The 4 Stages to Optimal Health
One of the most important aspects I’ve learned in my own personal health journey is that there are many layers that make up the overall level in which I show up in the world.
I think everyone on the surface knows that our health and the attention we put to it, is of vital importance to living an authentic and happy life. However the definition of what that has meant for me throughout the years, and the necessary steps of what it takes to fully tap into that space, has consistently shown me that there is so much more than what I used to be consciously aware of.
After spending a great deal of my life experiencing and trying a circus of different exercises, diets, supplements, stimulants, and other natural remedies, I’ve learned that there are usually four stages that one goes through before reaching the point where their health is sustainably in an optimal place.
Stage 1 – Exercise
Exercise is the most basic level that us as a human species relate to our health and body image. We know that it’s something we should be doing at some capacity and this is what I’ve found to be the entry point for the vast majority of people when it comes to health.
There’s this belief permeating the atmosphere that one must work out and do so intensely, in order to improve body composition or overall health.
This is a stage I’m all too familiar with.
As a former athlete, exercise and pushing the body past certain limits was something that came very naturally to me.
From a young age, I remember competing with the other kids to see who was the fastest or strongest during recess period.
Rather it was swinging from the monkey bars, playing soccer, or racing the other elementary kids, physical education is something from avery young age that we can all remember.
These young patterns of moving the body give us an early foundational understanding that exercise is of the upmost importance and shouldn’t be avoided at any level (unless of course one is sick or injured).
For now we’ll hold onto exercise, but many of us (myself included) have fell victim to the exercise trap.
What’s that?
It’s a belief that the harder one works out, the more they can eat what they want and fully enjoy it with no consequence.
However that leads us directly to the next stage...
Stage 2 –Nutrition
By the time we look into the nutrition (or diet) phase, we usually come into it either feeling two ways:
Frustrated
Excited
All of the exercise without the expected results in stage one has forced us to have to open ourselves up to something outside of that single modality.
The more rigid our beliefs are around stage one, the more pessimism we bring into the nutritional stage.
However if we possess a more curious and open disposition, one that’s more growth oriented over dogmatic, then we approach this stage with a sense of excitement on what it could potentially lead to.
We study a variety of different diets or at minimum checkout what’s trending online or in the magazine aisle upon checking out at the grocery store.
We begin connecting dots on the importance of combining food with exercise to achieve our health goals.
We commit to trying a new diet with the upmost intentions of staying with it.
We’re motivated and possess a high vibing “can do” type of attitude at the onset.
We do a great job of sticking with it to start, and at the beginning notice slight changes in our energy and sleep.
We’re unable to fully put our finger to it, but we know there is something different that we feel inside of ourselves. Which is great because this keeps us motivated to continue along the path.
Overtime we not only feel good, but after a few weeks start to notice clear changes in our body composition too.
We’re excited and begin to start feeling ourselves a bit too much.
What do I mean by this?
We either start “cheating” by frequently eating more foods that we weren’t during the first few weeks of the changes, or if we’ve been on a reduced calorie counting plan we begin having ridiculous cravings.
This naturally leads us to always thinking about food.
We dream about it, get emotionally triggered when we smell or see certain guilty pleasures that we once used to enjoy on a consistent basis.
The little kid awakens inside of us.
You know who I’m talking about.
The one that throws temper tantrums when they don’t get what they want.
And right now, all that kid wants to do is eat more pleasurable foods that used to be a daily staple.
This leads to completely falling off the proverbial wagon and going back to the previous and more comfortable pattern.
Here’s the thing, this pattern usually continues.
It leads to trying another “new and improved” diet that you deep down believe will be the answer.
You remember how you “failed” when it came to others in the past, but you feel like you have enough will power or sustainable motivation to see this new one completely through.
After banging your head against the wall numerous times though, this leads to…
Stage 3 –Lifestyle
Once you’ve reached this stage you consciously realize that what you need the most is to incorporate lifestyle habits that are one and one thing only:
Sustainable.
By this point you’ve tried a countless number of exercises and diets, with varying degrees of success.
However not one single technique has proven to be the end all be all answer for you.
At this point your BS meter is highly tuned and you’re also no longer interested in “quick fix” fad plans that promise the world in anywhere form 7 days to one month.
You now desire something you can sink your teeth into.
Something that is conducive to the way in which you live your life, which can also be tweaked to mold specifically to your needs.
You’re done with the super strict and rigid forms of doing it too.
You want something more mindful.
Something that isn’t requiring you to get up every morning at 5A to go to the gym or where you have to even think about meal portion sizes.
This is a beautiful stage because it comes with tangible experience.
We all have to go through many frustrating trials in the first two stages to realize the practicality and importance of the lifestyle stage.
We begin releasing the pressure to be perfect and commit ourselves to incorporating daily habits that we know over time will lead us to the future vision we hold for ourselves.
Instead of being focused on one particular way of doing things, we’re now more concerned with what’s the best way to do things for our individual self.
The more we continue along the lifestyle habits path, the more open space we internally create for ourselves. This open space not only heightens our degree of self-awareness, it also prompts us towards newly profound insights that create a whole new experience of how we see the world.
These light bulb type moments happen in order to prepare us for the next and final stage…
Stage 4 – The DeepWork
The deep mental and emotional work (when it comes to our overall health) cannot be fully actualized unless we’ve tapped into the first three stages to some degree.
At this point we have a certain level of life experience and wisdom to prepare us for this deeply transformational phase.
And I’m not talking about the surface level or put a band-aid on it type of growth that is often experienced in the first two stages of exercise and nutrition either.
No, we’re talking about having the energy and safe space to not only put a flash light on our most vulnerable parts, but the ability to transmute and bring the unconscious right smack dab into our conscious awareness.
Our bodies and minds then adapt into a place of total creation.
We then truly see and feel how much power we innately hold in creating the life of our dreams.
It can truly feel like a gift and a curse.
We continually peel back layer after layer of the onion, which makes us feel lighter and freer.
However we realize that the deep work never ever truly ends.
We realize just how much of a mirror we are to the world, and the vital importance of all of our thoughts and emotions.
Our personal values take on an even more prime role than what we originally imagined for them.
All this internal work on ourselves has led us to creating strong personal boundaries on how we spend our time, whom we interact with, what we consume, and how we ultimately decide to show up in the world.
We’re able to fully see our purpose and mission in life, or at least how it appears to us in the present moment.
All of our actions take on a whole new meaning.
We see the connections of all of humanity, and how the most challenging and vulnerable periods of our lives were all necessary for us to be standing the way in which we do today.
We look at those previous moments now with a sense of a pride and a deep understanding of how everything is interconnected.
We tap deeper into our innate gifts and dedicate our lives to sharing that gift with the world in some capacity.
We’re forever changed.
And the most beautiful part about it is that it all happened when it was supposed to.
We realize that our lives operate on a divine timeline that never gives us more than we can handle.
It’s always supporting us and showing exactly what we need to see.
With Love,
Brandon