The Priority Shift
I had a patient, let’s call her Charlotte, who was looking for help with insomnia. She could fall asleep fine, but after a few hours she would be wide awake, staring at the ceiling, unable to fall back asleep. When I asked her about what her evening looks like, I found out that she has multiple alcoholic drinks every evening, stays up late scrolling through her phone, and falls asleep with the TV on.
I explained to her how drinking alcohol before bed can negatively affect sleep, as well as the detrimental effects of screens like phones and TVs on your circadian rhythm. Then I suggested that she experiment with a few lifestyle tweaks that could help with her sleep. Unfortunately, Charlotte was not in a place in her life where she was ready to give up her drinking and doomscrolling. She was looking more for a magic pill that would help her sleep in spite of her bad habits. Needless to say, she never came back!
Compare Charlotte to Shivan, another insomnia patient. Shivan had already created an entire bedtime routine including a daily meditation, made sure not to drink coffee past noon, or alcohol past dinner, and turned off all her screens an hour before bed. Yet she was still struggling to stay asleep.
However, Shivan was coming to acupuncture not for a magic pill, but for a real, long term solution to her sleeping patterns. She was actually excited to learn a few more tweaks that she could make to her lifestyle, and dedicated herself to regular treatments.
What’s Important to You
Both Charlotte and Shivan were looking for help with better sleep. The big difference between them was where their priorities lie. Every one of us has things that are more important to us than other things. Maybe your family is the most important thing to you; they always come first. Your priority might also be your career, or getting the most enjoyment out of life that you can.
For Shivan, her health was one of her top priorities. It was obvious by the way she structured her day, and even her life. She knew that getting a great night’s sleep would help her feel better in her body, which leads to more life enjoyment, getting more done at work, and even being able to be there for her family.
Some of us are born, or raised, to prioritize our health, but others would rather not think about it. The “don’t worry about it” mindset does have some advantages, especially when you’re relatively healthy. But sooner or later we meet a time in our lives where our health goes awry, and we’re forced to address it.
I Took the Road Less Travelled
If you’ve made it to my website and you’re reading this article, I’m going to guess that you’ve come to this time in your life where you’re struggling with your health. Now you’ve got two choices: (1) Continue to live your life the same as you always have and chalk up your health challenges to “aging” or “hormones” or “the cake I ate yesterday”, or (2) Make changes to the way you live your life and put your own well-being first.
When you look at it this way, it seems so black and white, but in reality it’s all kinds of gray. You might choose to make 1 or 2 small changes, or experiment with a new diet for a month, just to see if it helps. Maybe you double down on exercise, and cut out the sugar and see what happens.
And many times your hunches are right. Those little bad habits you fell into just needed a tweak, and now you’re back to your old self. But what if that doesn’t happen? What if you make change after change to your lifestyle, and just don’t see the results you’re hoping for?
The Big One
Unfortunately, when you’re dealing with chronic illness, these tweaks just aren’t enough. Which brings you back, over and over again, to the big choice: do nothing or do something. In this case, the doing something ends up being a total lifestyle overhaul. A complete dedication to your health above all else. The big priority shift.
And in order to do this, you have to be really ready for it, mentally, emotionally, and physically. It means you have to make some hard choices, and possibly make some people uncomfortable in the process. Will you have that glass of wine with a friend, or stick to water? Enjoy a meal out with your family or munch on your home-cooked dinner? Scroll through social media in the last hour before bed or unwind away from screens and get to bed early?
For any of these changes to really make a difference they need to be sustainable for the long term. You need to make them a part of your new life.
The biggest priority shift of all, though, is choosing to put your money where your mouth is. To buy organic groceries even though they’re more expensive. To see the functional medicine practitioner, do all the testing, and commit to the supplement protocol. To get regular acupuncture treatments. You may need to choose to spend your money on these things over new clothes, that weekend getaway, or your daily latte.
This space, the space you make for yourself with all your small daily choices, is the space of healing. Are you ready for The Shift?
Author:
Dr. Elizabeth Williams, DACM, LAc, is an acupuncturist, herbalist, and Doctor of Chinese medicine. She is the founder of Women’s Wellness Movement, an online community of women dedicated to improving their health naturally. Her work includes reproductive health, gut imbalances, mental health, complex chronic illness, and the ways these interact uniquely in each individual.
Dehydration can cause all kinds of acute and chronic symptoms. Some, like headaches and constipation, are familiar friends. But it’s less known that chronic dehydration of cells and tissues in your body can cause the feeling you get when you feel “old”. Like when you’re stiff and creaky getting out of bed in the morning, not able to remember things like you used to, and that general sense of feeling toxic or inflamed. It would seem then, that the best way to feel younger and more energetic is to drink more water. Boy I wish it were that simple. But as I’ve (and perhaps you’ve?) experienced, gulping extra water mostly just leads to more trips to the bathroom.