Why It Might Not Be Working

In the holistic health and wellness space, it can be very overwhelming to figure out where to start. It gets confusing because we have all sorts of podcasters and influencers sharing what works for them, yet, those results also seem to contradict each other. Like, someone had a horrible experience with hydroxyapatite, but another person swears by it for their toothpaste. Someone once said they eat freshly milled bread and it's life saving for them, but another person still has negative reactions to any of the gluten they consume. It's not black and white and it can be very frustrating. The reason for this is bio-individuality. Meaning, we are all just a little bit different. Scientifically, that makes sense considering none of us have the exact same DNA. Sure, we're the same species which means there are more and less optimal things we can do for our health as a whole, but there's still nuances within that. Let's use sleep as an example. Overall, I think most health professionals will agree that quality sleep is important for humans and health, but there's debate on how much someone should have. That's where bio-individuality comes in...along with bell curves.

A bell curve is going to show where most people fall and will feel their best, which is why it's easy to say most people will feel good with 7-9 hours of sleep and average that to the middle of 8 hours. The reality of a bell curve though, is that there's still plenty of other data to the sides of the curve. Just because most people fall to the 7-9 hours, doesn't mean you're "most people". I genuinely believe there are some people out there who can do well with 6 hours of sleep (granted, I'll argue the time of night they sleep and the quality of their sleep really impacts this). There are other people who feel so much better getting 10 hours of sleep, but they don't do it often because of other life pressures. Really though, the point here is that whatever point of the bell curve you fall onto, there's nothing wrong with you. If you found a sleep quantity that works most optimally for you, that's amazing! Who cares if it doesn't work for someone else.

Bio-individuality is an interesting idea and it's one that I only learned back in 2020, but I didn't really start to understand and appreciate this concept more until I really started to dive deeper into my health and wellness. This idea is that we are all different and just because something works for you doesn't mean it will work for me, and vice versa. Technically, we could be twins, but because of differences in our genes (even identical twins are a teeny, tiny bit different), our bodies will respond to life differently. Meaning the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the places we live, what we clean with, the social life we lead, the jobs we have - all these things could be exactly the same for us, but we will each still respond differently.

Ultimately, I bring this up so that you have a reminder that you're not a failure. While I don't believe in claiming victimhood, there's also truth to the notion that things are stacked against you, even if not intentionally or for no malicious reason other than money and greed. Modern life certainly is beautiful, but it also comes with its share of downsides. Life is never going to be perfect, which is why it's unreasonable to think you can be perfect. But life can be good. It can be so so good, so it stands to reason that you too can live a good life with good health. Don't beat yourself up. If you mess up and fall down, that's okay. You'll pick yourself up (or someone will help you), you learn from it, and you move on and go back to taking care of yourself. Next time you wonder why it might not be working, consider the idea of bio-individuality. You got this!