The Unexpected Way to Overcoming Barriers to Healthy Habits
You are on the threshold of a brand new year! It's a fresh start, a chance to get it right this time. You are determined not to let anything get in your way.
Then, that little voice comes in. Oh yeah? Remember what happened last time you were so motivated to lose weight, eat clean, exercise, and meditate more? Life got in the way, that knee pain acted up, and you regained every ounce you lost, and then some!
That voice is one of three sources of a Barriers Mindset. In this article I'll share the science-based way to eliminate barriers (yes! eliminate them), by shifting out of the Barrier Mindset and into a Guide Mindset.
The Barrier Mindset
The barriers mindset is when you think pain, time, stress, your thoughts, feeling "lazy", the holidays, your job, your kids, money, and motivation are getting in the way of getting to a health goal. This mindset is created by three sources
The Medical Model: As a healthcare provider I was taught to look for problems and provide solutions. You go to your doctor to talk about problems or potential problems with your health. They too look for other problems by doing blood tests, listening to your heart and lungs, and discerning whether symptoms are a sign of a problem. Then they provide solutions in the form of medications, medical treatments, and lifestyle change recommendations to fix the problem. The medical model is set up to see barriers to your health. This is not a problem. We need healthcare professionals to have a barriers mindset, or they cannot help us prevent and treat threats to our health.
The Marketing Science: Effective marketing gives a clear picture of what problem a product or service solves. Look at any advertisement or social media post by someone trying to get you to buy or sign up for something. The formula is to talk about the problem, tell stories of how it affected one or more people, and provide the solution that worked for them, then connect it to how it will help solve your problem. Marketing science is based on a barriers mindset to capture your brain's job to protect you from threats. Think about the last time you bought something or joined a program. Were you convinced this was going to solve a problem? We need to know how a product or service will solve problems, or we will miss out on the tools and support we need to survive and thrive.
The Negativity Bias: Your brain is set up to stay on alert to real or potential threats to your safety and well-being. This is most often called the negativity bias, but there is nothing wrong with it. Someone who has dementia is at risk of injury because their negativity bias is off-kilter. They may be oblivious to the dangers of leaving a stove on, or they may be overprotective and not trust the people who are trying to care for them. We need our brains to find and solve threats or we could not survive, much less thrive. The medical model and marketing science need you to have this skill in your brain too, or they could not be effective at doing their job.
The Barriers Mindset is not bad, but it does keep that little voice in your head strong and loud when you set out to change a behavior to support your health. The uncommon science-based way to overcome barriers is to not see them as barriers, but as guides. Here is how it works with the most common barriers to healthy habits.
The Guide Mindset for Eliminating Barriers
Acute and Chronic Pain: Acute pain is your body alerting you there is an injury. It's asking your brain to pause and listen to your body. Chronic pain is your brain overprotecting a part of your body. The problem-solving part of your brain has broadened the problem of pain and now your brain sends more pain signals than are needed for the actual injury.
Seeing pain as a guide means not ignoring it and pushing through but listening to the root cause of pain. Studies show mindfulness can help with both types of pain, by allowing you to listen to and learn from it. Movement Science is the guide that ensures you are moving the way you are designed, with more strength and less strain.
Stress about Lack of Time, Energy, and Money: When you dont have enough resources like time, energy, and money to do what you need to do, your brain sees them as threats to your survival and thriving. When setting goals and planning habits it's easy to imagine the outcomes that will improve life. But then reality hits the moment you get sick, a work project comes up, or your car needs new tires and breaks. When these are barriers, they get in the way of being healthy. But what is health? It is when your body is putting energy into the healing, learning and growing needed to thrive.
When lack of time, energy or money puts you in a stress state that is exactly when your healthy habits are needed - to shift your cells from the stress state to the well state. Seeing stress as a guide rather than a barrier is the way to design truly healthy habits. If they break under stress, they are not perfection habits not healthy habits. Life is anything but perfect. A Guide Mindset lets you set flexible habits that shift you back to the Well State as soon as possible when stressors arise.
Low Motivation: When you dont feel motivated to do what you know you should, its a sign of something missing. The Motivation Equation I explain in this podcast with Gretchen Holmes, PhD provides three elements that turn low motivation from a barrier to a guide. Click here to listen.
Overcoming Barriers to Healthy Habits the Science-based Way
There is a science to making this mindset shift. It is unfortunately not found often in the medical model, marketing science, or in the seek-and-solve problems part of your brain. Coaching psychology is a blending of motivational theories and positive psychology into a conversation. It is a skill that involves staying present, curious, and kind inside, trusting what your body and heart are telling you about this challenge.
Studies show this greatly enhances ones ability to not only achieve but stick with healthy habits. Health coaching strengthens your skills to be the leader of your well-being. This is a skill however that is not prevalent in our culture. Instead, we are flooded with information that supports a Barriers Mindset. This is why we end up here every year, at the threshold of a fresh start, hoping we will do better this year but worried about barriers.
Overcoming barriers to healthy habits the science based way means using the science that is designed for strengthening your inner guides. Coaching science eliminates barriers by strengthening your skills to listen to them rather than get stuck in frustration. Anyone can call themselves a health and wellbeing coach, but there are training programs and a national board certification that allows you to choose one who is trained in this science based process. There are many specialties within health coaching. Choose a coach as part of your healthcare team who can help you counter the information you get every day to have a Barrier Mindset to grow the internal belief in yourself with a Guide Mindset.
Share this with someone you know who wants to celebrate December in the Well State.
How is Exercising Well Coaching Different
With Exercising Well, you get more than a health coach, you get three professionals in one! As a clinical exercise physiologist, I guide you through exercising to safely prevent or treat your health concerns. As a certified health coach, our conversations unleash your natural intrinsic motivation so you move on with confidence you can turn barriers into guides going forward. As a mindful movement teacher, I show you how to grow habits with calm and confidence each step of the way.
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