Future Self, Real Health

What if the easiest way to make better health choices today is to meet the person you’ll be decades from now? We explore how training your brain to recognise your future self turns willpower into identity, making consistent habits feel natural rather than forced.

Across this conversation, we rethink January’s pressure to overhaul everything and lean into the truth that healing is slow, cellular work. We unpack the neuroscience showing that many of us process “future me” like a stranger, and how vivid, regular visioning rewires those circuits so your older self feels like you. From there, we connect the dots to epigenetics: daily behaviours and environments that nudge gene expression toward resilience, better recovery, and healthy ageing. Naomi shares the personal story that once shaped a fear of early decline and how a clear image of running strong in her seventies now guides choices around strength, sleep, nourishment, and nervous system care.

You’ll get practical, simple actions that compound over time: two strength sessions a week, daily walking and sunlight, steady hydration, protein-forward meals, massage and micro-rest for regulation, plus journaling and meditation to anchor intention. We also offer a provocative lens—cruise ship or care home—that brings long-term consequences into crisp focus without shame. Instead of chasing quick fixes, we align with habits that build capacity so the body can do what it’s designed to do: adapt, repair, and thrive. Role models who are breaking records in their seventies are not outliers; they are blueprints for a life built on small, repeated votes for health.

Want support to wire this in? Grab the free Future Self Meditation and explore the You Are The Answer book for deeper tools and science-backed strategies. If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with someone you love, and leave a review so more people can reconnect with their body’s wisdom.

Link to the "future self" meditation here: 

Transcript

Welcome And Core Philosophy

Naomi Mills 0:01

Welcome to You Are the Answer, the podcast that helps you reconnect with the most powerful healer you know, your own body. I'm Naomi Mills, chiropractor, healthcare professional, and believer in the natural intelligence within us all. In this podcast, I explore what it means to trust your body, decode its signals, and take ownership of your well-being without quick fixes or health fads. Whether you're just beginning your journey or deep in transformation, I'm here to guide you back to the truth. You are not broken. You are the answer.

Rethinking New Year Change

Naomi Mills 0:42

So, welcome to episode 8. Which today feels timely because I'm recording it right at the beginning of a new year. And it's a time when we tend to set resolutions and intentions for things that we're going to add in or change. And so I just want to start by saying I do not subscribe to that idea set.

Healing Is Slow And Real

Naomi Mills 1:08

Really, January is deep winter. Everything in nature is really slow. It's actually the time when we are collecting the deep nourishment that's needed for the spring ahead. So it's spring that is really go time. And the topic of today's podcast is your future self. And if I've learned anything from my 20 plus years in healthcare, it's that fast, sudden changes don't tend to be long-lasting.

Naomi Mills 1:40

And so when you are working on creating health for your future self, it's slow. I talked about the unsexy truth of healing. And healing is slow because you're creating physiological change within your body. And that's true of creating health, whether that's turning yourself from chronic dehydration to being adequately, adequately hydrated, whether it's building strength in a muscle.

Neuroscience Of The Future Self

Naomi Mills 2:08

It takes consistency and it takes time. And that doesn't just apply to healing, that applies to all types of health creation. And why do I really want you to care about creating your health for the future? Although, why would I not? There's some really, really cool neuroscience coming out now that when you talk about yourself, there's a certain area of your brain that lights up. When you talk about I, me, mine. And if you talk about somebody else, a different area of your brain lights up. And when you talk about yourself in the future, if it's not something you're practiced at doing, the same area will light up as though you're talking about somebody else. Because if you don't give thought to your future self now, it kind of doesn't feel like you emotionally and it doesn't resonate as you neurologically, which is what I think is so cool.

Naomi Mills 3:14

But when you practice thinking about your future self often enough, what they found was that part of your brain that relates to self begins to light up and you really neurologically connect with the future you. And when you do that, it actually makes a lot of the more positive health decisions, like we talked about a couple of episodes ago. What can you do to increase the size of your plate to hold all of this stress? A lot of the solutions there are building positive health changes for the long term.

Epigenetics And Vision

Naomi Mills 3:56

And it's easier to do that when you really identify with who you are going to become in the future. And we could be talking a year from now, but I'm really talking about 20, 30, 40 years from now. When I was writing my book, You Are the Answer, Why It's Time to Trust Your Body, I have a section in there about epigenetics. And epigenetics are like they're little switches on our genes that can come on and off depending on lots of factors, especially environmental factors. It's a bit like when you have a cake recipe, but you've written a handwritten note there "eggs at room temperature".

Naomi Mills 4:39

Epigenetics are these little tweaky bits on our genes, and they can be switched on and off through vision, through intention, through this future self-work. And you will also know if you've listened to episode one, a big turning point for me was losing my mum to stomach cancer very unexpectedly when she was just 56. And I think for a while I was going through my life, one part of me was maybe thinking, what if I die young of a cancer where I have no risk factors, and the same thing happens to me as that happened to my mum. And being the very positive human that I am, I was like, well, maybe that's a good thing. I will, you know, seize the day and I will do things knowing that life isn't necessarily going to last forever.

From Fear To A Clear Future Image

Naomi Mills 5:30

So I really focus on my work-life balance now because I know I might not get a long retirement or a guaranteed time to just do what brings me joy, so I try and do it now. Anyway, for all of that may be true in changing my behaviour, on an epigenetic level, me picturing myself subconsciously in the future as somebody dying young of cancer possibly makes that more likely to happen. And there is some science to suggest that that could be true. Very difficult thing to measure, of course, as you'll imagine.

Naomi Mills 6:05

So when I started to learn about future self and epigenetics and really about creating health for the future, I now have a crystal clear vision of myself in my 70s, jogging up a hill, a pentland, probably near Edinburgh, where I live. And just doing that not only helps me take advantage of this genetic link, however strong it is, it makes my decisions both consciously and unconsciously now different. And these are what the future self-science experts have found that when you identify with that part of you in a way that is neurologically wired as you, that feels like you, when you really connect with yourself going forward, you make measurable and real differences today that you otherwise don't make if you don't give this connection the consideration that it deserves.

Habits That Serve Decades Ahead

Naomi Mills 7:08

So that means I am have a great commitment to making sure that I am fitter and stronger with every decade, that my BMI is healthier every decade, that I build health habits like meditation and journaling and rest and slowing down and listening to my body, and this real commitment of knowing that when I do that today, my future self is gonna thank me. And sometimes that can be as simple as making sure I book in my lovely monthly massage that I often struggle to make time for, or think, oh, I could use that money elsewhere, and then I get into that space and I get on the table, and my lovely massage therapist makes up an aromatherapy blend for me, and she puts the music on and she starts working on my body for an hour, and I think, good for me, past self. And this was only, you know, five or six weeks past self.

Meditation Resource And Book Link

Cruise Ship Or Care Home Framing

Naomi Mills 8:14

But there are so many opportunities for where you are now to consciously and mindfully create health for yourself in the future. So, one of the things I want to do as a result of this podcast is record you a cheeky little future self-vision meditation. It will be less than 10 minutes long, it will be on the website and it will be linked in the show notes so that you can start really connecting with who you are in terms of your health in the future. And there's actually a whole section of my book dedicated to this, and it's it's kind of a corny title, actually. It asks, are you headed for a cruise ship or a care home?

Naomi Mills 9:02

But when you imagine yourself, let's say in your 70s or your 80s, or at least 15 or 20 years from where you are now, and you've enjoyed a busy and successful life, and hopefully retired early enough to have several decades to enjoy yourself before you die, actually having a really clear picture of what your face looks like, what what's your body appearance, what's your energy levels, what's your passions and your joys? Because when you make that clear and vivid and bright, you are going to both consciously and unconsciously make decisions and do behaviors that are going to lead you towards that.

Western Quick Fixes Vs Healing

Naomi Mills 9:47

And I'm pretty certain we've already had the conversation in this podcast where your subconscious doesn't work in negatives. So we can't think about what we don't want. And that's why often when you think about something you don't want, that's that's all you seem to call in. And it's because your subconscious is picking up on that and bringing it to you and bringing to your attention that those things exist. So this all has to be framed in the positive of what we want to be doing, feeling, thinking, and functioning as we get older. And it starts with are you heading for a cruise ship or a care home?

Naomi Mills 10:24

Because of course, the people out on the cruise ships or whatever they're doing, whether it's big long walks or mountaineering or adventurous hikes in their 70s, they're not the same 70-year-olds that are struggling to get up the stairs and needing home support. And those decisions crucially were made decades often, many decades in our 30s and our 40s, as to how those later years are going to go for us. And so everything that you do, the sooner you do them, the better it's gonna be for the future. And all throughout the book, there are these little health keys, just little snippets that I took from what I was writing about, little take homes, if you like. And this one says, if you do not make time for your wellness, you may be forced to take time for your illness. And I always remember my first chiropractic job on the back of my business card, it said, "The greatest health is wealth" by Virgil.

Role Models, Agency, And Next Steps

Naomi Mills 11:31

And it wasn't me that chose that quote, it was my boss. And I remember reading that as a much younger, brand newly minted healthcare professional, and thinking, Yeah, yeah, that's that's nice. But I tell you what's brought that home is working with thousands of clients over 20 years and seeing what happens when we don't think about our future selves, when we live too much in the now, the quick fix, the short-term pleasure, and people that had been ignoring their poor lifestyle choices for years, and more than that, ignoring all the signals their body was giving them saying, Oh, this isn't actually serving us anymore, or we can't get away with this like we used to anymore, who, especially upon retirement, would find their body really wasn't capable of giving them the lifestyle that they want, and that they'd worked so hard to have, and they didn't have the health to enjoy it.

Naomi Mills 12:37

And possibly even harder than that, are the people I've met who need to keep working for financial stability, and they're really struggling because their body isn't holding up. We have a great mentality in our Western culture of quick fixing the problem, looking very narrowly, and then not looking all so far ahead. There's also a quote by Gabor Mate the whole of Western medicine is built on getting rid of pain, which is not the same as healing. So that's a super important thing for you to think about today of not only what am I doing to get rid of the pain, the headache, the poor sleep, the bad stomach, whatever it is that's bothering you. But what am I doing that's creating healing?

Naomi Mills 13:36

And your invitation today is to maybe start thinking about this future self-practice, because there's a link here that when you really closely identify with who you want to be as you get older, that's going to make some of the choices now clearer and hopefully easier because you've got a really compelling reason for doing it.

Naomi Mills 14:01

And I know for many of us, if you have young people in your lives, if you have children or grandchildren, or children you expect to make you a grandparent one day, how do you want your grandchildren to see you as a very fit, dynamic, fun person that's maybe able to go to their concerts with them and go skiing with them or whatever it is they're into, or perhaps like a grandparent you might have had that felt old and didn't leave the house much, or were wasn't up to doing too much, or was very kind of quiet and genteel in a way that you don't think screamed health and vitality. And your adult self now realizes they were only in their 50s or 60s at the time. They were super young when they felt old to you as a child.

Naomi Mills 14:52

So starting to really feel into your own personal experience of aging, the people that you've known, the people that you've seen, the people that inspire you. I have a couple of clients I always hold in my mind that were in their 70s, that I that had been under chiropractic care for many decades, they almost never saw their doctor, they ate well, they were still running, they were still breaking records in their age category for athletics. And I was always determined that that would be me to find these role models, these people, and not think, oh, I couldn't do that, that's just them. Because we can all do that. So here's my question for today with the lifestyle choices you are making, which are you headed towards?

Naomi Mills 15:47

The future of adventure or a care home. And if you want to take this work further, and I really encourage you to do so, make sure you pick up a copy of the You Are the Answer book, which you can do so on the website youaretheanswer.co.uk. And while you're on there, get onto the resources, they are completely free under meditations, your future self-meditation.

Closing And Calls To Action

Naomi Mills 16:15

There will be a link in the show notes, and make it a priority today to go and listen to that and to take some time over the coming weeks to reflect on your future self and let's see where it takes you and make sure you create that neurological connection that when you think of yourself in the future, your brain knows you're talking about you. And so your brain doesn't get in the way as often when it comes to making those great health choices.

Naomi Mills 16:49

Thank you for joining me on You Are the Answer. If today's episode sparks something in you, share it with someone you care about and leave a review to help others find their way back to their body too. For more tools, inspiration, and resources to support your journey, head to www.youareanswer.co.uk. And until next time, stay connected, stay curious, and remember, you are the answer, and you always have that.