Simply Natural Ideas: Information Overload

17 November 2011 No Comments

Rochelle Hanson

By Rochelle Hanson

You’ve recently decided to start making some changes when it comes to your personal health and wellness. You start doing research online. You read an article. It’s interesting. You’re impressed. You read some more. This is awesome. There’s a lot of good stuff out there.

You feel smart. Empowered. Ready for change. The next thing you know you’re on YouTube. You watch a video. Then another. The last video you watched totally conflicts with the article you just read. You keep watching more videos. You’re getting a little confused. There are a lot of opinions out there. You look at the clock and you realize you’ve actually been watching videos for over an hour. Your brain is buzzing. Now you’re wondering what’s true. All these different opinions can’t all be right… or can they?

When you’re doing your own research about your personal health and wellness concerns, it’s easy to become bombarded with other people’s opinions and conflicting information. Here’s how to avoid the trap of getting information overload.

Go deep, not wide. Health and wellness is a very popular topic these days. I expect it will become even more popular as more and more people start to wake up and realize that the system of health care we have right now is a lot closer to disease maintenance than disease prevention or cure. As you’re sifting through the muck of information out there, my suggestion is that you go deep, not wide. Find one or two people who you identify with and read up on everything they have to say. This will give you a deeper understanding of that person’s approach. If you grab a little information from one person and a little more from the next, and a bit more from another, yes, you will have wider perspective, but you will also likely find yourself in the position where you are starting to get confused. If you find a health expert that you identify with and what they are saying makes sense and seems to fit into your life, go deeper with that person and learn as much as you can from them.

Try one thing at a time. Remember this idea: If you swing a pendulum really hard in one direction, naturally, it will swing back just as hard in the opposite direction. You don’t wanna swing like a pendulum. Going back and forth in one direction and the next is just down right frustrating. It’s not healthy for you either. So if you read a lot of awesome stuff and you find a bunch of simple, natural ideas that you want to try, don’t feel like you have to try them all at once in order to be effective. You can try one idea at a time, make small permanent changes, and be even more effective by doing so. This will build up your discipline and strength. You will also feel a sense of accomplishment for actually sticking with the goals you set out to accomplish. So try one thing at a time and keep building on that. It’s a great way to figure out what actually works.

Take it slow. Your life is already high stress. Don’t add any more to it in the name of good health. If you expect to transform your entire life over night, you’re expecting a little bit too much. Remember that natural health and wellness is about treating the whole body, not just the parts that are broken. This kind of healing takes time. Stop looking for quick fix remedies. If you have an emergency medical situation, go see your doctor. If you’re working towards achieving a better sense of health and wellness overall, you can breathe; this is not a race. Just relax and take it slow. The practical application of what you are learning by doing your own research is far better than soaking up a bunch of book knowledge you may never even use. You can read the rest of the articles in this column tomorrow. I promise, they’re not going anywhere. *smile*

If your goal is to get results, avoid information overload. Go deep, not wide. Try one thing at a time. Remember to take it slow. Put these three tips into practice as you do your own research and you’ll find that you’ll see a lot more positive changes, and you’ll be a lot less confused about the vast, wide world of natural health and wellness. Information overload is not at all productive. Don’t get caught up in the trap.

Rochelle Hanson is the author of the free ebook, Breaking Cravings. She is currently enrolled at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is studying to become a Health Coach. Rochelle offers practical tips on natural health and wellness both in this column and on her blog Simply Natural Ideas. Write to [email protected] for a free health consultation or connect with her on Facebook.

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