#279 - Wellness When the World is Unwell

All of that is to say that when the world gets heavy, when we feel overwhelmed, the buffer becomes thinner than it used to be.

And that that is not a personal failing.

That is part of the human experience.

And what I want to talk about today is that we were all, those of us of a certain age, I'm a middle-aged, I'm over 40 now, We were raised in a world with a much more stable context than we do right now.

So we were all raised with a thicker buffer.

And now we're in this place that we're learning how to cope and adapt with what many people I see out on the Internet are calling the poly crisis, meaning.

Climate change, ecological collapse, economic upheaval, the AI technological revolution, the oligarchs, the billionaires, the uncertainty, the social unrest, the divisiveness in our communities, all of that together and, and, and, and, and thins the buffer.

And I don't know about you, but we can get to this place that we feel a sense of overwhelm.

Maybe if you are out there consuming wellness content, you have encountered the phrase allostatic load, which is named by scientists McGowan and Steller.

Essentially, it says that chronic stress depletes our body's ability to recover effectively from our challenges.

So normally in a balanced life, when things are going well, we challenge the body and then it recovers.

And it's so good at recovery that we even exceed our original state.

And that's how we improve.

And we see this used in athletic training and sport and health.

Right.

Little challenges to the body, period of recovery, growth, repeat, rinse, repeat over time and you get positive adaptation.

Allostatic load is when the system is running itself down and we're not able to recover like we could because the physiological reserves have been so depleted that that when the next challenge comes, it whittles us away a bit more, and then we don't recover, and the next challenge comes, it whittles us away, or eventually we start to have damage to the system.

And that's allostatic load.

We've loaded the system too far.

So what I'm seeing with my clients, with myself, in the world, when I teach undergrad, when I teach corporate workshops, is people who are functioning at this level of allostatic load, but it's been so normalized.

that we think this is what it's supposed to be like.

And then we have the wellness industry swooping in, trying to sell us supplements and peptides and coaching programs and apps and all the things when what we really maybe need is to come to a baseline and work through some stuff.

This show, this new season of Better Than Fine is about how we come to that baseline and do some work on some stuff.

All of that is to say that when the world gets heavy, when we feel overwhelmed, the buffer becomes thinner than it used to be.

And that that is not a personal failing.

That is part of the human experience.

And what I want to talk about today is that we were all, those of us of a certain age, I'm a middle-aged, I'm over 40 now, We were raised in a world with a much more stable context than we do right now.

So we were all raised with a thicker buffer.

And now we're in this place that we're learning how to cope and adapt with what many people I see out on the Internet are calling the poly crisis, meaning.

Climate change, ecological collapse, economic upheaval, the AI technological revolution, the oligarchs, the billionaires, the uncertainty, the social unrest, the divisiveness in our communities, all of that together and, and, and, and, and thins the buffer.

And I don't know about you, but we can get to this place that we feel a sense of overwhelm.

Maybe if you are out there consuming wellness content, you have encountered the phrase allostatic load, which is named by scientists McGowan and Steller.

Essentially, it says that chronic stress depletes our body's ability to recover effectively from our challenges.

So normally in a balanced life, when things are going well, we challenge the body and then it recovers.

And it's so good at recovery that we even exceed our original state.

And that's how we improve.

And we see this used in athletic training and sport and health.

Right.

Little challenges to the body, period of recovery, growth, repeat, rinse, repeat over time and you get positive adaptation.

Allostatic load is when the system is running itself down and we're not able to recover like we could because the physiological reserves have been so depleted that that when the next challenge comes, it whittles us away a bit more, and then we don't recover, and the next challenge comes, it whittles us away, or eventually we start to have damage to the system.

And that's allostatic load.

We've loaded the system too far.

So what I'm seeing with my clients, with myself, in the world, when I teach undergrad, when I teach corporate workshops, is people who are functioning at this level of allostatic load, but it's been so normalized.

that we think this is what it's supposed to be like.

And then we have the wellness industry swooping in, trying to sell us supplements and peptides and coaching programs and apps and all the things when what we really maybe need is to come to a baseline and work through some stuff.

This show, this new season of Better Than Fine is about how we come to that baseline and do some work on some stuff.