It doesn’t matter if you’re struggling with weight, fatigue, hormones, mental health, gut issues, immunity, skin, pain or any symptom or condition, it’s important to uncover and work at the root cause level – at least as much as you do the external things to correct, heal or manage your symptoms.
This is not how the health, fitness and “sick-care” industry is designed though…
What happens in the “health space” is – regardless if you seek help via the Primary Medical Care model, Alternative/Integrative/Natural Medicine… or you go down the diet/exercise route – the focus is placed on treating the surface or symptoms with external solutions – and the REAL (deeper) root cause is often bypassed…
Using the Weight Loss example here’s how this may look:
- Conventional Doc: Will tell you to “Eat less/Exercise More” (ya’ cuz that works – 🙄). May order conventional tests to rule out disease. May possibly refer you to a specialist or may prescribe surgery or, more likely, medication.
- Alternative/Functional Medicine Practitioner: Will likely order advanced functional testing to identify imbalances or triggers (gut/hormone/metabolic/food sensitivities). They usually suggest supplements, elimination diets, and will address lifestyle factors (reduce stress, sleep more, etc..)
- Nutrition/Fitness Expert or Guru: Will tell you to “eat this, not that” and to follow certain macros and maybe a meal plan. Some will suggest certain exercises – “do this workout/avoid that one”. Supplements will usually be suggested. They may recommend testing and address lifestyle factors like water, stress and sleep, etc..
To be clear, many of these measures can help tremendously.
- You may uncover a food sensitivity or hidden allergy or infection or immune issue.
- You may realize you’re eating the wrong things or the wrong amounts of things…or that your workouts are taxing your hormones…or that you have mold in your home or that chemicals in your environment or in products you use are effecting you…
- Or you may just be in a “rut” – you need to change things up – have some outer accountability, encouragement or support as you experiment with new ways of doing things…
All good things….
But what I want to offer in addition to (or even before you seek expert answers) is to ask yourself one question:
WHY am I experiencing this?
To get to the REAL root cause you need to go much deeper than the initial surface answer. I like to use an inquiry or journaling tool called the 5 WHYs (or the 50 or 500 WHYs in some cases :)).
Back to the weight struggle example…ask yourself: Why am I struggling with my weight?
- The FIRST WHY surface answer might be: Because I eat/drink too much and don’t exercise. Therefore, all I need to do is eat less/better and exercise more consistently (or maybe its more along the line of “I don’t know..I do all the things…something must be wrong with me.”).
- NEXT WHY: Maybe it’s along the lines of “Because I’m confused with all the conflicting information…I’m so busy… I’m getting older…it takes too much time and effort (or because I have XYZ condition or XYZ condition runs in my family).”
- NEXT WHY: “Because I’m dealing with a lot of stress or discontent at work or in my family, life or relationships. I feel blah and have no energy. I’ve researched and tried lots of things, sought lots of help and nothing seems to help or work (or it works but I don’t stick with it or I’m not consistent, lack motivation, discipline etc..)“
- DEEPER WHY: “Because this is what I do. This is how I am. This is my life. I have little support, no other choice or better options. Something must really be wrong with me. I’m broken/messed up. I self sabotage. I must have an addiction. I try all the things but I can’t stick with anything long term. I make some progress but I backslide…I can’t figure this out.“
- DEEP WHY: This ‘why’ (or more why’s) is where you really have the opportunity to go deep and get closer to understanding the REAL root causes…
Here’s what I’ve experienced in myself and what I often uncover in my work with clients:
- Old false beliefs that opposes your desired state of being.
- I want to lose weight to look and feel better but I have a subconscious belief that that’s not possible for me…or that I’ll fail…or that life will be miserable.
- Or… maybe due to past events, I have an unconscious fear that being more attractive isn’t safe – it may expose me to unwanted attention…comments from others or more pressure to lose more or to keep the weight off…
- Or… with the weight gone, now I have to deal with very scary truths about myself or my life – work or relationships that feel uncomfortable, vulnerable and scary.
- Or… now I need to show up and pursue my dreams without using weight as an excuse or distraction and I’d be exposing myself to criticism, judgement and rejection.
- F-IT! It’s easier and safer to just stay the same and not change. I’ll deal with it later – I’ll start Monday or next month or next year – or after XYZ happens, etc..
- Compensatory patterns used when you were younger to help you feel better, safe and in control.
- When I feel X (uncomfortable emotion), I need to eat or drink (or shop or scroll or make myself busy or complain or gossip or create problems or drama) to avoid feeling those feelings and/or to feel better.
- Or… It’s all on me. I can’t rely on anyone else or ask for help. No one has my back. I don’t trust anyone to do things the way they needs to be done (hello, control and perfectionism!)
- Or… When I please the people in my life, make them happy, put their needs first, I’ll be accepted and worthy of love.
In addition, it’s been shown in ACE studies (one linked here – there are several) that mental and physical dis-ease (autoimmunity, mental health, obesity, addiction, imbalances, etc.) very often stem from big or little ‘T’ trauma or what are known as Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs).
So not only can food, alcohol, drugs or other dysfunctional behaviors be habitually used to soothe, avoid or distract you from difficult emotions…
…your nervous system may be kept on high alert – operating in a hyper-vigilent state (that drains cellular energy, stores fat, degrades tissues, inhibits digestive and immune function, depletes vital nutrients, creates imbalances and makes weight loss difficult – among other things!).
So these deeper why’s all help to uncover the real root causes of your struggles.
In the weight loss or health space, optimizing health and healing is somewhat about diet and lifestyle. For sure, this matters…
It IS really hard to heal a physical body and mind while still eating junkie crap-(non)food and treating your body like garbage…but it’s rarely ever enough – long-term – to slap a diet and workout over your subconscious beliefs and patterns without it bubbling up somewhere else down the road.
It’s just the way it is. KNOW THIS.
We see this with gastric bypass patients all the time. Obese patients undergo surgery, those that brush off the recommended therapy (or receive sub-par therapy) end up regaining the weight or deviate to another unhealthy behavior to cope with challenging emotions.
Ultimately, true healing happens when you start to know and understand (and eventually fully love and accept yourself) which can really only occur by revealing (and not bypassing) the REAL DEEPER root cause level and then working within and without from there.
