elev8 wellness
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour

wellblog

We Don't Have It Together

10/24/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The American experiment got a lot of things right. But unbridled freedom comes at a substantial cost. The rites of passage and roles and responsibilities which we threw off because of their perceived incredible weight left for us a heavier one, infinite imposition: myriad choice. Unending decision-making is exhausting, not empowering. And it shows, not just in these stats, but many others. How can we reclaim a daily or weekly schedule in order to reduce the choice-fatigue?

When you train a puppy, it’s considered abuse to let her choose where to go on a walk, leaving the decision of direction to her. Her role should not at that age be “pack leader.” It’s stressful. And it will often leave her with a remaining life of anxiety and inability to calm during noises and storms. Likewise, children have to have parameters. No parameters is a form of abuse. People think they’re gifting a beautiful array to a growing mind when they go full-tilt laissez-faire with parenting; but, in fact, they’re destining that kid to a mentally ill adulthood. Moreover, with adults as well, we shrug off the heft of daily practices and weekly behaviors, so that we might feel more free. We think we want to have infinite options, defining and redefining every word and designation and tradition possible. Some of it is good, like challenging the status quo. But a lot of it just makes the mindset murky, obviously.

We marvel at freedom and free time. We covet it, to the tune of we are damn-near the most mentally ill people on earth, far more than the developing world at least. On average, the more wealth (not just dollars, but all resources, especially time) someone obtains, the higher their risk. Freedom isn’t 100% upside. Fitness requires discipline, not wanton abandon.

So it’s going to be rough-going, placing limits on yourself. It’s at odds with our societal mores and our expectations of infinite liberalism (in the literal sense, not a political meaning). More pointedly, when you begin the internal dialogue “I am the person who...”, how do you end that statement? That inside narrative, when largely undefined, means you live unrefined. Have you ever noticed how happy those little old ladies are who do the same thing on Monday every week? They don’t have infinite options. They don’t burn up valuable mental health on redefinition. There’s a power in routine. It’s calming. It engenders sense of agency and control. They can solidly finish that sentence which begins “I am the person who...”.

The same goes for the people in the Blue Zones. These people finish that sentence without hesitation. They have very defined routines, yet feel no imposition, nor yearn for more freedom. Our superficial bolt-on freedoms pale in comparison to the internal freeness they experience by virtue of roles and routine.

In health and fitness, parameters and limits and roles and routine are critical. Always trying to shrug off the healthy routines and behaviors leaves you vulnerable, in a perpetual decision-making fatigue, arm wrestling yourself between what’s productive for you and what isn’t. I’m not saying anyone else should tell you what those limits are. They shouldn’t. I shouldn’t. But when YOU decide upon them, recognize that YOU are stepping into counterculture. When you decide to eat like an adult, realize that your brain and everyone around you doesn’t understand fundamentally what is going on. And your brain and everyone around you WILL fight this. It appears unfree. It appears anti-American. “You mean, you CAN’T eat X,” people will say. No. We can do whatever. We just DON’T. Say, “I am the person who DOESN’T eat X.”

Think of it as sacred. Think of it as true individualism. When your future self listens to your former self, you wield a power that is so rare and so unfamiliar that people think it’s a judgment on them. They take your effort to live with intelligent and productive limits as an indictment on the very concept of Americana freedom. They take prudent living as a middle-finger to the way most people live their lives. And to an extent, they’re right, except that governing yourself healthily really doesn’t count on external recognition or acknowledgement. It doesn’t count on the external at all. It doesn’t even think about the external.
​

Stats are bleak. But you can choose to be a statistical outlier, if only you institute limits and routines for yourself. Start with one, daily if imaginable. And build one at a time. We don’t have it together. But we can get it together.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Elev8 Wellness
    ​wellblog

    We strive to provide the latest articles and commentary on health, fitness, nutrition and vitality strategy.

    Archives

    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Active Memory
    Age
    Business
    Cancer
    Coaching
    Dementia
    Diet
    Dna
    Elev8 Wellness
    Family
    Fat
    Fish Oil
    Genetics
    Gut Health
    Health
    Jonathan Watters
    Ketosis
    Leadership
    Life
    Memory
    Muscle
    Nutrition
    Optimisim
    Parkinsons
    Pessimism
    Probiotics
    Sales
    Spatial Intelligence
    Strength Training
    Weight Loss
    Weight-loss
    Wellness

    RSS Feed

Picture

LIVE. AWESOME.

We offer the highest quality in personal  fitness, nutrition, and mindset coaching, helping you achieve your fitness, health, wellness and performance goals no matter the obstacle. With virtual online training and private, in-studio training we make it easier to reach your wellness goals safely.

​No more can't. No more not good enough. If you compete in a sport, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the greatest. If you don't, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the best version of you that you can be.

Sign-up for a Tour
Covid Screen Waiver
​Elev8 Waiver
Become an Elev8 Instructor
Space Rental
LOGIN / MEMBER REGISTER

6244 lyndale ave. s., minneapolis, mn 55423
[email protected]
612-440-6877

© 2021 Elev8 Wellness LLC.  All Rights Reserved.                                              site map  |  contribute  |                                                           SITE BY  Sproute Creative
Photos from benzado, frankieleon, hatcher10027, Sterling College, OakleyOriginals, rawpixel.com, quinn.anya, allispossible.org.uk, wuestenigel, jeffdjevdet, Brian Legate, jeffreyw, Ray Larabie, katerha, AgĂȘncia Brasil, TheBetterDay, A. M. D.
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour