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Dear Dr Jane

September 13, 2017 September 2017 No Comments

A balanced lifestyle? I take vitamins, do yoga, limit red meat and alcohol, meditate, get eight hours of sleep religiously and have regular colonic irrigations. Any advice on what else I can do to achieve maximum wellness and be the best version of myself?
Concerned

Dear Concerned

Yes, I do have some advice but it’s perhaps not what you were expecting.
A huge industry has sprung up in recent years targeting the ‘worried well’ and giving the message that you could feel a lot better if only you were drinking solutions infused with the energetic vibrations of flowers, attending a sweat-based infra-red yoga studio or doing a monthly organic carrot juice detox.
Subsequently, there is a section of the population who are searching very hard for some magic elixir that will give perfect wellness, whatever that actually means.
However, there are at least two unfortunate side effects of this quest. The first is a consequence of any search for perfection: you can never achieve it as there will always be the possibility that there is something else, some potion or lotion that will ensure you never feel tired, never feel a twinge, or any other normal process of aging or being human.

This results in perpetual anxiety and a never-ending search. Ironic really, given the original goal is to be perfectly zen and the “best you”. The cynics amongst us would congratulate the wellness movement for being an example of a truly self-sustaining industry.
The second side effect can be an over-fixation on the self which actually detracts from truly balanced wellness. Socrates once said ‘an unexamined life is not worth living’ but this philosophy, when taken to extreme, can lead to an unhealthy hypervigilance to our internal experience.
In response to this maxim, others have retorted that ‘the over-examined life is also not worth living.’ There are frequent societal messages to look after ourselves before we can look after others and this is very true. However, don’t get so preoccupied with the first part of this that you forget to attend to the second part. When I think about resilient, robust humans I often reflect on the people who lived through World Wars I and II. They appeared to rally around each other and focus on the welfare of others rather than always asking ‘how am I doing?’
To sum up, good on you Concerned for looking after your wellbeing but do ensure some of your energy is spent focussing on others or things outside of your self. Perhaps only then do we ever achieve a truly balanced lifestyle and wellbeing.

Dr Jane Freeman-Brown is a registered Clinical Psychologist. If readers have a subject which they may like covered Jane’s address is drjanefreeman@xtra.co.nz
The advice in this column is intended as a general commentary and not individualised to a specific person

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