The new era of wellness is about faith.

Wellness minimalism and getting your truest beliefs in check.

There is a certain kind of wellness influencer that I just won’t follow.

Wake up, remove the mouth tape, turn the red light on, take castor oil pack off, chi machine on, jaw exerciser, scalp massager, water with 3 different hydration sachets inside, peptide injection.

It’s when wellness becomes neurotic— a checklist, a performance— stacking so many habits but with no idea which, if any are actually moving the needle.

I am all for optimising, don’t get me wrong.

There really isn’t a modality or hot new trend I don’t know about— but I definitely don’t adopt them all. How psycho would we feel if we tried to implement every new thing at once?

I have learned to keep things simple but there was once a time where i’d travel with a suitcase full of wellness things. I’d use very few of them, but I felt a sense of comfort and safety having them with me. I was a ‘just in case’ person and to be honest? Quite high anxiety. I thought everything had to be ‘just right’ in order for me to thrive.

I was a very high maintenance wellness girl, that’s for sure. But I am so, so glad I matured.

Over the years I realised that I was trying to ‘try’ so many things but that only a few of them really mattered.

If I could tell you the main practical things now off the top of my head, it’d be things like these:

• The whole house water filter. I’ve had one for over a decade no matter where I’ve lived.

• Turning the bright lights off after sunset and phone in the drawer at this time too.

• Moving my body in ways that are invigorating and strengthening and letting this change in different seasons (eg, after birth) and not according to trends.

• The rebounder. I notice such a big difference when I focus on my lymph.

• Organic produce. Wholefoods. But also our favourite treats that are not crunchy at all— like Loaker biscuits. We love these in our home. We also eat out at cafes because— aussie lifestyle— but eat mostly at home.

• Non toxic cleaning products.

• Natural fibres on all the beds— linen.

• Sunshine. Lots of it. Window always cracked while driving sorta commitment.

• Prayer, mind and proper use of imagination.

• Creative expression and aesthetic beauty.

Can I tell you which I believe to be THE most important element of wellness though? More than any of these practical things??

I’m going to get to it shortly in this post.

I believe in standards that are woven into life— not a wellness routine that becomes neurotic.

Living a mostly outdoors lifestyle matters more to me than spending hours in a room full of biohacking equipment.

Living a life of beauty and expression matters more than ticking things off a wellness checklist.

High standards, but relaxed. This is my motto. It used to be ‘neurotic perfection’, lol.

Now, to be clear, I am a healthy woman and am not healing anything in particular and I fully recognise that in times of healing chronic illness, it’s very natural that your healing regime takes up a lot of your mental space.

The old proverb says— When you have your health you have 1000 dreams. When you don’t have your health, you have one.

I am never one to condone laziness or apathy regarding health and vitality.

I am the opposite.

I have learned over the years though, that we can have all our ‘ducks’ in a perfect wellness row, but be missing one of the most important tools a high vitality life.

I was asked recently as a guest on Health Gossip how I start and end my days. My answer was this, but I’ve added some more detail.

Start—

I wake up usually with my kids or even sometimes a touch later (hello, breastfeeding during the night still) as my husband gets up with my very early risers. Maybe have a little bounce on the rebounder but most days I head out for a walk at the beach with my headphones in— I call it my prayer walk. I play an emotive playlist and I feel my prayers— not just say them. It is one small thing that is very valuable to my mind, my body, my day and also my home. Sometimes one of my kids comes on the bike, but it’s my moment to set the tone for the day.

End— Laying beside my kids, little red reading lamp on, reading a book. We have the family biomat on, a red light, and I either do legs up the wall or we take turns on my little leg rocker for lymph. It’s a simple family wind down routine. I don’t typically do anything after the kids go to bed— I go to bed with them. I usually fall asleep right after reading, and I try to imagine beautiful things as I do— my mental prayers.

While our habits are definitely important— there is something even more important.

I really, whole heartedly believe this.

Habits matter. Getting your steps in matters. Eating nourishing food matters. Community and sunshine matters, hallelujiah!

But what I believe matters the most?

Faith. In two parts.

Your perception of yourself.

Your faith in your body’s ability to heal.

The new era of wellness is about recognising the importance of our faith.

Not just faith in Jesus, but faith in what He came to tell us, show us, free us from.

Faith in your body’s ability to heal, and faith in yourself as a high vitality person.

It’s peeking beneath your wellness routines and supplement stacks and asking yourself this: What are the most naked, honest beliefs you have about yourself and your body’s ability to heal?

It’s knowing that the biggest hack is free— the disciplined use of your mind.

It’s knowing that you can have the most dialled in routine in the world but you will never out-exercise, out-supplement, out-protein your perception of yourself.

It’s knowing the difference between optimising from a loving place, and becoming so anxiously caught up in the wellness trends that you miss your life.

It’s fully waking up to the fearful systems of intimidation and modern day medical curses that keep people trapped in its lies and its spells.

Jesus said, ‘Your faith has made you well’ many times while healing. He was always revealing truth and freedom— connecting us directly with our Creator to prepare us for life in a world of lies, deception and darkness.

If I ever returned to my phD, it would be to study this one line— Your faith has made you well.

Our quiet beliefs instruct our lives, including our bodies. When people hear of ‘faith’ they see it only as religious. But we are practicing faith with every belief we hold to be true— including with our health. Jesus knew this. Those people didn’t just believe in Jesus, they believed in healing.

God did not make us puppets, He made us participants. Too many think that to honour God you have to surrender all but if you surrender your mind in this world— you surrender it to a world of fear, sickness and chaos.

To be truly well, you’ve got to take your crappy thoughts and beliefs captive and make them life giving instead.

This doesn’t mean you don’t optimise. This doesn’t mean you don’t have high standards for food, habits, environment and life….

It’s about renewing the beliefs that live underneath it all and making sure they match up with the vital, resilient, energetic person you want to be.

When I get caught up in feeling I need all the new gadgets or sachets to be vital and vibrant I stop and ask myself this:

How much of it is truly moving the needle?

How vital can you still be if all of it was gone?

Do you perceive yourself to be high vitality even without all of your gadgets?

Are you a high vitality woman only because of your 15 step morning routine? Or could you access the same vibrancy if dropped in the middle of a countryside without a gadget or sachet insight?

Your body doesn’t care about your wellness religion.

It responds more to your persistent thoughts about who you are, than to your 357 step routine.

Learning how God truly designed your body will take you 1000 miles further than obsessively stacking wellness habits just because the cool kids are doing it.

There is something fundamentally anti-vitality about living as though you cannot thrive without 458 gadgets and ‘hacks’.

Here are some questions to get quiet with:

Who do you perceive yourself to be?

In your most honest thoughts— are you a high vitality person? Resilient? Energetic?

God gave us the gift of a mind that has an enormous and undeniable affect on our bodies and our lives.

I do not EVER talk about self concept and faith in a bypassy way— no.

But we cannot talk about wellness WITHOUT properly addressing the impact of your mind, your self concept and your faith. They go together— they always have they always will.

God designed us this way.

What you think about yourself and your body is the most important ingredient on your plate. You can eat the cleanest diet in the world and still perceive yourself to be a low energy, low vitality, always getting sick woman— your diet cannot outwork your perception of yourself.

When you go to work on your thoughts about yourself— when you train your mind to expect vitality and radiance, you become simpler in your routine.

The flex used to be ‘look at all my fancy supplements and modalities and how knowledgeable I am to use them’… but as you mature out of that false reliance, you learn that your vitality isn’t mostly because of your high maintenance regime-- it’s how you’re using your mind and your words, how you resolve conflicts, how you’re using your God given gifts, how you narrow in on the work and people in front of you to love.

The more vital and free you become, the less reliant you become too. It all becomes simpler.

I offer these words not as prescriptions. I am not a doctor. I have a BSc(Hons) and have studied many other modalities but I only offer these words as personal ideas. I trust my readers enough to know that they (you!) have a strong sense of discernment and know what is relevant to you or not.

I share more about my journey in the most beautiful book I’ve ever made— Body Luxury. You can read what I wrote about it here or you can buy it here.

Love PK

XXX