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Embracing Change and Mindfulness for Health Empowerment
Have you ever felt stuck in your old habits, finding it challenging to embrace change and enhance your well-being through mindfulness?
Are you ready to transform your life by aligning your actions with your health goals and finding sustainable relaxation methods that resonate with you?
Discover the profound insights of Anthony Hartcher in the latest episode of me&my health up podcast, where he delves deep into the topic of embracing change and mindfulness for health empowerment. This episode is a treasure trove of practical advice, offering strategies to shift focus from what we’ve lost to embracing transformed forms, ultimately leading to a balanced and fulfilled life. If you’re seeking to enrich your life, break free from detrimental habits, and cultivate mindfulness, this episode is your guide to achieving lasting change and well-being.
About me&my health up & Anthony Hartcher
me&my health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well-being of others. Host Anthony Hartcher is the CEO of me&my health up which provides holistic health solutions using food as medicine, combined with a holistic, balanced, lifestyle approach. Anthony holds three bachelor's degrees in Complementary Medicine; Nutrition and Dietetic Medicine; and Chemical Engineering.
Podcast Disclaimer
Any information, advice, opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical, health care or other professional advice, and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this Podcast. [Connected Wellness Pty Ltd] operating under the brand of “me&my health up”..click here for more
Welcome back to another exciting and insightful episode of me&my health up. I'm your host, Anthony Hartcher. I'm a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being. And today, I'll be doing that just for you, we're going to be talking on the topic of coping with change, empowering your health and well being so change is inevitable. In actual fact, the only constant in life is change. Yet, there's always some resistance, reluctance to give up the old, to give up what we know, and the resistance to explore the unknown or to move forward being present. And in actual fact, the unknown is where we grow, it's where we thrive, it's where we can become our best self. So don't fear the unknown. In actual fact, the only way to grow and thrive is to venture into the unknown. And in actual fact, the future is unknown to everyone. We don't know what's going to happen from time to time. It's just what we can control is how we perceive and the decisions and the actions we take moment by moment. And where this came about was I recently had a weekend away a long weekend away with my son Ali, and by our daughter, and my wife, or galavanting, around the countryside doing a mother daughter weekend, me and my son Ali, we went to visit my parents, and it was great going up hadn't seen my parents for quite a while, in actual fact, probably up to six months for Ali. And it was really nice to reunite and be together again. And I asked Ali, what was the best thing he liked about the weekend. And he said being with his mama and pa and seeing the dog Rado and then doing the things that he doesn't normally do here. So it was that variability that he embraced the fact that he doesn't ride his scooter a lot when he's at home, he's doing other things, other activities. And so he was embracing that activity that he doesn't do a lot the change, he was embracing the change. And children are very good with this adaptation. It's more as we age, we tend to embrace our comforts, and we fear embracing it, guess what's in front of us, and we get stuck in the past. And so this episode is to help you break free of that attachment to the past, and embrace the present and to be able to move forward. And I'm going to discuss that in the context of health and well being just to continue on with that story. I remember the first night of being in my parents home, the bed wasn't quite as comfortable as home. And I started to focus on that. So I started to focus on what I was perceived as missing, okay, I was perceiving that, okay, I'm missing some comforts, the beds different, it's different, okay. It's not quite like home. But I wasn't embracing what I actually gained. I was more attached to what I'd lost by not being at home, and sleeping in my own bed. And so when I started to focus on what I gained in terms of comfort, I'd gain the comfort and love of my parents, I was in with them in their presence and with my son. And that's what I gained in the area of comfort. So nothing was lost. It was just transformed from the bed being comfortable to the love and warmth for my parents. And then I was thinking what else have I gained in terms of comfort? Well, I also gained the fact that I was receiving my mum's cooking. And that was really comforting. It was beautiful. It was delicious, and tasty. And it was warming to the soul. And so that's something else I had gained. And so when I started to look at my perceptions, there was nothing lost, just transformed from the bed being comfortable at home to the love and warmth, the comfort of being with my parents and my son. Also those home cooked meals, the form of comfort, it just transformed. I was focusing on what was lost that got me thinking in terms of how does this translate to health well, when we're looking to make healthy changes, we generally focus on what we've given up or the the old thing that we enjoyed that we considered that now it's not really supporting my health goals, hence a better give it up. And so we focus on that loss and that then becomes something missing. And then we wanted even more when we want to make health changes were best to look at okay, what is replaced or transformed that form that I'm now perceiving as missing? So what have I gained? And what's the new form and example if you've given up alcohol or something like that, because you know, it's just not serving your health goals or you want to do less of it, put something in its place that has its equivalents. So if the alcohol was bringing you so what was alcohol bringing you I mean alcohol on it, and itself is just a substance, but what was it giving you Who was at relaxing you? Okay, so let's focus on what relaxes you. What else can relax you? Okay? How do we transform if the relaxation from alcohol to something more in aligned with your health goals, and that could be mindfulness, okay, mindfulness is also relaxing. So what form of mindfulness works for you, it doesn't have to be a meditation. But it could be something where you become mindful could be a hobby, what brings your full presence to you, what makes you fully embrace what you're doing, and you're not distracted. So whatever that is, that's when your mind is being fully it's fully occupied with what it's doing, as opposed to wandering and becoming mind lists on that task. So what tasks what activity gives you presents, I want you to focus on that. And therefore, that's what replaces the alcohol, you start doing that hobby or that task so it could be doodling, for example. So doodling has been in studies and it's showing that it helps with our mental health and in terms of reducing the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's and all these sorts of studies associated with cognitive ability. Doodling is something that brings you fulfillment. Okay, because doodling for me is not fulfilling. Okay? Doing this is more fulfilling. So, for me, it would be doing a podcast or researching a topic that I could then share with you. That's more fulfilling for me, as opposed to doodling. But for some people doodling is fantastic. And that brings them mindfulness. This brings me mindfulness, when I'm working on a podcast topic, I'm fully embraced. And on the subject matter, I'm researching I'm writing, I'm thinking about how am I going to articulate this to you? How am I going to get the message across? And that's what I did today, in terms of on the weekend, I was preparing for this episode, what did I discovered early on something I'd lost some form of comfort and not look at where it's transformed into, that really helped with me to adapt into the weekend, because the first night, I was focused on what I was doing without and that was the comfort of my own bed. But then once I'd focused on what that comfort had transformed to I embrace the now I saw the gratitude and being up with my parents, you know, I saw it, it is what it is. And I'm very grateful for it. And I'm embracing that moment with change, there's going to be pros and cons are good and bad things about every type of change. And I was focused on just the bad and I wasn't looking at the good about that change. And so when I balanced that perception around looking at what is the good about this change, what is the good about me being in a different bed? Well, I was in my old home I was I'm with Mum and Dad, I'm with my son, and I'm having time off. And it's great eating home cooked meals for mum, I haven't haven't done that for ages. There's different flavors, textures. So it was really nice once I started to balance the equation, and I saw it for what it was. And I embrace and I got really present in the moment I got very mindful. So you can do this too, whenever you're adopting or adapting is probably a better word coping with change is not focusing on one side of the equation, balancing your perception and look at what is it the form that it's transformed to, you know, in my case, it was the comfort where had the comfort transformed. And in my case, it was transformed into the love for my parents. It was very comforting being in my old home that I grew up in as a kid and home cooked meals. So if you're doing without the alcohol, and you're looking for a new form of mindfulness, and you love doodling, then doodling is the new form that brings you calm relaxation, and then you want to focus on the benefits of doodling to you and how is that helping you get closer towards your health goals. I mentioned one and that's that is that was preventing the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's, the research has shown that and also the other thing is you're not getting additional calories. So you're not eating excessive calories because as I mentioned in a previous episode, there was lots of calories in alcohol, there is seven calories per gram of alcohol. That's a lot. Okay, so every standard drink you have you're consuming 70 calories, regardless of whether it's diet, you're having a Diet Coke or whatever, it doesn't matter what you're having it with. It's the alcohol content. So therefore, you're consuming less alcohol, that's a benefit you're consuming, that's better for the body. Okay, less detoxification goes towards breaking down the alcohol your body can help rebalance itself without being compromised by alcohol. So therefore, you're helping the regeneration of yourself and the body is not tied up with directing resources to breaking down alcohol. You're not losing minerals and vitamins like I mentioned in the episode that alcohol can also do and what you're gaining is that you're doing something that you love, it brings you mindfulness, it helps relax you it helps prevent the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's. The other thing is that it's taking you closer towards your health goal because you're wanting to do less of the alcohol. But now you're focused on what's the new form of my Mindfulness, what's new form of calming you? And so what I want you to do is now look at whatever change you're making, and start looking at rather than focus on what you're missing, or what's lost focus on what is gained? Where is the new form of what's transformed? Okay, what is the new form of it and not focus on the old form and the attachment to the old form? And then once you see that new form, what are the benefits of that new form towards your health goal? I want you to go through that exercise. And then what you want to do is go back to the old form, and what's the disadvantages of the old form in terms of taking you away from your health Goal up. So first of all, it's taking you away from your health goal. But what are the disadvantages so that you start to get in feel like there's nothing missing in actual fact, it's just transformed. So you get to a point where you're not missing the alcohol, you enjoying the new form of that calmness that's been brought into your life that's better aligned to your health goals. So I wanted to share that because this way of looking at things is far better than willpower. Because in willpower, it requires a force and you're abstaining from something you focus on the giving up the abstaining, you're counting down days, and it can be rewarding, seeing the days go up, there's still something missing, isn't there? Because you haven't embraced the new form. And there's only so long that willpower is going to last and the recognition that you get through counting the days Yes, I'm 105 alcohol free days, and all those sorts of things. You see it on social media, people getting quite proud in terms and yes, they should be you know that they're actually making a change. But it becomes hard to keep that sustainable and lasting. Because you're still focused on what you're missing. And you're still counting the days from when you last had it in actual fact, you probably counting days, you're getting closer to having it again, right? So the higher the longer you've been abstaining The closer you are of going back in actual fact, because that gap becomes so great, what you're missing becomes so great, and you want to fill the void and you go back to what's known as opposed to embracing a transformed form of what was the alcohol doing for you. Okay, look at all the things the benefits the alcohol was giving you. Now, what else can give you those benefits that doesn't pertain to alcohol that doesn't contain alcohol? What else can give you those benefits? What else can you do in replace of alcohol, and then you write down all the things that you can do in replacement of alcohol. And as I mentioned, it could be something like doodling or it could be taking on a new sport, or a hobby that gives you fulfillment, it's got to be fulfilling to you. It's not what someone else is doing. It's not what someone else has taken on. It's got to be very aligned to your values to what you value to what's important to you. For me, as I said doodling wouldn't do it for us. But like I took up martial arts, not that I was giving up alcohol to you know, I wasn't doing away with alcohol. But something that I found quite aligned to my values very aligned to my values, ticks many boxes is martial arts. And yes, there's, I guess the downside of doing martial arts is I get injuries. Okay. I don't really like the injuries. That's only one part of it. As I said, everything's got pros and cons, not just all good. And what's not just all bad, it's balanced. You can find the balance when you ask yourself the question of what is it that I'm not saying martial arts isn't all good, because as I said, I get injuries. I don't like who likes injuries? I don't. No one else. No one likes injuries. But injuries are part of sport, aren't they part of every sport. And so it's part of navigating yourself through that safely to minimise the chance of getting injuries and also maximising the recovery from injuries. So adaptation is really helpful and not focusing on what you're doing. You don't want to rely on willpower to sustain it because willpower is unsustainable, focusing on the transformation and how that benefiting you how that transformation is benefiting you is life lasting, because you see the pros and cons of both. But then you'll see that the pros and cons of taking up doodling versus alcohol is more aligned to your health goal as opposed to alcohol hence why you're looking at change. Hence why you're looking at breaking the addiction to alcohol breaking the attachment to alcohol, you wouldn't be looking at it unless you wanted to change. Okay, so this is obviously people that are willing to change but rather than focusing on what they're doing without I've done 500 alcohol free days, as I said, the longer you go, the closer you get to going back so it's better to focus on that new transform form. What have you gained what is substituting or replacing what you're getting out of alcohol? It's not alcohol itself if you'll just after the taste, and you could just drink non alcoholic drinks, right? If you really just liked the taste, but it's often the benefit that alcohol brings. It's the relaxation and drinking alcohol does it relaxes the body but what else can you know chamomile tea can relax the body as well. There's other herbs and supplementation that can also relax In the body, there's activities that you can do, such as I mentioned, doodling, or all forms of mindfulness will relax the body. But it's got to be a form of mindfulness that connects well with you that you can sustain. Again, there's no point doing some form of mindfulness that you don't like doing not like meditation is not for every one. So it's finding that thing that really works for you that you can sustain that you think, okay, that's now but it's going to have its cons as well, too. It's not all good. So it's being aware that we want to shift our perspective and understand that everything is not lost or gained, it's just transformed. That's a universal law, that things are just transformed from one form to another, energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed from one form to another activities is action, it's energy, we can transform that to another form matter, things right can be transformed to another form. And we need to look at, obviously, what we're gaining in that and how it's more aligned to our health goal. So how is the benefit of this? Taking me closer towards my health goals? How is the old form that kind of that? How is it taking me away from my health goals, and if we start looking the opposing side, we start to connect the other the new form, we start to embrace the new form. And that is going to take us closer to achieving our health goals. So I hope that makes a lot of sense, because at the end of the day, willpower will not sustain you. Again, it's embracing a transformed form of what is more aligned to your health goals, that is going to really help you with lasting change, you can apply this with any change in your life. So not just health change, change from going from holidays back to work, okay? Because what happens is, when we're on holidays, where they're now focused on, we're thinking, I'm going back to work, I'm gonna miss this, I'm going to miss this, I'm going to miss this, what I want you to now look for is what is it that you're missing? And where is it now going to appear in the workplace, and then start looking at the new form, and how that serving you and your values, when you start balancing that equation, you won't worry about going back to work or you won't feel like you have you know, like, it's something that you're resisting, you're just go with the moment you'll you'll be present, you'll just go with the flow, so to speak, and, you know, embrace the new form and embrace it for how it's aligned to your values. And that's really important, because we're always going through these changes these transitions from, you know, work into holidays. And as I said, I went from work in the holidays, and I was focusing on what I didn't like about being on holidays, you get that I started to shift this equation in my mind and start looking at where I had the comfort transform to Okay, and then what were the benefits of the new form that I was now embracing, and what disadvantages of the old form then you start balancing your perspective, and you embrace the moment you become very mindful, there's nothing missing, it's stress transformed. So I hope that's really helpful today. And I'd love for you to share this with others that you know, that are struggling with adaptation to change or embracing like their health goals in terms of what they're doing they're currently doing and helping them get their mind off what they're missing, or that attachment to something being lost. This will help them embrace the new form and to see how it's advantageous the new form in terms of taking them towards their goals, and how the old form disadvantaged or a con, taking them away from their, their health goals. And then they can embrace the moment what they're doing in the moment, and enjoy what they're doing in the moment as opposed to thinking or perceiving that something's missing. And they're doing without is just unsustainable, because you're creating a void that eventually you'll want to fill and you'll probably fill it with the old form. And I've given that example in this podcast as alcohol. So thank you for tuning in today. I really appreciate it. Please go to the link, the me and my health club link because I share more insights more delving deeper into this particular subject matter and all the subject matter that I share on this podcast, I go that little bit deeper that can really help move you along your and help you achieve your health goals, as well as you'll become part of the health up community which we embrace and support one another and help each other achieve their health goals. Plus you get discounts to my workshops, supplementation, health products, my services as part of being a health up club member. So check it out. You can sign up for seven days if you don't like it don't like is to see what you're there. There's ebooks on there. There's recipes on there. If it's not for you, then you don't have to continue with this Rich, it's a small monthly fee, but it's where I'm empowering you and helping you get closer to your health goals. Thanks for tuning in to another exciting and insightful episode of me and my health up.
Podcast Disclaimer:This podcast and any information advice opinions or statements within it do not constitute medical healthcare or professional advice and are provided for general information purposes only. All care is taken in the preparation of the information in this podcast. Connected Wellness provides you unlimited operating under the brand is me&my health up does not make any representations or give any warranties about his accuracy, reliability, completeness or suitability for any particular purpose. This podcast and any information advice, opinions or statements within it are not to be used as a substitute for professional medical, psychological, psychiatric, or any other mental health care or health care in general. me&my health up recommends you seek the advice of a doctor or qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Inform your doctor of any changes that you make to your lifestyle and discuss these with your doctor. Do not disregard medical advice or delay visiting a medical professional because of something you hear in this podcast. This podcast has been carefully prepared on the basis of current information changes in circumstances after publication may affect the accuracy of this information to the maximum extent permitted by the law may or may health disclaims any such representations or warranties to the completeness, accuracy merchantability or fitness for purpose of this podcast and will not be liable for any expenses losses damages incurred indirect or consequential damages or costs that may be incurred as a result of the information being inaccurate or incomplete in any way. And for any reason. No part of these podcasts can be reproduced or redistributed, published, copied or duplicated in a form without prior permission of me&my health up.
