, to eat all the food on your plate, to stay up when you’re already falling asleep When you’ve had enough, let it be.
I think it’s a little bit easier for Generators and Manifesting Generators to do because with their Defined Sacral Center, they have an internal self-regulation system where they just know when enough is enough.
Those of us with Undefined Sacral Centers—Projectors, Manifestors, Reflectors, we don’t have that which makes self-observation even more critical.
So, if you feel like you're forcing yourself, stop. Stop forcing. We never want to force anything.
Stop following influencers with different energy blueprints than yours.
I have friends with all the different types. I have Manifestor friends who I've tried to emulate but guess what? I can’t initiate like they can because that’s not how my energy flows. Initiation is Manifestor energy and I’m a Projector. So, it’s no wonder that every time I tried to initiate, it fell flat and I was left feeling bitter.
The same with my other friends of different energy Types.
Stop trying to follow the influencers whose energy doesn't flow the way yours does. You're just setting yourself up for your Not Self; to kick in and you won’t get the outcome you're looking for.
Stop ignoring the red flags
The red flags I’m talking about here are fatigue, burnout, bloating, and anxiety.
Stop ignoring them and stop normalizing them too. Just because “everyone” experiences it, doesn’t mean it’s normal. Common doesn’t mean normal.
Your body's always talking to you, the question is, are you listening?
We hear this phrase all the time—“listen to your body.” But do you know how to do that? Do you know how to listen to your body?
This was a big realization and question I had during my long-distance running years. Every time I was injured, as I often was, I struggled with knowing when I was healed enough to get back to training. And people would always say, “Just listen to your body.”
But how could I tell if I was actually listening to the messages that my body was sending, or if I was only hearing what I wanted to hear.
And this is why I so love Human Design--it shows us how to be mindful of external influence or even hearing what we want to hear, and it gives us a framework of going within and instinctually knowing what’s right for each of us, in our own way, according to our own time.
It’s as simple as aligning ourselves to our unique, individual designs. Simple, but not easy.
So, my friend, your takeaway today is that: you're not lazy. You're not failing, and you’re not the problem.
You’ve just been trying to follow a wellness practice that was never designed for you, for your energy and how your energy operates and flows. And when you learn to work with your energy and not against it, that's when everything changes.
If this is all new information for you and you want to learn more, I encourage you to download my free guide, “Energy Mapping 101.” It's a no fluff starter guide to understanding how your energy influences your well-being.
If this is not new to you but you’ve just dipped your toes into Human Design so far, then the next level above “Energy Mapping 101” is my other guide, “Designed to Thrive: The Gentle Guide to Human Design.
You can’t align or even experiment with your energy if you don’t understand the basics of Human Design and that’s what “Designed to Thrive” teaches--the fundamentals of Human Design, taught in a gentle, easy-to-understand way.
And if this episode has hit home for you, please share it with a friend who's also over being exhausted by one-size-fits-all wellness, because you know that burnout is boring, and alignment is where the magic happens.
So, as usual, you’ll find links to everything in the show notes at www.livefablife.com/313 for Episode 313.
And with that, thank you so much for listening. This episode is the first in a four-part mini-series. So, I’ll see you right back here again next time for Part 2. Thanks for listening, and bye for now!
Naomi Nakamura is a Health x Human Design coach who’s creating a healthier society through aligned energy.
She blends a bespoke mix of Functional Nutrition and Human Design to help others shift into alignment to leverage and correctly manage their energy to support their body, mind, and spirit.
She believes that when we embrace our authenticity and lean into our bio-individuality, we naturally live a life of freedom, empowerment, and optimal health.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
Connect with Naomi on: Instagram
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