Yesterday, I told you why I suck at being a health coach. Not because I’m bad at helping people; I’m just back to problem-seeking and fixing. Because what I really believe, the problem was never the problem. It was just information. And most of what we call a problem is really just a product of an old story controlling the narrative.
Anywho… today I wanted to get specific and share what I mean. That not every story we pick up has to be true. And seeing it from a new angle might just be the thing you need to actually move the needle (or at least motivate you to do some story work).
Here are some crappy health stories we’ve believed and the plot twist to see it differently.
Common Story: Disease is inevitable (because apparently we can’t just pass from old age anymore).
Plot Twist: What if disease is just your body’s way of getting loud enough to be heard.
Common Story: Pregnancy and delivery are always going to be painful and hard.
Plot twist: What if pregnancy and delivery weren’t obstacles to survive, but your body’s most capable work?
Common Story: Menopause is the beginning of the end.
Plot twist: What if menopause was the beginning of one of the best chapters of your life? What if it was the beginning of finally being done performing for everyone?
Common Story: Perimenopause means something is wrong with you.
Side note: perimenopause wasn’t even a mainstream medical term until fairly recently. So what did women have before it existed? A body full of undiagnosed symptoms or just… a life?
Plot twist: What if perimenopause wasn’t a problem to diagnose, but a body asking for something different?
Common Story: Your metabolism tanks after 40 (and funny how it breaks once we’re told to expect it).
Plot twist: What if your metabolism didn’t break, but was actually just indicating the health of your cells?
Common Story: Marriage gets harder, not better, the longer you’re in it (which could be why we use difficulty as evidence you’re doing it “right”).
Plot Twist: What if marriage doesn’t get harder with time, but it actually gets easier and more enjoyable the longer you both stay curious with each other?
Common Story: Stress is the cost of being a responsible adult.
Plot Twist: What if stress is just the cost of ignoring what you already know?
Common Story: Hitting a plateau means your body is failing you.
Plot Twist: What if the plateau is your nervous system working to catch up?
Common Story: Having kids means putting your life on hold (so ambition and motherhood get treated as opposites).
Plot Twist: What if raising healthy kids meant showing them you can have both? What if what they needed was not a mom who had it all figured out, but a mom who showed them how to grow?
Your turn.
What would you say is a common story you tell yourself? And what happens if you add a plot twist?
Take what you think is certain and add a "what if..."
And not because the old story is a lie, necessarily, but because there might be a truer, more useful one sitting right beside it.
Maybe the question isn’t what is most true, but how do you want it to go? What do you want it to be?
Leave a comment:
What crappy health stories have you been carrying around that might not even be true? Drop it below, and I’ll pick a few to break down in the coming weeks.