Stop Overthinking: Start with Your Body, Not Your Mind

How resourcing your body can finally help you break free from your old health story. What I learned inside!

This week, I’ve been working through my journaling prompts (you can grab week two’s prompts here), and as I reflect on how my answers have shifted over the years, I’m honestly shocked.

Four years ago, my responses were a little...abrasive. There was a lot of interrogation. Even though I knew the answers were just for me, reading through them felt like I was exposing all the things I hated about myself.

But as the years have progressed, my answers are more positive. I’ve built capacity over time by doing the basics that energize my body—sleep, sunlight, nourishing food—and that has allowed me to move from feeling like health was a distant dream to understanding I can change it.

It got me thinking about how many truly bad stories we hear about health and how quickly we pick up on these stories and recreate them.

Stop and think:

What stories have you most commonly heard about health?

Most health stories are pretty grim. The cultural messaging has pretty much instilled the belief that it’s all doom and gloom.

• PMS is a given when you’re menstruating.

• Menopause is basically a fiery furnace of misery.

• Weight loss is impossible, even though people still attempt it.

• Aging is just one big downhill slide.

And because we’ve been told these stories, we start expecting them to be true, right? But here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to be this way.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

There is a better story out there. It’s okay if you don’t see it right now. It actually takes quite a bit of energy and resources to see beyond where you are.

Maybe right now, you don’t realize that food doesn’t have to have the power over you that you think it does.

Maybe you can’t yet see that menopause could actually be one of the best transitions of your life.

Maybe, in the middle of your current pain, you can’t imagine that relief is even possible.

Maybe you don’t realize how much energy you could feel.

And that’s okay.

You don’t have to see it all at once. The key is to slowly release your grip on the old story, the one programmed into us. Because when you let go, it frees up all this energy that was being wasted on holding onto those old beliefs.

And that energy? That’s what you’ll use to start making the changes you want.

Journaling your story and digging up the beliefs you’ve been holding onto is a great first step in releasing that grip. But here’s the other thing I want to remind you of: your story only shifts when you provide your body with the resources it needs.

Changing your ‘health’ story requires resources!

I’m currently in a graduate study on Neuronutrition (basically understanding how the mind and body are connected on a deeper level), and something that keeps popping up is this: your brain can only change when it has the nutrients, energy, and resources it needs to create new pathways.

In other words, you need to spend more time resourcing your body and less time overanalyzing your mind.

Sometimes, we think or feel certain things not because they’re accurate but because we just don’t have the resources to feel or think differently.

If you’ve ever been hangry, you know exactly what I mean. Hunger can totally mess with your head.

Change requires capacity, and capacity takes resourcing.

I’m not saying you should ignore your thoughts or let them run wild. What I am saying is that trying to manage your mind without resourcing your body is a losing battle. You’ll repeat the same loops until you have the energy and resources to build new ones.

Here is the reminder I want to leave you with: sometimes, it’s not about thinking more or making more plans. It’s about doing something different so you can actually create change.

Stop thinking so much about what you want to change and start doing something so you can change.

Go back to the basics:

• Sleep well (and don’t be afraid to nap if you’re really tired).

• Hydrate well (and eat plenty of fresh fruits!).

• Move your body every day (it doesn’t have to be intense—just get moving).

• Get outside and soak up some sunlight (seriously, the sun is magic).

• Put your bare feet on the ground and let the earth energize you.

• Laugh often (it helps release stuck energy while generating new energy).

• Love deeply (because love is our greatest healer).

• Eat well (and eat enough!).

If you take nothing else from this, let me be blunt: circling around the same story without experiencing real change, overthinking instead of acting, is a sign that you’re undernourished and under-resourced.

Stop blaming your mind and start supporting it.

Your body has a lot to offer in this process, but it needs the right fuel to get there.

What is one thing you can do right now to support your body? What are you waiting for? Go and do it and let yourself soak in the energy it created.

If you need help with the basics, follow along by completing these challenges!

I’ll be back on Sunday with a new one!

P.S. What is the area of health that you find yourself overthinking the most?