Let’s Chat – Are you enough?

I have chosen to take a very vulnerable stance with my blog, it’s going to be raw and personal but I do this in hope that I will find connection and community with you as my reader. That we can get function in the arena of health, wellness and fitness together.

I’ve always been interested in health and wellness, my posts on Instagram were on the typical things like anti-inflammatory foods and exercise. Which is important but somehow, I started to question why we have a wellness industry of 4.2 trillion market in 2017, growing by a 6.4 percent annually in two years. It is more than half than the health expenditures globally (7.3 trillion – WHO data). The interesting thing is that the statistics on non-communicable / lifestyle disorders according to WHO kill 41 million people each year, that’s 71 % of all deaths globally. 85% of the deaths between the ages of 30 and 69 occur in middle- and low-income countries. 1.6 million deaths annually are caused by insufficient physical activity.  

The statistics are staggering, aren’t they? But what exists between the two extremes of a trillion-dollar wellness industry and the epidemic of lifestyle disease. I believe we do!

This is where I began my journey of vulnerability on health.

Dr Brene Brown is a social scientist who focuses on shame and vulnerability. Vulnerability can truly change the way we live just as much as shame. One of the concepts in her book `Daring Greatly` is on the abundance of scarcity in our society. Scarcity is basically another way of saying `NEVER ENOUGH`.

In a society with scarcity, we are constantly measuring ourselves against something we don’t have. Our deepest insecurities involve not being enough. I could see this in myself so often, I would scroll through Instagram and feel like I was either too fat, too skinny or not pretty enough.  This way of thinking sometimes set me into action and I would go on an extreme diet and exercise program which somehow wouldn’t be sustainable, leaving me in condemnation. Even more negative emotions!! So now not only was I dealing with insecurities, I felt like a failure, full of condemnation and resentment.

How does this tie in to wellness? Well how many of us have felt like we were never enough, and it stopped us from taking care of ourselves. How many of us have dived in to extremes with the wrong attitude and only hurt ourselves? How many of us have failed and never got back in the arena?  Maybe the gap between wellness and disease is where we exist. What determines a win isn’t perfection, but a change in  mindset, reminding ourselves that we are `enough`.

In her research, Dr Brene found that the opposite of scarcity or the `never enough` syndrome was simply being `ENOUGH`. When I began to remind myself that I was enough whether I was exercising or not, eating well or not, I found that I had peace to get back in the arena and exercise or eating well despite the uncertainty and emotional risks of potentially failing again. This as Dr Brown calls it is “Wholehearted living”

How many of you feel like you are never enough? Why don’t you comment below and don`t forget to #drblumears to share your story, even if you are still struggling with feeling like you are never enough!

Self reading !

Global wellness institute – WELLNESS INDUSTRY STATISTICS & FACTS.

WHO. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases

GBD 2015 Risk Factors Collaborators. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks, 1990–2015: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2015. Lancet, 2016; 388(10053):1659-1724

Dr Brene Brown. Daring Greatly