#395 Snippets of wisdom: Your social circle impacts your health.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
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Agi Keramidas  0:03  
You're listening to personal development mastery podcast. And this is another snippet of wisdom where I select my favourite most insightful moments from previous episodes. They say that your postcode or zip code influences your health more than your genetic code. Today's snippet comes from a conversation with Marty Lansdown, a nutritionist and health coach. And it is about how your social circle impacts your health. I hope it's as insightful for you as it was for me. 

Agi Keramidas  0:41  
Before we dive into the snippet, if you've ever wanted to meet me and talk about personal development, podcast or anything in between, then next Monday, 13th of May, we will have our very first personal development mastery coffee hour. From now on, on the second Monday of every month, we will have a time where you can just pop in, bring along your coffee or beverage of choice and have a chat. It's at 7:15pm UK time, which is 2:15pm, Eastern USA time, you will find the details in the episode description. I can't wait to meet you and spend some time together. And now let's listen to the snippet of wisdom.

Matty Lansdown  1:31  
And I think you raised a really good point, which is something I realised along the journey too, which is like, I guess I'm a nutritionist. And yes, I run programmes that help people with nutrition. But what I learned is that, you know, I've never met someone. And I've spoken in a bunch of different countries at wellness events and retreats and conferences. I've never met a single person that didn't No meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds, were a good idea. Everybody has an idea of what they should eat and what they shouldn't eat irrelevant of their class and their education status. I've never met someone that didn't know. And so it's like that deeper layer of like, well, why don't I do it, then that's the real question that needs to be answered. And lifestyle comes into that because anyone that's done any kind of formal health education will have done the subject social determinants of health. And it's kind of in relation to the genetic code stuff that you were talking about argue because what they say is that your postcode or your zip code is more influential on your health and the outcomes of your health than your genetic code. Because where you live will determine is more likely to determine the health outcomes you'll have than any genetic test could ever predict because humans and monkeys and gorillas and Homo sapiens were were were tribe animals were pack animals. And so what that means is that we get our sense of self and our self of acceptance and belonging from an environment that contains other humans. And so what you might recognise that idea as like, you know, something happening and happening in a situation or going out and just looking around the room to make sure you're dressed appropriately, because you're determining, did I choose the right clothes tonight, based on the type of clothes that everybody else are wearing. And you would tell your brain I'm underdressed, or overdressed and I should be concerned, I'll know the pack is going to judge me. And and it's not until you start realising this little moment of assessment that you do every time you come interact into the space with your family members, or your friends, or anybody you know, at work, these social groups are people we identify with and get our sense of self from. So when it comes to health, if the people that we relate to and that we're connected to, and we get our sense of self from have habits like regular drinking, because that's the way that everybody connects, or fast food because it's easy and convenient. And other things are priority in life, like getting the kids to sport, or, you know, hanging out with the boys on the weekend, or, you know, whatever the thing is, that connects everybody. If those habits are ingrained into the family or the group, then when it's going to be very, very hard to go on any type of diet or lifestyle change, because it's not necessarily about the information, just like we said about the nutrition, most people have an idea. They know what they probably should be doing or have a rough idea but they fear not belonging to the people that they love and that love them. And that comes as a deep form of rejection of who you are. If you attend the tribe, or attend the pack, knowing that those people are going to judge you. And it's like that idea that we hurt the people we love because as soon as things get out of hand in a different direction to that which the group expects us to behave. There's a reaction, there's a judgement that the group tries to keep you in order in the box that they expect you to be in and anyone that's been on a personal development journey knows that a part of that journey is shedding some of your friends because they're not okay. With the way that you're growing and changing, and you might start, you know, hanging out with a different group and a different tribe, and that's why group programmes are so effective as well, because instead of trying to change your health, following a YouTube video, or a YouTuber, or an Instagramer, and doing it at home by yourself, if you do a group programme, then you're actually you've already done step one, which is I need to find a new tribe that I identify with being a different version of myself. And so the way that this impacts health is not just food, but the way that you manage your emotions, the way that you deal with stress, and many, I can only speak for men, but I know many men, you know, looking up to their fathers, their fathers dealt with stress and emotion with aggression, violence, never talking about it, ever suppressing it, you know, saying Don't cry, don't talk about your problems, you know, deal with your issues. And so then you grow up as a young man and into an adult doing the same thing. And so what that stress does, and stress is arguably the biggest lifestyle factor that causes disease in the modern world, is that it then manifests in disease because stress is it translates to dysfunction of the hormones, dysfunction of your neurotransmitters, which then causes dysfunction of your immune system and your gut health, your mental health, which leads to poor food choices, which just deteriorates the body from top to bottom, basically. So there's so many layers to the lifestyle aspect, but fundamentally, it comes down to the tribe that you spend time with and the actions that that tribe to take or engage with, in order to connect them to one another.

Agi Keramidas  6:32  
Thank you for tuning in. You can listen to the full conversation with Marty Lansdown in Episode 260. And once again, next Monday 13th of May is our very first personal development mastery coffee hour. The link is in the episode description, and I'm looking forward to seeing you there. Until then, stand out don't fit in!