How to Find the Right Health Advice

When I first started caring about my health many decades ago, I had to search through magazines to find answers to my how to lose weight and get into shape questions. Now we are flooded with advice about how to be healthy, but still struggle with making it stick. In this article I'll share how to find the right health advice that will get you out of the shoulds and enjoying the freedom of whole person health, healing and habits.

Everyday I talk with people who are thirsting for answers to their questions about how to be healthy, heal from injury or illness, and stick with habits that support both. The problem is not a lack of what to do, its a lack of knowing how to make it a habit. When health advice, no matter how evidence-based it is, fails to connect with what is meaningful and doable for you now now, it keeps you stuck in the shoulds, feeling worse from the guilt, shame and fear from not doing it.

Yet each of us carry around with us a wealth of knowledge that is more powerful than the best brain and body science. That knowledge is what I call You Science. You wont find it in a podcast or book or consult with a healthcare professional. So how do you find it?

You Science is in your mind. But your mind is not your brain, its the intersection of your brain, body and heart. To access this thirst-quenching information, we need to trust what we are thinking, feeling and has meaning to us right now in this moment. This is not easy when we live in a society that tells you to push harder, ignore pain and fatigue so you see progress to stay motivated long enough until it becomes a habit. Its not easy when we are competing with our healthier past self or trying to keep up with our more fit family and friends. These approaches separate our brain from what we know in our body and heart. How do you rewire your brain to trust in what you know in your body and heart again?

This week I took a lunchtime walk and listened to and episode of the Better Thank Fine podcast with Darlene Marshall  "The 10 Things You Wish You Knew at the Start of Your Self-Care Journey,".

As you may recall, I was honored to be on Darlene's podcast in November 2024 and Darlene was on The Be Well Now Method podcast in January of this year. I value Darlenes expertise in positive psychology, and enjoy the way she shares her wisdom with wit, compassion and authenticity.

As I listened to Darlenes "wish I knew" list, her advice to her younger self was very similar to mine. I started caring about my health around 1980 when Madonna and Shape Magazine were my guides. If I could go back and chat with that teenager just wanting to feel better about herself, I would remind her to listen to her body, not push harder to make faster progress, embrace rather than hide her imperfections, and to slow down, stop trying to get to a better version of you and just enjoy each moment.

Darlene started her journey in 2007 and I was amazed at how little the messages that can steer us away from well-being have changed through the decades. Everyday I find myself talking to patients and clients about the very topics on both of our "wish I knew" lists.

So how do you find the right health advice for you?

Start by making your own "wish I knew" list. Write a letter to your younger self and share what you have learned about how to be well each step of the way. Trust what you know, not just in your head, but in your body and your heart. Your mind carries great wisdom about what is right for you.

Yes, absolutely learn from degreed professionals who can provides solid evidence based advice. Doing this will help limit the myths and misinformation spread by people just trying to get you to like a post on social media.

But what I know for sure after decades of listening to clients, patients and my own experiences is that what will end the struggle with being healthy and well is when we finally learn to trust what we know inside as our guide. This is what it means to be well, the state that activates healing, health and supportive habits.

If you are ready to stop trying so hard to be healthy and start knowing how to Be Well Now, click here to sign up for my email list and schedule a free call with me.