5 Reasons You’re Stuck In A Health Rut (and how to get out of it)

We all know the story – you don’t feel well, you get motivated. You start that new thing. You’re going great, but then something derails you. You give up and are right back where you started again. 

So what’s the problem? Why is it so easy to start something, yet so hard to follow through with it? 

Our naturopaths at Shift have observed thousands of people on their health journeys do exactly this. The difference is, that as outsiders that know the ebbs and flow of this journey, we can see the reasons why the failure occurs. Knowing why we fail, means we can work on these aspects and set ourselves up for success so we can finally get into a groove with our health and look after ourselves properly. 

Here are 5 reasons why you could be stuck in a health rut.

1. You’ve got an advice overload
   

   You’ve been given so much advice that you don’t know what to do. You read something that contradicts something else, and it creates confusion about what the right choice to make is. This is very common, with most of our clients expressing that they are confused and overwhelmed with how much information is out there about ‘what to do’.

   The solution: Anyone can write something on the internet, so make sure you get your advice from someone with the qualifications and experience to tackle your actual issue. Seeing a qualified practitioner for some 1-1 support can help to allay the confusion and give you individual advice based on what is going on for you.

2. You sabotage your success

   Have you ever been in a situation where you’re doing really well with your health, then you go completely off track? A common situation might be that you need to take certain supplements to keep something at bay, but you just don’t take them. You use the excuse that you’ve forgotten, or that it’s too hard, but often this behaviour is a subconscious attempt to derail your success by self-sabotaging.

   We see this all the time at Shift, it shows up in ways that can sometimes be obvious and sometimes be subtle. What it means is that there is a part of you that is not fully committed to reaching your health goals. The first step is awareness – are you behaving in ways that do not match your desire for what you want? Like if you’re trying to lose weight and quit your fitness routine? If you’re trying to heal your gut but keep eating gluten? If you know what do and are clear on the benefits, then usually your lack of action comes down to self-sabotaging behaviour.

   The solution: Once you are aware of incongruence between your behaviour and what you want, it’s time to do a bit of digging to see what’s underneath this. Are there subconscious beliefs that are holding you back from achieving your goals? Is there a part of you that does not want you to resolve the issue for some reason? Are there emotions that may need to be acknowledged and cleared in order to move to the next stage?

   We find hypnotherapy and other emotional wellness modalities really effective for this, helping you to search for the reasons behind why you do what you do, that you may not be consciously aware of.

3. You don’t have the right support

   Support is an integral part of a healing journey, but all so often we don’t seek help until things are really bad. Most of us have a natural inclination to try and just ‘get on with things’ and fix things ourselves, but everyone needs support when it comes to healing. Our practitioners at Shift all see each other for support and to keep their health on track, and they know what to do! Being able to lean on someone and have them help you on your journey will help you arrive where you want to be so much more quickly.

   Support can come in the way of friends, family or even online groups. And as we mentioned above having the support of a qualified practitioner that has helped someone like you can really help to remove the confusion and set things in the right direction.

   The solution: Build a support team that you can call on to help you move through your health journey. Know which friends or family you can count on, and handpick any practitioners that will be able to give you the right advice for your individual issue to help you progress.

4. You don’t stick at things for long enough so you think they don’t work

   One of the things we observe in our clients is that they have tried several things that actually should have helped, but they have given up far too soon. The trick when using any natural intervention, such as herbal medicine or nutritional supplements, is to use a product that is the right quality (and is what it says it is on the bottle, there’s a lot of issues with adulteration with herbal medicine), at the right dose and for long enough that it actually takes effect. Some medicines will work very quickly with noticeable results, others more slowly and you’ll need several months before you really see the change. Sometimes it’s not that it didn’t work, it’s that you never gave it long enough to take effect.

   The solution: Again it comes back down to support and having the right information that is targeted and specific to what is going on for you. Seeing a naturopath with the experience to give you the right supplements at the right dose will help you avoid this issue.

5. You get treatment fatigue

   One of the things you need to anticipate on your healing journey is that you’re probably going to get treatment fatigue at some point. Treatment fatigue is very common and we find it mostly happens around the 6-8 week mark for the first time. It’s where we can forget that wellness is a journey and be frustrated that we’re not ‘fixed’ yet, or where we want to be. It shows up as frustration, wondering if something is working or not, and forgetting the journey, instead of focusing on the destination.

   You’re not called a ‘patient’ for nothing, and it does require a lot of patience to get where we need to go! Unfortunately, if you don’t know what’s happening this is often enough to make you give up – undoing the good work you have done and putting you into yet another cycle where you have to start again.

   The solution: Once again it comes down to getting the right support. We know that healing takes time, which is why we work with people for a minimum of 18 weeks after their initial assessment. One thing that we notice is that those that push through treatment fatigue and into the deeper layers of treatment are the ones that arrive where they want to be. Sometimes it’s just about acknowledging that this is what will happen, and reviewing your progress. You’ll usually find you’re on the right path, it’s just you need to keep assessing and progressing to ensure you stay on track.