Hi,
I'm Scarlet,
A therapist and meditation teacher,
And today we are going to be talking about health anxiety,
But we're specifically talking about the impact of things like aura rings,
You know,
Fitness watches,
Basically all the things that we can use to monitor our health.
Now obviously these gadgets can be amazing and they can show us so much about our body.
But in the context of anxiety and especially in the context of health anxiety they can also come with some implications really and it's quite important for you to know about that if you struggle with health anxiety.
So as you may or may not already kind of be able to feel if you've been using them wearing them and you've experienced health anxiety is that because of so much tracking and so much awareness.
It can kind of alert you to so much in your body and so it can end up causing you to do what we do in many forms of anxiety which is micromanage the body.
And it can also cause things like checking behaviours.
So checking behaviours may be when we're constantly checking if someone's text us back,
It can be checking other things but in this context it may be constantly checking our watch,
Our app,
The stats.
So with checking behaviours what happens is that we kind of keep going back over and over and over and it can become quite addictive.
So the other thing with them is not that they're all bad,
But again,
In the context of anxiety.
We could be reading into every little up and down on those monitors and it could cause us to feel as though there's something wrong in our body.
So I would just say this isn't a you can't have one,
You can't use one,
That's completely up to you but I would say really be mindful if you do struggle with anxiety or if you experience any really even any kind of low level health anxiety.
Now the other thing I would say with this is that What can happen is you can also end up feeling light.
My body,
Especially if you're getting used to using them all the time.
My body actually wouldn't be able to function without one.
So a little bit like I suppose any appliances we might use.
We get so used to them that we think we wouldn't be able to live without them but we could and especially when it comes to health and the body.
I suppose a sort of analogy I would use is.
.
.
It always is.
A bit like doing on an airplane and The pilots are in charge,
They're good,
They've got air.
But there you are.
Going into the cockpit where they're flying,
You're going in,
You're having a little look,
You're checking what they're doing,
You're checking all the buttons,
Everything's all good,
And then you end up thinking they wouldn't have been able to fly that plane without you.
Can you imagine,
Those pilots would be like,
They would have been fine without you.
That's almost what the body,
I imagine,
If the body could talk,
Would be saying to you.
It would be saying,
Great,
You're having a look at what we're doing and you've got your watch,
You've got your ring and everything,
That's great,
You know,
Whatever.
But we were fine without you,
We were good,
We were just not going to run just because you're now starting to,
You know,
Look at every bit that we're doing.
Again,
With health anxiety,
It's all about trusting our body that we'd be begin to,
Yes,
Respond to the body,
But not react.
So we're not not listening to the body.
The other downside to this as well I would say can be that When we're doing all this tracking,
It's a great excuse to some extent to actually stay quite disconnected from the body,
To actually ironically stay very much in the mind and actually not connect down into the body.
So let's think of,
You know,
Somatic practices and yoga and mindfulness and all the things no doubt you're beginning to practice or do practice.
And it can almost take you over there rather than actually into your body.
The last thing I'll say on this is that we're also kind of living in a time where we're really focused on optimisation,
Push,
Push,
Push and keep pushing and optimise our health.
But actually when it comes to our health,
There's a big area that seems to be less explored,
Especially around the longevity of stress.
Which is actually the role of a very different energy,
Which is,
For our pleasure,
Oxytocin.
So although I'm not going to go into that today in this video,
That is very different from our analyzing and micromanaging our watches and our rings and it looks at health in a very different way and how amazing that can be for stress and health in the long run.
So I'll leave you with that and I'll see you in the next video.
