Saving or Spending Your Health (An Authentic Approach to Health Decisions)

Preventative health care has definitely been a huge step forward for humanity, but have we stopped to question what this might be doing to the subconscious ways we approach our individual health decisions? Do we spend way too much time protecting our health, without thinking enough about what we want to USE our health for? In this episode I want to break down for you all, a way to approach making decisions for your health in a way that is authentic, and empowered.

Enjoy!!!

Transcript

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You're listening to the authentic life connection Podcast, episode number 168. Welcome to the authentic life connection podcast. I'm your host, Seth Lusk. I'm a master certified life coach, author, personal trainer and nutrition specialist. For over a decade, I've been helping people with their dreams and goals for their life and health. I spent many years watching people get frustrated with their journey in life and giving up on taking actions towards their goals. So I dug in deep to find answers to why so many of us face the same frustration and struggle in life. So in this podcast, we're gonna dive in deep on topics surrounding what it means to consistently live a fulfilling and authentic life, where you are unstoppable and taking action towards your dreams and goals. So the only question is, are you ready to start living your most authentic and fulfilling life once and for all? Then let's get started. Shall we? Hey, everyone, welcome back to the podcast. For those of you listening in for the first time, welcome, welcome, you picked a great episode to join in on because we're going to talk about something today. That is actually where I kind of started my career into becoming a life coach. And that's the area of health. I graduated from university studying Human Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, as well as psychology. So I had a huge interest in the health of the human being as a whole. And I started my career as a personal trainer and nutrition specialist. Slowly, I evolved the career into becoming a life coach focused because I noticed a huge gap in the fact that people were coming to me with all of these quote unquote, goals that they had for their bodies for their health, and blah, blah, blah, but they didn't really understand why they had the goals, or even if they were their goals, and then they would yo yo back and forth between taking action not taking action. And I noticed that as a personal trainer and nutrition specialist, people wouldn't talk to me about what was going on in their thoughts in their emotional health, because there was like a wall up there. They're like, Oh, you're just the guy who tells me what to eat, you're just the guy who tells me what exercises to do. So they didn't want to talk to me about what's going on in their thought process, what's going on in their image of themselves in their body in their life, and who they are as the person, which is why I developed my career into being more life coach focused is to help people to be able to make authentic decisions even about their health. So that they stopped this, you know, yo yoing, back and forth between wanting to take action, not taking action, on goals that they had for their, their health and fitness. And today, I want to talk to you all, again, about a trap that I see so many people falling in today, when it comes to how they care for their body and their health. And, you know, we we live in a world where we have so much innovation in healthcare, and in disease prevention. And we've hear so many stories about people that get to their deathbed, and they're dying from some disease, some disorder that could have been prevented. And the story always is, oh, you know, they could have prevented this. It's so sad that they died from this when there's something that could have been prevented, blah, blah, blah. And we hear so many stories about this, that I feel like it's creating a trap for us that we're we're a little bit unaware of what's going on here. Preventative Medicine, I'm not here to knock it and say that preventative medicine isn't something that we should practice. I feel like yes, there are many unnecessary diseases out there involved with overconsumption that could be prevented that I would say most people don't want to die from and I understand that this is an area in which preventative medicine is very applicable is you know, avoiding these overconsumption diseases that are caused by us trying to escape our life or avoid parts of our life. And we're doing it with with things like you know, cigarettes, or food or alcohol or other drugs. And these lead to other diseases in the body that most people would say, Yeah, I doubt the person really wanted to die from that. However, I think that we've fallen into a new trap that I notice when I start working with people and talking with them about what they're doing to care for their health, what they're doing to care for their body. And, as I as I say, with so many different things, that humanity is struggling with black and white answers tend to lead us into problems that we actually have the end once we notice them are like that. that's not actually the result that I wanted. And that typically speaking when we when we stick to the authentic gray areas, and what I mean by that is not taking black or white all or nothing stances on things in life, we tend to find authentic ways that we want to spend our life that we want to spend our health. And this is what I want to talk with you all about today is this. I don't I don't know if I want to call it a new phenomenon. But it's a pattern that I'm starting to notice. And this is one of these things, it's a gift that I've cultivated and worked on since I was a child is noticing patterns. And this is a pattern that I see starting to develop that I want to sort of start speaking up about before it becomes a huge issue, and start talking about how we want to approach this now before it becomes something that we just yo yo back from and to another extreme. And it's this way that people are approaching preventative health, that's actually stopping them from living fulfilling lives and using their health in a way that they actually want to. So let me explain to you what I mean, a lot of these stories that we hear about people dying from different cancers, different metabolic diseases, diseases of overconsumption. And we hear about, you know, all it's such a tragedy that this person died in such a tragedy that this happened to this person that could have been prevented, that I see people living their lives now and making so many decisions about their health, that are focused on prevention, prevention, prevention, prevention. And while I'm not saying that we, we don't want to take preventative measures, what I'm noticing is that, as with almost all areas of life, when we approach our health, from a lens of soul prevention, we also hinder ourselves from using and creating things, with resources in our life in an authentic way. So here's what I mean, so many of us look at our health as being this thing that we want to protect this thing that we want to prevent diseases from coming into and taking over our health. And I get that, I get that. But what I think a lot of us have forgotten to remember is that we are all going to die, we are all going to die, the human body is not designed to live forever. And we don't want it to I don't think I don't think I think there are some people out there that might think that they want to live eternally. But we really don't. If we're if we're being honest and truthful about life, and what we want to accomplish. And we don't necessarily want to live forever. I mean, what would that even be? So we have to look at our life as the time spent in this body. The time spent living life through this body and creating a life for ourselves through this body that we feel fulfilled by. And what I'm noticing is so many people are stuck in this mindset of prevention and avoidance in other areas of life, but also in their health, to the point that they're unable to make decisions about what they actually want to spend their time and their health, doing and creating in this life, to feel fulfilled, to fulfill the purpose that they feel genuinely authentically called to fulfill with their life. You see, while there is this ability that we have today, with preventative medicine to avoid certain diseases, certain outcomes with our health. I think what I see happening is so many people being solely focused on that to the point that they're scared to make decisions about how they actually want to spend their health. And you might be scratching your head thinking What do you mean by spend your health? So what I want to talk with you what I want to present to you all today is this idea that I've been toying around with and talking to my clients about and developing and cultivating ways strategies to to look at our health in this way is that health is a resource, it is a resource that we have. And as with any resource that we have, we can either shove it to the side and ignore it. And it's going to be used anyways in another way that we don't have any say in or we can grab it as much as we can hold on tight to it and and protect it So much that we don't spend it in a way that we actually want to, but it's going to be spent anyways. And what I want you all to, again, pay attention to here is that either one of these extremes, your health gets spent, as with any resource, it's going to be used, it's going to be used in one way or another. And I feel like what I see so many people doing in their life right now is protecting their health so much, that they get to the point where their health eventually gets spent anyways, because we're alive, and health gets spent every moment that we are alive, that when there starts to show up these ways of dysfunction as health, sort of, I don't want to say reaches its end. But you know, health sort of, it develops throughout life. And it eventually gets to the point where it's no longer growing, and it's being spent, it's waning, as you know, we have the waxing and the waning moon, our health, at some point in time begins to wane as we get older, it begins to become a resource that we don't create more of, we're only spending it more than we're able to create it. That is an inevitable part of human life. In our early years of life, our body grows, our immune system grows, our muscles grow, our organs grow, everything is growing, growing, growing, growing, growing, and we have so much power during that time to create health in our bodies, while spending it at the same time. But we're creating more than we're spending at that point in time. And then we inevitably reached the peak in human life, where the creation of health starts to decline. And the spending of it speeds up. And what I see so many people ending up in is this space in their life, where they finally come to terms with the fact that their health is being spent faster than it's being created. And they haven't made any empowered, authentic decisions about how they're spending it. It's all been about avoiding certain outcomes in their health, to the point that they're, they haven't used it to create the things in the life that they want. And then they start going into this space of regret. And then people watch these people that are in these spaces of regret with their health, and then they slip into that same pattern, it's about, oh, I need to avoid coming to that position in my life too. So I better prevent spending my health this way. And I better prevent spending my health in that way. And I better prevent spending using my health in this way. And then they fall into the same pattern. And then they end up at the same place maybe with a different, you know, disorder or form in which their health is being spent in authentically. But inevitably, we will end up in a space where we notice our health is being spent very fast. Very fast. As we age this happens. And if we haven't taken the time to really authentically, look at our health. Look at how long do you actually plan on being on this planet in this body? And really, like come to terms with that? How old do you want to be when you die? Do you want to be 100? Do you want to be 90? Do you want to be 80? How old do you want to be? So you've got 90 years of using your health? What are you going to use it for? And I feel like so few of us actually ask ourselves questions like this, actually ask ourselves. So if I've got 90 years of health, how am I going to spend it? Instead, we look at Oh, if I will, if I were to live to be 90 years old, I need to avoid this, I need to avoid that I need to avoid this, I need to avoid that. And then we get to 7080 years old. And we're like what? What did Wait, hold on what did I use my health for? And we look back at all of the the fearing certain outcomes, the avoiding certain outcomes. And this is where I see people slipping into that regret. And we misinterpret that regret as being Oh, they didn't prevent enough. And what I want you all to begin to notice people when they get to that space in their life where they start falling into regret, where we tend to misinterpret because we live in this culture that's about survival and avoidance of emotional discomfort avoidance of so many different things. Avoidance of fears is that when people reach that stage of regret, what we don't pay attention to is that the regret doesn't stem from it doesn't stem from a lack of avoidance. It stems from a lack of authentic decisions about what had to step into. This is where regret stems from. And when we misinterpret this, this regret that people face when they get older and their health starts to decline faster than it's building itself. That regret is not stemming from, oh, I did this Oh, it did that, Oh, it did this. Oh, it did that. It's usually stemming from the fact that they recognize, I never made an empowered decision about how I wanted to spend that health. And so instead, it got spent for me, it got spent in the background, while I was fearing, and avoiding and running away from all of the things that I was afraid of in life, so much so that I never actually made an authentic decision, to take actions to spend that health in a way that created something that was important for me. Instead, they spent their health avoiding things that they were afraid of. And I want you all to begin today, looking in your own life. And not only I mean, I've talked to you all about so many other areas of your life making these kinds of decisions. But I want us to start looking at our health in this way to I want to see more people on this planet, instead of looking at their health as this thing to protect, out of fear, or this thing to just completely ignore out of fear and start looking at as a resource that we have to spend to create things in our life that are valuable for us. Have you ever thought about the the prices that you are willing to pay in your health to create something that is valuable for you? We spend so much time worrying about avoiding outcomes that our health that I think we haven't actually thought about? How am I willing to lose this health? And what ways am I willing to become diseased disordered, because that's gonna happen in the body anyways, the body is designed to come apart, eventually, have you decided the ways in which you're willing to say yes, if my body falls apart in that way, because I spent my health and my body's time here creating this, this, this and this, it was important for me that I can look at my aging body that is spending its health faster than it created, then it can create it. And I can say well done, well done, and be at peace, with the body going through its natural process of falling apart just as it put itself together. I know some of you all might feel like this is such a depressing topic to talk about. But this is why it's so important to talk about. This is why I wanted to bring it up today is because so many of us. So many of my clients that I talked to are avoiding really looking at this and making decisions here because they're afraid of feeling depressed, they're afraid of being afraid. And I want you all to begin recognizing, fearing being afraid, fearing being depressed, fearing this topic isn't going to serve you to spend your health in an authentic way. I want you to look at how you're approaching your health. And look at how much of it is about avoiding outcomes. And how much of is it is about saying, Yeah, that's probably going to kill me later. Sign me up. I want to create this so much in life. I want to put more of this out into the world so much so that if I spend up my body and my health doing that, it will be worth it. I can look at my body as its aging and falling apart like it's designed to do and say well done. Well done. You did you spent that health you spent that time you spent that body in a way that was authentically important and powerful and valuable for you. Are you making decisions about your health in this way? And if not why? I think for a lot of you if you recognize no I'm not I'm I'm looking at health as being Oh, take your antioxidants, avoid oxidative stress, avoid this, avoid that. And oh, we've got to avoid this happening to our body and oh, I don't want to die from that cancer. So I better avoid that. And I better avoid this. Do you notice that this is how you approach your health? Have you ever sat down and thought okay, this is how long I want to live. This is how long I plan. This is how old I plan to be when I die. What am I going to spend this body in this health creating during that time? In what ways? Is my body going to fall apart? By spending my health and my body on these things? Is it worth it? And when you can say yes to that, Sign me up. That's when you start truly truly living a life where your health is a resource that you get to use versus something that you spend your whole entire life protecting, only to find out it was spent anyways. People don't regret spending their health, they regret finding out it was spent anyways, while they were trying to prevent it. And therefore they never used it to create what they truly wanted in their life. So today, I'd like you to take an honest look, and honest look at your life. And honest look at how you're approaching your health. And I want you to look at it is it being spent slowly in the background while you're avoiding it being spent? Is it being spent while you avoid making decisions about it, and just doing whatever feels good in the moment, because you're afraid to really take a look at how you're taking care of your health and what you're using it for. Either way, your health is being spent, I'm here to ask you, are you ready to really take a look at it, and make empowered decisions about how you're willing to spend it, how you're willing to watch it go so that you can create something valuable with the body, the time and the health that you have in this life. I'm here for you when you're ready to start making decisions from that space. This is the true action of authentic health. This is where the rubber meets the road. In truly making authentic decisions about what we want to do with the resource of health that we have. It's a new way of looking at how you approach your health. But I'm here to offer the fact that this is really truly the only authentic way that we get to make decisions about how that health is spent. And here when you're ready. It's all I've got for you all this week. Are you ready to start authentically choosing how you spend your health? I know I am. And I hope you are too. That's all I got for you all this week. Until we meet again here next week. Get out there, start making authentic decisions about how you want to spend the health you've got. Ciao. Thank you for joining us today. I hope you enjoyed the content of this podcast. If you did, please subscribe so that you're one of the first people to know when I release a new episode each week. If you have any questions or if you have interest in learning more about the coaching that I do with my clients one on one, then just head over to my website at WWW dot life coach seth.com that's www dot life coach seth.com there you're gonna have the ability to reach out to me for questions that you might have or to book your free discovery call with me to discuss what one on one coaching with me might be like for you. You can also check out and order your copy of my book to get a taste of what I'm all about as a person and as a coach. I'm so happy that you joined us today and I hope to have you here again next week. So until then, let authenticity be the guide to your most unstoppable and fulfilling journey of life.