Don't Let it Overwhelm You: How Going Upstream Can Save Us Time (and Money)

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In this episode, Juli Reynolds, a Nurse Coach and Certified Clinical Aromatherapist, introduces the concept of foundational wellness by emphasizing the importance of addressing root causes of wellbeing. She shares personal experiences and reflections on flow through the day and highlights the significance of maintaining simple, sustainable routines rather than complicating wellness with endless rules. By focusing upstream, listeners are encouraged to find the root cause of health issues instead of merely treating symptoms. Juli also discusses two key tools: the pillars of lifestyle medicine and the Wheel of Life assessment, guiding listeners on how to use these to create balanced, holistic health strategies. She advocates for practical steps like choosing actionable changes, incorporating novelty, and tracking progress to foster a sustainable wellness journey without judgment.

Transcript

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Welcome to another extraordinary week. This is a space where we can say yes to a life of purpose and health and impact, optimizing our well being, our passion, our purpose. And today we're going to dive into a concept of foundational wellness And the importance of going upstream to address root causes of our wellbeing. I'm Julie Reynolds. I'm nurse coach and aromatherapist, and I'm so honored to be on this journey with you. So thanks for tuning in. I hope you're sharing this podcast with your friends and having these discussions with people in your circles. I would love to hear from you. and there are several ways you can connect. Just go to the show notes, find a link that works for you, whether it be leaving me an audio message or a text or an email, get on the list so I can send these right to you. And then you can just hit reply and tell me what you think and how this is showing up for you. So I love to be on this journey with you. All right. Speaking of this journey, if you've ever felt like wellness is just too complicated and it's filled with endless rules and diets and routines that don't seem to stick, this episode is for you. We're going to explore how to make your wellbeing work for you and focusing on what you will do rather than just what you should do. Our lives are full of shoulds, right? And we need to stop those shoulds. so I want to first preface this with this came out of my own reflection on my flow through the day, whether I was having a good day or a bad day, evening review, looking back, my coach encouraged me to look back 72 hours. If I had a bad day or if I had a day that didn't flow well to look back 72 hours and see what I was doing, always encouraging me to prepare for what's coming up and why it's so important to be consistent with whatever we are doing to keep those markers up as far as are we sleeping well, what you're putting in your body, what you're doing, because 72 hours from now is when that's going to show up. when I was thinking about that, when I was reflecting on that, I noticed that I had a day that was, it was kind of all over the place. I was concerned about my focus and my energy after having a really good day the day before and I Reflected back, I looked at my sleep data and I noticed that I had a day, uh, prior to that, that I didn't sleep well. Now, I didn't perceive that. I didn't know that because I went to bed on time and I woke up at the time that I expected to, but I had a lot of waking hours and not as much core sleep and not as much. It just wasn't good quality sleep. And then, and my sleep tracker actually said that I only slept five hours. And so that would explain a lot of what was, what is coming. So I'm all about simple strategies, simplifying things and not, making them so complicated that I won't do them. There's one thing that I have learned that if I make it too complicated, if I make it too much, Too soon, or as I'm changing, as I'm improving, I just won't stick with it. And so I've been really focusing on non negotiables. I've been focusing on simple strategies and then tweaking those as I go. So let's get started with first the idea of going upstream. Imagine that you're standing on the side of a river and you're seeing people struggling in the water. You have a couple options on how to solve, how to address that problem. You can keep pulling them out downstream, or you can go upstream and find out why they're falling in in the first place. And foundational wellness is really all about that. Upstream work, I would say healthcare in general should be about that upstream work. Unfortunately, it's not. So it's up to us to really take that focus and start thinking in that way, finding and fixing the root cause of poor health rather than chasing symptoms. we can do that with the flow of our days, our energy levels, our focus, levels of fatigue and exhaustion, where are those coming from? instead of fixing it in that moment. We could go upstream, or we could go to the root cause and find out why it's happening in the first place. this mindset would also allow us to stay in the place of no judgment we could just go into observation mode When we're feeling frustrated, discouraged, exhausted, overwhelmed, all of those things, we could take that to a place by going upstream, we're asking ourselves to collect data and be less judgmental, and not be thinking that something wrong with us. But what if we could go just go find out what the root cause is, and then create a sustainable strategy that we enjoy and that we will actually do and so that we can prevent some of that and we're still going to have those things. I would also say, then we could put ourselves in a place where when we get overwhelmed, we can ask why we can ask what the thought is and we could get at some of those. Thoughts that we have and begin to change them so that we can show up in the way that we really want to, when we feel overwhelmed and frustrated, fatigued, all of those things are, are things we feel that point. In a direction that point to a root cause they're there to teach us something or make us aware of something. Are we pushing too hard? Are we not pushing hard enough? Are we, do we need to revise our strategy? Did we get off track somewhere? Are we pursuing things that we want in the first place? All of this reflection comes from feeling those things, finding out what, what the thought is about it. and then going upstream to find the root cause or where that thought is, that is leading to this outcome. Now, to do this, we need simple, sustainable strategies, not perfection and not complication, just focusing on the right actions that make the biggest impact. So be thinking as we talk through this, what would be your next one single next right of action in alignment with, with your goals. So two tools that can help us with this are the pillars of lifestyle medicine, and that's the evidence based foundation of health and disease prevention. And then the wheel of life. I love this tool because it gives you a visual, but it's just a way to self reflect on, uh, the different areas of overall wellbeing. We are not not just our physical health or we're not just our mental health. We can investigate all of those things separately and totally overwhelm ourselves, or we can take a nice balanced approach at looking at how we can move the needle just a little bit in each of these areas. Now, going back to the pillars of lifestyle medicine, I'll go through those quickly if you're not familiar with them. One, nutrition, eating a whole nutrient dense foods that are, that fuel your body. So food is fuel and what you put in your body really does matter. There's a lot to that, and that can be overwhelming, but just thinking about that simply as what you put in your body in the day, just reflecting on that, not what it should be, but what it is will give you a lot of information. A physical activity movement that you enjoy and can sustain. How much are you moving? How much are you sitting now? What not again, not what you should be doing, but what you are doing will give you that information. And then. In those areas, again, focusing on the one next right action that you can do that you will actually sustain, you will keep doing. Restorative sleep is a third pillar. Quality sleep to repair and restore is crucial and foundational. It makes a big difference. Stress management is another pillar. Practices like breathwork, meditation, aromatherapy, those mindset shifts are all part of that managing stress. And then healthy relationships is another pillar. connection and community as one of the core elements of health. Another pillar is avoiding risky substances, and that includes reducing toxins and alcohol and smoking. And then the seventh pillar is meaning and purpose, engaging in work and activities that fulfill you. So those are just the pillars of lifestyle medicine. I I did not make those, those up myself. Those are the pillars that the College of Lifestyle Medicine have adopted to tell us the aspects of overall wellbeing to address for our health. Now the Wheel of Life, that's a personal evaluation tool, and there might be a lot of different variations on that, but imagine a wheel divided into segments, health, relationship, career, finances, personal growth, spirituality, fun. And environment, all of those things are part of that wheel. And now if one area is underdeveloped, then your wheel gets unbalanced and makes the journey really bumpy. So this tool helps you to see where you need more attention and those simple steps to bring things back into alignment. And if you want that tool, I'll put the link below. I have a, I have that assessment tool available. I'd be happy to send it to you. So. Practical steps in implementing that is first, just take that simple assessment. Where are you struggling most? Start there. Choose one or two small changes, things that you will do, not just things that sound ideal. that's important because I think sometimes we do an all or nothing, or we think, oh, I will do this really big thing, and then we don't do it. So it's more important to choose the one or two small things that you will actually do. And then incorporate novelty, new experiences, keep habits exciting. And so always be thinking how you can make that new and exciting and then track your progress and adjust. So wellness isn't a pass fail test. It's a journey and you'll, you'll have ebbs and flows and days that are good days that are bad. There's no judgment in that. It happens to all of us. I used to have a coach that used to remind me all the time, it's 50 50. So you're going to be on 50 percent of the time and not so much 50 percent of the time. And that's just the human experience. and our church planning coach used to remind us, things are never as good as they seem and they're never as bad as they seem. So keep that in mind as you're evaluating and looking at this to just no judgment. Wellness isn't about doing everything at once either. It's about doing the right things for you. So what's one upstream change that you can make today? I'd love to hear from you. Send me a message and let's keep this conversation going. And again, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and share this episode with someone that you could go on this journey with and have that accountability partner in this as you go. and share it with someone who needs a reminder that. Their wellbeing is possible and personal. So this week, as you ask that question of yourself, what's one thing that you can do to move the needle in one of those areas, start small, stay consistent, and just keep moving upstream towards that life that you're meant to live as you go out every day and default to yes, your extraordinary self. you ever felt like you're meant for more like you're standing on the edge of a breakthrough and you just need that right support, the right strategy and the right people to get there. Welcome to the Yes Society where transformation isn't just possible. It's happening. This is your invitation to join a community of high achievers, dreamers, and doers Who refused to settle Society, you'll get weekly coaching, unwavering support, and proven strategies to help you create the life that you were made for. Break through that self doubt, stay accountable to your biggest goals, surround yourself with like minded people who believe in what is possible. Your next level, it starts with one simple word. Yes. Join us inside the Yes Society today, because your extraordinary life isn't waiting. It's ready. Are you? click the link in the show notes to get started. I'd love to talk to you more about this. So if you have questions, you want to see if this is for you. Schedule that No Regrets Discovery Session and we'll get on the phone and chat and map out a strategy for going forward. world is waiting for your yes, your extraordinary self.