5 Mindset Paradigm Shifts to Unlock Your Health Potential

Introduction

Have you ever felt like you’re still spinning your wheels no matter how hard you try? You’re sticking to your latest diet, following strict routines, or chasing every health trend to no avail. You’re not alone. I’ve been there too, frustrated and overwhelmed, wondering why all the effort didn’t lead to the results you desperately want. Are you are stuck in cycles of starting over, unsure how to break free? It’s time to make a revolutionary paradigm shift for lasting health and wellness.

Despite incredible motivation and desire for change, we often fail to see the health transformation we are desperate for. If change came from wanting it badly enough,  you would have gotten those results ten times over. What is still missing?

When I started my holistic wellness journey, I was so busy chasing the “right” things to do for my health that I ended up abandoning my own body in the process. I became so focused on following the rules that I never stopped to check in with my true needs. I worked so hard to find the answers to fix my body, but I never realized that it held the answers all along. 

The Mindsets That Hold Us Back

Through my journey, I have read research papers, dug into nutritional biochemistry, learned what drives behavior change, and dug into the science, but I also came home to my own intuition and from that place of trust, I learned how to apply the science to myself. I had to fundamentally shift my approach to wellness by making each paradigm shift below. Then, I could finally stop starting over and start moving forward. 

The truth is, real transformation doesn’t start with the next big program. It starts with understanding how to shift your mindset for a sustainable health transformation. Once I embraced these five paradigm shifts, everything changed for the better.

Paradigm Shift 1: There is Not One Right Answer

The first mistake I made was believing that I had to search far and wide to find the perfect way to eat and exercise. As long as I followed those rules and behaved “perfectly”, I would be healthy for good. There were two key pitfalls. The first was the belief that what works for one works for another and that what works for one today works for them a year from today. There are general principles of holistic wellness that are great places to start. We can get almost all the way to our goals by these basics alone. Most of us need to stop jumping from one specialized protocol or diet to another and instead build our own unique blueprint. 

We need to stop putting all our eggs into the basket of the latest wellness guru. We need to start making personally empowered decisions. The answer to the question: ‘What is healthy?’ becomes ‘What is the most aligned action for me now in the context of my current environment?’ No book, clinical trial, blog post, or trending YouTube video has the answer to that question.

Bio-Individuality

Believing in a one-size-fits-all approach leaves us frustrated and disappointed when it doesn’t work for our needs and preferences. We become confused when the diet that solves our sister-in-law’s problems does nothing to help us because it does not serve the needs of our unique body and context. We start moving forward when we have an open-minded and curious approach to testing dietary patterns on ourselves. 

Explore at this article about bio-individuality from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition for further reading.

Paradigm Shift 2: Holistic Health Principles are Tools Rather Than Rules

Once I finally understood that I had to personalize my health journey, I still tried to approach it from a place of writing rules for myself. I needed to stop relying so much on a rigid structure of rules where I swung between being all-in “perfect” and “all-out” failing. I needed to take empowered action that allowed me to seek balance in any given moment. There are many things that I previously set up rules around and become a slave to, but now I can use them as tools to serve a purpose when they will be helpful. 

We no longer have to worry about falling off the wagon or starting over. There is no wagon, and we are always starting from exactly where we are. Adhering to rules for the sake of the rules themselves doesn’t allow for context or adaptability, and it leads to an abdication of personal power to make real-time decisions that serve our best interests. We start moving forward when we have a toolbox of strategies, know when to use each one, and adapt to whatever context we find ourselves in. 

Paradigm Shift 3: There is Nothing Wrong With Me

There is an incredible amount of blame and shame in the wellness space around not being perfect. Do you relate to having a pervasive yet vague sense of failure? I bought into the unhelpful narrative that I was inherently broken. I worried about my genetics, hormones, sluggish metabolism, toxicity, self-sabotage, and a lack of willpower. Quickly, I spiraled into hopelessness, self-isolation, avoidance, and fear of judgment.

I know these factors can all be pieces of each person’s health journey, but they can keep us stuck. Although these factors can play a role in establishing our current health state, we have an incredible amount of agency to change that state no matter where we are starting from. We move forward when we compassionately acknowledge the things that are influencing our health baseline and also take radical responsibility for working within that personal context.  When we embrace the deep trust that comes through making these key paradigm shifts, we find a deep trust and steady peace in our bodies – perhaps for the first time in our lives.

Paradigm Shift 4: Health Transformation Comes From Abundance Rather Than Restriction

We live in a world where everything seems set up to keep us chronically ill. There are truthfully many that we are better off avoiding. But, in any health protocol, it seems that the first place that everyone starts is cutting out, well, everything. The books always start with throwing out everything in your fridge and pantry, medicine cabinet, bathroom drawers, and laundry room. This can be incredibly supportive, but the more books you read, the longer the “no” list gets. Every podcast I listened to ended with yet another food I could not eat or product I could not use. I had one question in the back of my mind: what is left when you’ve taken everything away?

We can find ourselves on a slippery slope into disordered eating, nutrient deficiency, backlash from deprivation, and food obsession. Our bodies and brains are incredibly sensitive to experiencing a lack of adequate nutrition. They can fight back vehemently against severe restriction. 

Creating Abundance

I now find it more helpful to focus my attention on adding in the good things first. Then, I can be in a safe place to let go of the things that are genuinely unhelpful. Creating a space of abundance of the good allows us to naturally crowd out the bad. We never have to miss it or compromise our biological and psychological safety.

This was the hardest of the 5 paradigm shifts for me to make; I was so entrenched in fear. I created a sustainable lifestyle of health for my own body. I no longer live in a constant state of health anxiety.

Paradigm Shift 5: You Can’t Directly Buy Your Health

The fifth major mistake that I made in my approach to wellness is seeing health through the lens of consumerism. The information I was consuming came from people who were made money on how much I bought. The market is flooded with supplements, protocols, detoxification kits, gadgets, biohacking tools, books, and courses. Everything is vying for your attention and money.

If you are interested in some risks of excessive supplementation, see this article from Harvard Health Publishing.

I do not believe these all come from a predatory or immoral place. And of course, people in the wellness space need to make a living. But we have to understand the marketing. An influencer presents a problem and a list of catch-all symptoms prevalent in almost all sub-optimal health states. They then explain how they are uniquely gifted in solving this particular problem. Then, they have affiliate problems with a line of supplements and programs that you can immediately buy. There is often a statement somewhere like: this is the last program you have to do. You can’t put a price on your health, but the market sure tries to.

These messages make us feel like we need to purchase something that only they have. It sets us on a spree of buying one thing after another, waiting for the right thing to work. 

Buying Hope

When we purchase wellness products, we are buying hope. It feels good to know that we are investing in ourselves. It feels good to know someone or something is going to help us. We move forward when we start with the low or no-cost basic lifestyle modifications first. Then, we make wise investments only after we have a solid foundation.

Conclusion: Explore Your Own Paradigm Shifts

When I finally leveled up my mindset through these 5 paradigm shifts for health and wellness, I stopped diet hopping, arbitrary rules, fear of being broken, restriction, and consumerism. I moved to a place of empowered decision-making based on abundance and simple aligned action. If health is daunting, unattractive, overwhelming, and not worth it, we are so much more likely to do nothing at all. When it is full of ease and joy, health will be the most natural thing in the world. 

I hope this has been a helpful resource for shifting your mindset toward sustainable health transformation.
Now I’d love to hear from you: which of these paradigm shifts do you need to explore, and what others have you found in your journey?

Wishing you well,  
Meghan

Disclaimer: the information provided on the site is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.