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Episode 2: Why Identity Drives Habits, Consistency, and Health
16 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of the Body Evolution Podcast, we explore why lasting health change doesn’t begin with motivation, discipline, or pushing harder — it begins with identity.
Many people know what to do for their health, yet struggle to stay consistent. This conversation unpacks why that happens and explains how habits built from pressure often fall apart, while habits built from alignment tend to last. We discuss the role of identity, nervous system regulation, stress, and the powerful two-way relationship between mind and body.
Rather than relying on short bursts of motivation or chasing quick fixes, this episode offers a calmer, more sustainable way forward — one rooted in clarity, safety, and becoming the kind of person for whom healthy behaviors feel natural.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why motivation often fails to create long-term change
- How identity quietly shapes habits and consistency
- The difference between pressure-driven habits and aligned habits
- Why quick fixes feel safer than deep, lasting change
- How stress and nervous system dysregulation block progress
- Why calm is more powerful than motivation
- The two-way relationship between mind and body
- How beliefs and identity influence physical health
- Why separating mindset and physical health limits growth
- How small identity shifts lead to sustainable behavior change
- Why Body Evolution begins with identity before action
This episode is an invitation to slow down, reduce the pressure, and rethink how change actually works. When habits grow from identity, health stops feeling like a fight — and starts becoming part of who you are.
🔗 Connect with Body Evolution
https://linktr.ee/body_evolution
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction: Movement, Mindset, and More
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to a space for movement, mindset, and sustainable rhythm. This is Body Evolution.
00:00:13
Speaker
Welcome to Body Evolution Podcast, where health becomes simple, sustainable, and human. We break down fitness, nutrition, habits, and energy through one lens, what actually works in real life.
Why Does Transformation Begin in the Mind?
00:00:28
Speaker
Today's episode, we're going to talk about identity first and why transformation begins in the mind. Amazing. I love it, Corey. It's a beautiful theme.
00:00:39
Speaker
So when did you first see identity as the real engine of change?
Identity's Role in Consistent Behavior Change
00:00:47
Speaker
you know it's it's been a gradual thing i've never really brought it to my conscious mind until i was really coaching people and trying to get people to change their habits and to change how they live their life and i thought if if i really just sort of taught them what i know and that they would just really take to it and and try to motivate them and try to give them incentives and things like that so people would
00:01:13
Speaker
They would try and people would do the things and they'd say, oh, that really makes sense. Let me try this. Let me do that. But then i would talk with them over the weeks of coaching them and they'd come back and like, how'd you do? Well, I didn't really do it this week. I had this going on. I had that going on. This is this and that. And there's always reasons why you can't do something.
00:01:34
Speaker
But then I'd started thinking about, well, why ah why can I fit it in when I have a busy life? but they And why do they fit in things that they do normally that I maybe can't fit into my life, but they're not fitting this in even though they think it's a priority? I'm like, well, it's not really, it's because really how we identify ourselves. And that's what really it
Overcoming Struggles with Consistency Through Identity
00:01:55
Speaker
clicked in me. it's like Identity is so key to how we behave and how we, you know, we can force ourselves to do something that's sort of uncomfortable to our identity, but when it comes down to it, we're always going to fall back into who we are. Okay.
00:02:12
Speaker
and And I wanted to add something there is that it's so true what you were explaining and for a long time, just was feeling that I was inconsistent.
00:02:25
Speaker
I was trying things and I was feeling always a little bit frustration because they were so hard for me to do. And the consistency was that maybe I did it for a short period of time, but then it was not possible to keep on going.
Long-term Identity vs. Short-term Gains
00:02:43
Speaker
And here i remember those moments, for example, doing all the process with diets to lose weight and and going hard into it, you know,
00:02:55
Speaker
But I wanted to look better. I wanted to feel better and everything. And I was trying for a long time, so many things, diets, exercise and everything. And it didn't stick.
00:03:09
Speaker
It didn't work. And I was very focused on the short time, getting something fast.
The Illusion of Quick Fixes and Need for Internal Change
00:03:17
Speaker
But there was a moment where I decided, like, I just want to be healthy.
00:03:24
Speaker
I want to become healthy, a healthy person. And I achieved from trying to look good. And i became and I began to be in alignment with I want to be healthy.
00:03:36
Speaker
And I began to think what a healthy person will do. And that began to make the transformation. It was really, really amazing how it begins to to change and change things for me.
00:03:47
Speaker
Great. Yeah. So you really click because you you took on that identity, you even consciously ah versus just a sort of gradually. It's like, and that helps you make those decisions and and define what you're going to do.
Cultural Pressures and Sustainable Change Pitfalls
00:04:00
Speaker
so So why do you think that people skip that step and jump right into action all the time?
00:04:07
Speaker
Oh, I see. And I think some people were just what is happening to me for that long period of time was I want quick fixes. I want something fast. I want, oh, I need to lose weight. So you jump straight away. Oh, I need to be strong and I want to feel better and I want to be more athletic. So you you go because the motivation is high.
00:04:32
Speaker
Typical, starting the year. Oh my God, I'm going to change this and this and the other and everything. And you're like just pumping everything you want to change and you want everything fast.
00:04:45
Speaker
And what we do, we jump straight away and we begin to do things and push hard and hard and hard. But this is the culture we are in.
Identity Over Quick Fixes for Lasting Change
00:04:57
Speaker
just jump and just do it and just go for it. It's the only thing. Don't think about it. And sometimes, yes, it can work for some people. And sometimes in some situations, something like that is what you maybe need. But usually the majority of the time is is so much pressure, so much trying to drive change by pressure and pushing it that it backfires to you.
00:05:25
Speaker
It backfires and... Because it's not aligned with your lifestyle, and with who you are and everything. It may work for a little period of time, but when it backfires, then we're talking about Jojo effect or how I couldn't maintain in the gym or how I can not maintain, like all this process.
00:05:49
Speaker
So I think people just, sometimes we are very impatient and we want everything five And we don't understand that we need time to
Why Do Quick Fixes Feel Safer?
00:06:00
Speaker
adapt.
00:06:00
Speaker
And what do you think they maybe be these quick fixes feel safer than the deep alignment? Why is it why might people think that like, well, it's like it's easier for them to to look at that the quick fixes rather than the deep alignment part of it.
00:06:17
Speaker
Well, we have grown like that and and we have a culture where it's about jump and do the things, but it's safer too, because Truly going deep inside you and trying to do changes at a personal internal level is more challenging.
00:06:38
Speaker
No, and and it's harder, but it's not because it's harder, you know, it's because people doesn't know how to go through those processes. And because we want results fast, we think that is the best and we think it's harder the other way, but usually look how much people jump straight away into action and then they fail and it's not long
Behavior and Identity: A Consistent Loop
00:07:02
Speaker
term. And yes, maybe you lose the weight for the summer and you're like, oh my God, that's amazing. And you feel good. And this is the other funny part. Once you get to that small goal and you get like, just stop doing everything you were doing.
00:07:19
Speaker
And then you go back and you're like, oh, again. So this is the misconception that it's easier to jump and do something hard for one month and then it's done.
00:07:33
Speaker
But this is not when we're talking about the, this is a one-time action. Okay. But when it's more about ourselves, it's a long-term action. So I feel that people have that wrong idea. oh if I do this and I lose weight and then it's done, I don't have to do anything else.
00:07:52
Speaker
And no, it's it's a process. It's a lifetime process of of moving forward and taking care of themselves. so people are scared of that lifetime change. They're going to have to change they are. That's a big thing. And so, yeah, it's people are living into who they are.
00:08:09
Speaker
So it's not that they lack discipline. It's really that they're operating from an identity that doesn't match really who they want to be.
Importance of Identity for Long-term Change
00:08:17
Speaker
Exactly. and And that's why now that you talk about exactly identity and who they want to be, I wanted to ask you,
00:08:27
Speaker
Why is identity key for consistent behavior change? That's a good question because we just talked about why people, you know, don't include identity into this thing. and But identity is is so key to like this long term and permanent behavior change because it's got to be who we are or it's we're always going to be fighting it.
00:08:52
Speaker
So your identity shapes your behavior, and the behavior then reinforces the identity. And so you can shift your identity through behavior that you become comfortable with.
Micro Habits Reinforcing Identity
00:09:08
Speaker
So these big changes, these big pushes, these big efforts are are a counter to our identity and they never feel natural to part part of who we are. So shifting the identity is a is a process that that's ah that's what we kind of developed here is once once I discovered, when I talked about earlier, it's like identity is this big thing, but how do I change that for people? That's where this program is different. And this this process for body evolution is different than everything else.
00:09:38
Speaker
is because we're gonna address that. And so how do we do that? The little micro habits changes on a small level that you can really feel good about and integrate into your life. And like, then you can own them, becomes part of your identity. It's this loop.
00:09:55
Speaker
of you just like it reinforces my brain and the behavior keeps reinforcing it.
Consistency Through Identity Despite Disruptions
00:10:00
Speaker
The identity reinforces the behavior. And then you can get then just take out a little bit more behaviors, a little bit more, a little bit more. And then become you become this person who's living the life that you want to live and living it the way that will last for your longevity and everything else. It becomes then more flexible when the things come up and your life that throw you off.
00:10:21
Speaker
will You fall back into who you are. Once you come off of that, right, you get a busy week at work or you have a vacation. All this happens. The holidays are coming. Watch out all the Christmas food and the the social events, everything else.
00:10:36
Speaker
But.
00:10:39
Speaker
the old identity before we make the shift is going to fall back after that into comfort and who i am and it's hard to push yourself into something different but if the identity is that oh i i don't overeat calories i i watch my nutrition and i and i i'm pretty consistent about my movement my working out then that becomes a natural part of who you are so if those week and a half you you know went way away from those habits because of life just happens you fall back into who you are.
00:11:11
Speaker
It feels natural to go back into
Pressure vs. Alignment in Habit Building
00:11:13
Speaker
that lifestyle. So the consistency is there for the long-term.
00:11:19
Speaker
Well, you're so right in that. Yeah. So what happens when people try to build habits from pressure instead of alignment?
00:11:31
Speaker
Well, so exactly what you were talking about, When we try to make it from pressure, it's so easy to overstress, overwhelm your nervous system, to get stressed, because I have to do this and I have to do that, and if I cannot fail, and and and and you're trying to push very hard.
00:11:59
Speaker
And because you are overstressing yourself, and it's not coming from more an alignment with yourself, that that's stress backfires. That stress pushes you to feel bad.
00:12:13
Speaker
It can create a lot of frustration when you are pressuring so much and to like this short term process, too much pressure at the same time.
00:12:25
Speaker
And that is something that happens when people want to take too much action. Like
Stress, Pressure, and Habit Sustainability
00:12:29
Speaker
I want to go to the gym and they jump into the gym. and I want to be strong and fit and I want to lose weight and they began one, two hours the first day they go to the gym, oh, I'm going to push and everything.
00:12:41
Speaker
They overstress the body. And what happened for the following days is that they they did so hard that they are like extremely sore.
00:12:53
Speaker
They sometimes even can injury their self because they are not used to it, but It's so much that then they're like, oh, this hurts so much. Oh, my God. So then it's hard to think I'm going to go back to the gym because it feels like punishment and you're pushing very hard yourself. So when you do it from pressure to push yourself very strong to do something, look, it can...
00:13:22
Speaker
And I will repeat it, sometimes for so few people it can work out and is what they needed, but for the majority of us it's not going to work for the long term. It work for something that you need very short term, but it's going to be stressful, it's going to be hard, it's gonna feel like punishment and definitely is not gonna work long term.
Aligning Habits for Long-term Success
00:13:52
Speaker
Definitely is not. And you have to come back every time because once you lose that as strength that you gain in the gym, that once you improve a little bit your sleep, but it's gonna come back and you're gonna go to the old patterns and everything.
00:14:09
Speaker
Right. and what we need is a little bit of looking into the future. and who you want to be not only how you want to feel and how would you want to look and how do you want to move and express in the world but it's what is the lifestyle you want to have that can fit and if is alike with all those other parts that you want so sometimes we're just are looking how i want to look in summer how i want to feel in this moment for my wedding or how I want to be in this moment when we're going to play this match with my friends and this team. So you're very focused on that little thing, but you're not thinking in your life and lifestyle and how can you build it in a way that you can get there, but it's sustainable.
00:15:05
Speaker
So that's where we have to, to like future self activation to gain clarity to gain direction and gain rhythm and there is where more discipline ah for me it happens in the past more discipline was not working because it was not aligned and I was falling out of the wagon a lot it happens with diets For a long time I was overweight, I gained like 105 kilos and I needed to lose weight for healthy reasons and not only because I wanted to feel good and look good but I would have some struggles and I needed to lose the weight.
00:15:52
Speaker
So I was doing these extreme diets they were sending me of calorie count and it was a lot of discipline and I managed to do it for maybe one month And believe me, I lose weight, but because I was starving, I was eating too few and every day it was a struggle.
00:16:16
Speaker
Every day was hard. Every day was, oh my God, i don' like when i was wishing so much the day that they told me, okay, you can stop the diet. And when they tell me, you're done, you finished the diet.
00:16:30
Speaker
Oh my God, I was like, I gonna eat the world. And very soon, in less than one month, I was recovering all the weight I had been losing. And I was again in the same position and all because there was no alignment and I was doing everything for pressure and
Calmness vs. Motivation in Habit Formation
00:16:48
Speaker
discipline. And yes, it worked for one month, but it was not sustainable.
00:16:53
Speaker
yeah So I couldn't push farther there. Interesting. So, so summarized, you're basically, you're, once you use that pressure, it's that pressure is always just feels like too much and people are always going to push, but and pull back from it eventually. And so the, uh, it's, it's, it can be the motivation, but it's, it's never going to last. So in summary, identity is really the, the quiet engine behind every habit that we keep if it's part of our identity, but it's also that,
00:17:26
Speaker
that reason why we break the habits as well. If our identity is not aligned with, with what we want to do. So good. Yes. I love that. What you just say that exactly. It is like that. When you love something, it becomes really easy. I have it, but when you are trying to build a habit, because you just think is good for you, but you are not aligned and you truly don't that want it.
Calmness Facilitating Identity Change
00:17:58
Speaker
It's, it's really hard to integrate. And this brings me, what, why do you feel that being calm is more powerful than motivation itself?
00:18:18
Speaker
Well, okay. So like you just talked about. There can be a lot of reasons for motivation. If you have a competition coming up, if you have a vacation to look good for, if you want to just look good for summer, things like that, I want to get to be able to get into a bathing suit and be on the beach and feel comfortable. So the motivation can be powerful.
00:18:36
Speaker
um And. That. Is great for, like you said, short term results, but and it it becomes the problem where your behavior falls back.
00:18:48
Speaker
And you don't and you then your results fall back as well and you have to keep restarting. And so why calm is more powerful is because. That.
00:19:00
Speaker
Is how we change through. the comfort through when things feel natural to us. I talked about that that little loop of behavior change and identity change.
00:19:13
Speaker
And so that only happens when you're in a calm state, when you're when your nervous system is regulated, as we say, right, that that you have your mind and body working.
Motivation Without Calmness Leads to Frustration
00:19:25
Speaker
In cohesion. So that. When you do these actions, when you take on this new stuff, it becomes part of who you are and so calm. is so necessary for identity change, which is necessary for long term results and in longevity in general.
00:19:46
Speaker
I love what you just say. And it's so true on we have this common mind. We take these things with a different perspective. We take it in a different way. We're more patients.
00:20:01
Speaker
We know that it's a process. and we're not pushing for the results like exactly because motivation, as you were saying, is it works for starting something, but it cannot be the basis because you're not going to feel motivated every day.
00:20:21
Speaker
And I like what you were saying because just imagine is like when you're trying to start something and it's only motivation in the moment motivation fails, we jump into frustration.
00:20:35
Speaker
into bad thoughts i i cannot do it or i mistake it again you see you are not able to do it we start there because we're relying on only motivation but when you're calm you know like hey normal some days i'm not motivated and it's part of the process So I love what you were saying
Calmness for Physiological and Identity Change
00:20:58
Speaker
there. I really like. Yeah. So when you you talked about before you talked about how it just doesn't work when you're doing it with pressure and stuff like that. So what's really happening with ourselves in our in our you know physiologically that's really preventing us you know from changing? Why doesn't change happen when you're dysregulated?
00:21:19
Speaker
So you were sharing before about being calm and everything. When we're test-regulated, we're not calm. We're talking about we're stressed. We're pushing for stress. And we have the mental stress and the body stress.
00:21:34
Speaker
ah One of those very important is that mental stress. When the mental stress goes very high, it's very hard, you're pushing very hard into it, you can get into what people already know, like the survival mechanism that we have, and we enter into the fight, freeze, or collapse.
00:21:55
Speaker
Okay? And what we say here is when you're pushing very hard to do something and it's dysregulated, it's not aligned with your lifestyle, it's a lot of pressure. So in imagine you're trying to, okay, I'm going to start going to the gym, and I'm going to try to go to the gym one hour a day. but you have maybe a life where you have to wake up super early, you have to work long hours and you want to go to the gym when you finish your job and you want to go there and push, but you are drained, you are tired, but I'm gonna go anyway, you know?
00:22:32
Speaker
When you begin to do this, There is a moment your body is too much stress, it's too much, you're pushing so hard, so... too much pressure and your body will enter in a way of defending, protecting itself.
00:22:51
Speaker
And sometimes it can be coming maybe from your ego, but other times it's coming from the body, so there are the part that is not aligned with you, it's more like the ego and trying to protect yourself, but some other times it's the body, and these chemicals we produce in survival mode, like very high cortisol, very high adrenaline, and all this, keeps you in a state that is not healthy, and long term, short term, okay, but long term, if you keep it like that, it's gonna...
Misalignment, Stress, and Negative Identity Loops
00:23:24
Speaker
create a lot of problems in you, and each time you're going to fail, there is the self-judgment that is going to jump into it, that is like part of the ego, that is going to block your transformation, it's going to begin those thoughts, now those automatic negative thoughts that come to you,
00:23:46
Speaker
repeating, you see, you cannot do this, oh, this is too hard, it's easy for others, but this is not for me, it will not work. And all these began to come because you are not aligned, you are not regulating the process, you're completely dysregulated, you're trying to push or the mind too hard or the body too hard into taking actions fast and this regulation will affect the body and the mind.
00:24:15
Speaker
And yes, it's going to block you. It's going to really block you and you want to quit. And each time that we quit, that reinforcement, that loop of quitting and quitting, we'll make that next time it's harder to try because there is a lot of belief that it's not for you, that you cannot kind of
Avoiding Mimicry for Personal Alignment
00:24:36
Speaker
go through that. So personal misalignment is so hard because Sometimes we are trying to follow up the life of others.
00:24:50
Speaker
It's not your life. You're trying to follow what, oh, this guy is doing all this. I'm going to do the same. Oh, this girl is doing all this. could not do the same. But I've just seen their lifestyle. Yeah.
00:25:03
Speaker
Do you know if they have the same responsibilities that you, they have the same time, the same environment, the same financial situation? You don't know. And if you are not aligned in all those points, if you are not understanding that what is working for them,
00:25:21
Speaker
It's not exactly have to work. And sometimes we're trying to fit these that will regulate and then we feel bad. I can not have that perfect morning routine that person is doing because it's so hard for me. I don't have the... No, it's that their perfect morning routine. They design it for their lifestyle.
00:25:41
Speaker
not for your lifestyle. Maybe they don't have children. Maybe you have to wake up, wake up the children, take them to the school.
Mind-Body Connection and Integrated Growth
00:25:49
Speaker
They don't have that. So they have that time to do other stuff.
00:25:53
Speaker
So that this regulation will create the stress in your mind and in your body. Right. And I like how you bring in that loop of sort of the identity protection that happens with the nervous system dysregulated and it reinforces the negatives.
00:26:14
Speaker
It reinforces. I can't do that. I can't. It's hard to do that. It's not for me. I'm not that person. And and so Not only do we have that positive identity loop, we have that negative identity loop to that, that you reinforce those behaviors, those thoughts that the stories we tell ourselves and, and not only does it happen in the mind with the identity, but your nervous system decides your consistency long before your discipline does. You you can't decide that consistency by discipline. You got it. Your nervous system kind of defines that for you. If you're calm.
00:26:51
Speaker
and you're steady and you're feeling good about things, then that consistency can come. If you're, if you're fighting it and it's dysregulated, you're stressed, it's never going to come.
00:27:06
Speaker
I love what you just say, because it reminds me one thing and is the body and ourself, we are looking for safety and we feel safe in what we already know.
00:27:19
Speaker
And when we're trying to bring different aspects to change our lifestyle, to change ourselves, our body,
Belief and Mental Practice on Physical Health
00:27:29
Speaker
there is always a little bit of tension, no? Because, hey, what are you trying?
00:27:35
Speaker
We're going good here. And if what you're trying is like forcing it, it's going to, I don't want to go there.
00:27:46
Speaker
So it's going to push a lot. So that's why that part is so important. And I love what you were saying just a way with that phrase. And so this brings me to to one thing that I wanted to ask you. And we talked about the mind, how the mind shapes, is shaping the behavior of us.
00:28:12
Speaker
But how does the mind really can actually affect the body? Oh, yeah. yeah The whole mind over body thing, it's it's really a big topic and people, i think, undervalue it.
00:28:28
Speaker
We all have heard some of the stories and some of the studies and this and that, and we're all aware of the placebo effect, right? Where, you know, they test drugs and they, you know, and they test the results of the drugs, but they also test somebody who takes a a pill that doesn't have anything chemical in it. And what is the results are often nearly as good as the actual drug because people believe that this is going to help them. And, know,
00:28:54
Speaker
There's so many examples of that beyond just some, you know, pharmaceutical
Mind's Influence on Physical Health
00:28:58
Speaker
trials. There are there are studies about mental practice and how people's behavior and and performance can improve just by thinking about something. So our beliefs, our expectations, our perceptions,
00:29:15
Speaker
about who we are, they shape our actual physiology. They actually shape our body. Our bodies can change through our mental state and our belief system. And so that's why, you know, stress and meaning and interpretation, they change everything about our body, our hormones, our genetic expression, which is our genes turning on and off. So how how our body actually responds to our our DNA is actually affected by our mental state, our gut health.
00:29:52
Speaker
You know, is there's a direct link between our brain and our gut, the the vagus nerve, you, our gut microbiome responds. There's studies about this to our gut microbiome responds to our mental state.
00:30:07
Speaker
And you we have all heard lately about, you know, the importance of gut health and we'll have episodes about that I'm sure as well. But in terms of the, all the things it can do for you physiologically, a healthy gut. And so your mental state is so important for how your body responds.
Lemon Exercise and Stress Impact on Body
00:30:25
Speaker
And, you know, so your identity isn't isn't an abstract and actually it lives in your body.
00:30:33
Speaker
I love what you just were turning on. This reminds me of this. I think people already know this exercise, but one of the powers of the mind of how it affects the body is the mental exercise. So please, if you're driving you're using heavy machinery, don't do this. But if you close your eyes for a little minute and you imagine that you have a lemon, that you have cut the lemon in half, you take that lemon,
00:31:05
Speaker
You bring it to your mouth. You squeeze and get all the juice of the lemon in your mouth. Just feel it. Squeeze it. Feel that. Right now, let me guess. What is happening to you?
00:31:22
Speaker
You are producing a lot of saliva. You are like tasting and it's getting watery in your mouth. And that's the power of the mind. it With imagination, sometimes we can really create effects and it begins to act.
00:31:39
Speaker
And this is a nice exercise, but you imagine when you are stressed and people have... To add this is... A lot of people have digestive issues, as you were saying, about the gut because of their stress levels.
00:31:56
Speaker
And sometimes you are so stressed that you lose hunger. Sometimes you are so stressed that it's just
Stress's Effect on Physical and Mental Health
00:32:04
Speaker
affecting the body. So I love what you were explaining and it's true. Identity is an abstract. It's not an abstract. It lives in the body and I love that phrase.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And so, yeah, we're aware that the mind influences the body in those ways that we just discussed in so many other ways that we'll get into deeper in other episodes, I'm sure. But that really ah ah is related to what the topic of this episode is is, the identity affecting our outcomes and our consistency. And so how we believe about ourselves is really going to affect even our physical body in the moment.
00:32:39
Speaker
and our genetic expression, everything else. But what does it happen in the other direction? have to think about where do we see the body, the state of the body influencing our mental and emotional and energetic states.
00:32:54
Speaker
Oh, I love that because in in so many ways, it's so many ways we can start with just sleep, for example, sleeping is one of the things that will affect your mood the most for the entire day a bad night sleep deprivation sleep next day it's hard to take decisions your mood is low you can feel a little bit less motivation it's
Physical State's Impact on Mental Health
00:33:25
Speaker
gonna it's gonna make that the whole day is really hard and
00:33:29
Speaker
it cannot you can feel like a roller coaster of emotions during the day when you don't rest or recover in a good way. And definitely the decision making is it's almost like if you are drunk or something like that, it's very bad and it's very emotional in the sense of using more reasonable and it's very impulsive. But at the same time, a lot of and research has demonstrated that In the gut, we produce a major amount of serotonin.
00:34:04
Speaker
And serotonin is neurotransmitter to make us feel good, to make us feel calm and feel so nice. So imagine if your gut is not working well and you're not producing enough serotonin, there is people who feel like they're down,
00:34:24
Speaker
emotionally, that they feel sad or even depressed, and it's because they don't have this good balance of this neurotransmitter. So an issue in the gut can only that, but the other way too, imagine if you are with gut pain the whole day and you are having issues to eat and everything, how do you feel and drag through the day? What happens when someone is suffering a pain in a knee the whole day or in the back?
00:34:55
Speaker
How is their mood? The mood is not, I'm having, no. They're focusing the pain that they're suffering. And movement, for example, is so important. Like going out to walk, receiving a little bit of sunlight in in your skin, in
Integrated Growth for Total Well-being
00:35:10
Speaker
your face. And starting the day with that bright light and doing a walk and relaxing.
00:35:15
Speaker
Calm your mind down. makes you feel more happy or one of the best examples of how the body affects the mood and your mind how do you feel when you dance and have a good time with your friends when you go dancing and you're moving and everything and you are full of happiness and you're singing and all these can, this mind-body connection. So as you were explaining before, the mind can affect the body, but the other way too, the body can affect the mind. So it's super important to understand that is a connection that it goes one and the other way.
00:35:57
Speaker
And it's so powerful. It's so powerful, that connection. And we have to understand that the two are working together. Yeah. This is why I will want to ask you, why is a mistake to separate mindset and physical health?
00:36:20
Speaker
Oh, so you mean like separating, like concentrating on how I improve my mindset or how I improve my physical health, separating them out as separate categories? Yeah, that's, that is a mistake because I mean, all that we've talked about in there, you know,
00:36:35
Speaker
they're interconnected completely. And so there's given example of the mind body approach where they're started mind only approach where people will just concentrate on getting smarter, ah gaining the mind control, gaining control their energy, spiritual evolution, things like that to where,
00:36:57
Speaker
You know, they'll they're do a lot of meditating, they'll do a lot of learning, they'll read a lot of books, they'll listen to a lot of podcasts or, you know, do ah do theyre they're all about elevating these these higher frequencies parts of ourselves, the the mind, the energy.
Balanced Approach for Growth
00:37:12
Speaker
ah But without the biology, that that gets become so limited. Like you said, if if you're sick, if you're not feeling well, physically, you can't feel well mentally, you can't your your concentration goes away. If you're not healthy and energetic, then you're not able to keep your mind straight. You can't you know you're not your brain is not as healthy. If you're not physically healthy healthy, your physical brain is not as healthy either. And therefore, it's limiting the power of that brain. um And, you know, Aging happens quicker if you're not physically healthy, which limits your longevity of of the enjoyment of in the progress you can make know with those mental and emotional growing that you want to do.
00:37:59
Speaker
And on the other side of things, body only approach. where I just want to be physically healthy and I'm not worried about growing myself in any other way.
00:38:10
Speaker
And I'm not worried about, you know, making sure that my mental and emotional health is is taken care of in conjunction with this physical effort. And so that's when you get these, you know, forcing yourself and people can make great changes if they're all just concentrated on their physical and they can they can look great and they can be consistent about their diet and their energy, but they might not be happy at all.
00:38:34
Speaker
They're not satisfying their their deeper needs because they they're just concentrating on this. and And that's when They are the shallow part of the part of it comes in with if it's just about the look, if it's just about just this physical thing and taking care of your body is great. But if you're not taking care of your growth in your mindset and in in your vision and your energies, then.
00:39:01
Speaker
It's only going to take you so far. And the ultimate goal is for us all to really enjoy this experience of life and and to get something great out of it. And if you're just trying to make these physical goals, you're never going to make yourself fully happy. And in and again, the mind over the body stuff we talked about, if you're not in a great mindset,
00:39:21
Speaker
then you're going to limit your physical ability to to be better. You won't sleep as well. You're not your body won't respond as well you know to to the stimulation you're giving it if you're in a bad mental state.
Mind and Body Balance for Development
00:39:32
Speaker
And so all of this needs to you know really work together. And so the transformation happens in that mental physical loop.
00:39:41
Speaker
for both for the mental and emotional transformation and for the physical transformation. It happens in a in a loop. There's a conjunction between the two. So they're they're integrated. And, you know, identity is embodiment. It's not just the thought.
00:39:56
Speaker
Identity is in your body, as we talked about before. And so you've got to keep those keep those linked together for real growth. I love, I love it. Have you observed that yourself? Like with other people that, that have gone there, like that have, have been in one way or the other?
00:40:17
Speaker
Yes. Uh, Luke, in all this process, when and I started to self development and working my, I started working my mind was one of my first steps, but then I realized I needed the other part. I needed the body and I have seen a lot of people focusing so hard.
00:40:36
Speaker
in one of the areas, like, they truly work a lot of you know, that they read about psychology, emotional regulation, spirituality, and and they began to work on this and everything. But then they were talking about like, I'm having these issues in my body. um um i have The doctor told me I'm getting diabetes or the doctor told me this, or I went to do an exam and I'm having this issue and these pains. And they're putting so much effort in their mind.
00:41:10
Speaker
they're forgetting about their their actual body. But I have seen the other way. People doing a lot of activity and and exercise and everything and the amazing, but then they they have a mess when it comes from emotional resilience, when it comes from a self-development and there are stocks in in mental patterns and rumination in thoughts and and ah still So they don't find out how you need the two to
Holistic Approach for Effective Transformation
00:41:43
Speaker
advance. You have to grow in coherence with the two at the same time.
00:41:47
Speaker
And even the best example, when we see to the future, how many people will see that they only focus on career and career, but not only is the mental, even they're not training all the mental state.
00:42:00
Speaker
They are only focuses in one part of the mind. but they are forgetting about the connection with family, they are forgetting about their body, they are for forgetting other areas, and they get to a point in life where they are super successful, they have win a lot of money and everything, but now they have tons of issues in the body, tons of issues of relationships, tons of issues in other areas where they have to invest and they feel sometimes lonely and they feel bad because they didn't take care of those areas.
00:42:32
Speaker
or people that you have seen that they focus so much in the body too, but not even the whole body. They train only train and train and train, but they forget about the sleep. They forget about the nutrition. So it's not only that we focus on the mind or in the body, but sometimes is that we have to be that, see the whole mind and the whole body All together, they're working as a mechanism.
Growth Mindset and Personal Responsibility
00:43:01
Speaker
So it's not to focus only in one aspect, not only in the body, not only in the mind, and not only one aspect of the mind or one aspect of the body. So that's very important. And that's why we have to understand that the mind shapes the body and the body shapes the mind.
00:43:18
Speaker
And that's very important because the transformation happens in the conversation between the two of them. That's amazing. I love that thought. That's great. So as we try to get people sort of and how to do this for yourself and and how we design this for our future, right? So maybe give me an example what small identity shift made a big difference for you personally.
00:43:46
Speaker
Oh, that's oh that's that's complicated sometimes to to realize, no? What small actions I took that changed, that have a big impact.
00:43:59
Speaker
For me, I started, as I told you before, my work, ah my true improvement began when I began to work in my mind. And one of the first small shifts I learned in my mindset was I had in the past what they call fixed mindset.
00:44:24
Speaker
So there were some things that for me were a lot. You're not going to be good in this and you're never going to achieve this. That was one part. And because of that fixed mindset, I had this conception that I have a little bit of big team mentality.
Life Changes Through Growth Mindset
00:44:45
Speaker
That is not bad, it's just that for me, because I have a fixed mindset, I couldn't grow, i have the victim mentality, I cannot do that, my body cannot allow that, it's happened because of this, and i was blaming the rest of the world of all the things, let's say.
00:45:03
Speaker
And when I began to work in my mindset, a small shift was to learn these two little concepts. One, growth mindset. And if you put time, energy and effort in anything you want, you will improve.
00:45:19
Speaker
Maybe I'm not going to be the best one world, but I can improve. From where I'm standing, i can move forward. And the other one was responsible.
00:45:31
Speaker
You are responsible. And it was hard for me, but I'm not responsible of what happens in the world. What is happening with the weather, the things in the governments, what other people do. I'm not responsible of nothing of that.
00:45:50
Speaker
But I'm responsible of how I react to things. So that was what pushed me. I was making responsible doctors and other people about my health. I was making responsible others about my mind and my emotional state.
00:46:11
Speaker
I've given the power to them. Now, that small shift of thinking about responsibility and growth mindset, I joined those two and it boosts, it creates huge impact in my life.
Shifting from Fixed to Growth Mindset
00:46:26
Speaker
There is where I began to improve in every area arearia because I'm responsible of my health, I'm responsible of what I can control, I'm responsible of my emotions, of my perceptions,
00:46:40
Speaker
of what I choose to do and how I react to situations and that for me, that vision began to shape, that begins to be part of my identity.
00:46:54
Speaker
I'm a person who's responsible and I'm not gonna blame anyone else and I'm gonna work to improve myself every day. So that small identity shift inside of me. And I say small because we're two concepts that I learned.
00:47:10
Speaker
They began to shape my complete whole life. Nice. Who I was, how I have the perspective, perception of my future, who I wanted to become. But the growth mindset say, Hey, it's not who you want to become. It's how like expand your mind.
00:47:31
Speaker
all the things I could do, and that was huge for me. So changing that small action created a ripple effect, and it began to go bigger and bigger, and then i I took it to my health, I took it to my learnings, to how I communicate with people, connect with people.
00:47:54
Speaker
It began to change everything. It was a beautiful moment.
Designing a Safe Future Identity
00:47:57
Speaker
Fantastic. That's amazing. And and it's such a ah big shift from the small concepts, but yeah, from being feel like you're, you're trapped in who how you've been defined versus I can grow out of this.
00:48:12
Speaker
That's right, probably the first change that anybody needs to make before they can, you know, make any other kind of shift in their life just to realize that we have that power. That's, that's an amazing thing. Yeah, yeah it brings me a lot of From there, I began to create all my little small habits.
00:48:34
Speaker
Now I began to work. The first small habit was awareness, being aware. Oh, you're reacting like this. What makes you mad? What are you? Or, oh, I'm curious about that.
00:48:45
Speaker
I wish I could do it. Well, just learn about it. that take a book or or take a course, it's not I wish I could, then I'm not saying you're going to become the best one in the world doing whatever you choose, but you're going to be much, you move forward from your standing, and we only have to compete with ourselves to become better, and you just push to be a little, or one percent better every day,
00:49:14
Speaker
And those key little keystone habits I began to build, they began to move forward. So it was very powerful.
Comfortable and Aspirational Identity Shifts
00:49:21
Speaker
and So this bring me to... Because i have that process, but how do you help someone one design this future identity that feels safe?
00:49:40
Speaker
instead that it see feels overwhelming. How do you take someone through that process? That's a good question. i I think that people have some vision of who they want to be.
00:49:56
Speaker
Sometimes you got to work on that vision. Sometimes it's like it's confusing. There's a lot of different directions life could take. But if you have this vision of the type of person you want to be, how you want your life to be.
00:50:08
Speaker
then If you look at that identity of that person, like your best self, we'll call it, right? that That identity, your best self is something that you can aspire to, something you can feel safe in. And if it challenges who you are now, then you're less likely to fight that. You're less likely to protect this this current version of you if it's an aspirational movement toward that highest self.
00:50:39
Speaker
And so Identities, as we talked about, that cycle has got to be comfortable. Each new habit's got to be this thing that you can integrate into who you are and what what's comfortable in your life. So it starts, like you said, with these little small changes with how you made your shift is these little keystone habits, these little small changes that help define that new, that shift in identity that you want.
00:51:04
Speaker
Right. And so we help people say, look at that vision, then start stepping toward it in small ways. Start anchoring these new behaviors just little by little.
00:51:16
Speaker
You don't have to be all in all at once, because, again, we talked about how your body's you're just going to fight that when it's all
Starting with Identity for Sustainable Habits
00:51:22
Speaker
uncomfortable. But you you build on these things by so you get this safety before you go into that next level, that next expansion. You make sure you're safe in where you are. So the safety before expansion. So you you pra you' become you become the purpose you become the person that you practice being, really. And so that's it's it's not faking it till you make it.
00:51:49
Speaker
It's really shifting. in reality. You're not it's not faking it. It is living into it. very And I've had actually I've had clients that have done this, have made that mistake or have realized it and have made big efforts into that and have big made big strides because of that and that realization that that it's not pushing themselves toward it because they've always... And they realize there was... One of my clients was really self-aware. It's like, every time I try to force myself to do something, i fight it.
00:52:24
Speaker
it's like ah It's like my resistance to authority is is even internal. don I don't even want to tell myself to do something that I have to do something. It creates this automatic resistance in me.
00:52:36
Speaker
And so then she realized she's like, but when I look at the identity shift part of it and and she, cause she does her own identity work and she coaches different people on different stuff. And, and she realized that, oh, wow. If I, if I step into this as an identity shift and as a, as a making sure that this is comfortable for me and that each step is something that, that I'm living into who I want to be.
00:53:04
Speaker
then it becomes more comfortable. It's not a punishment. It's not a pushing myself into it. It is a is a stepping into it you know mindfully and in in with with the hope and with aspiration. And that's where it it really takes hold. Wow,
00:53:23
Speaker
that's powerful. That's powerful. I will say a way to try to resume what you was explaining right now and and and this experience is like when you begin to work in those habits, in in in those steps, not like every habit that you begin to practice is about who you are becoming.
00:53:49
Speaker
in that direction that you want to become, instead of something that you have to... It's not a test, it's not you fail or you pass it. It's just a boat for that self that you're becoming.
00:54:06
Speaker
And I love concept. Yeah, very well put. Very well put. Yeah, it's it's not something that you're you're testing yourself with. You're not trying to challenge yourself to get past something. It is just that little push to who you want to become. That's awesome.
00:54:21
Speaker
So... What change for people? I mean, what, okay, let me put it this way. What would change for people if they started with identity instead of action? So we talked about the the pitfalls of it. So let's, let's summarize it.
00:54:38
Speaker
So if people start with this identity versus just intensity and, and, and action, what, what really comes out for them?
00:54:48
Speaker
So,
00:54:51
Speaker
Remembering my process or people I have been working on with, what happens is that once you start working in your identity and you begin like t twelve line where to where you want to go, identity is giving you the the direction.
00:55:12
Speaker
it It tells you where to go. Because sometimes when we're just starting without the identity, you are like trying to do so many different things, but you are um are not clear where you want to go. There is something that is not working. So it's very easy to walk a path and in every turn that you have, you know, do I turn? Do I continue? Do I go left? Do I go right? No. So identity is, it gives you like the anchor where you're going.
00:55:42
Speaker
you know what, and you try to begin to think like, okay, who's that future self, that person I'm becoming, how they think. So that will reduce the overwhelming of decisions, what to do, you say, okay, these are my objectives, this is where I want to go, this is the person I'm becoming. So it gives you identity, it reduces the overwhelm.
00:56:06
Speaker
It allows you to enter and create in some rhythm and more harmony in your life because it's more aligned with the lifestyle that you can build.
Identity Ensures Direction and Growth
00:56:16
Speaker
It makes that habits are more sustainable as we have been talking because you begin to get that's who you are.
00:56:26
Speaker
And as we were saying before, it's a both of who you're becoming. So identity begins to help you to integrate those habits and being more sustainable. And at the same time,
00:56:39
Speaker
All these together gives you so much clarity. It gives you all the clarity, taking about out all the noise. So it's even easier to decide who to follow, who do you want to learn from, what people are teaching.
00:56:58
Speaker
And you begin to have your own concept that I don't want to do all these because it's not aligned with the person I'm becoming. And I like to follow these because these fills more with my values, with my identity, with who I'm becoming. So identity overall, to say it, is clarity, reduce overwhelming, give you rhythm, harmonize your lifestyle, and make habits become part of you.
00:57:28
Speaker
And that's so powerful. And that that's what I would like to ask you. What and why those body evolution begins here with identity?
00:57:43
Speaker
Okay, yeah, with identity. Yeah. The reason why our process begins here and we kind of hinted at it, obviously, but it really leads into the rest. It starts so that we feel safe, we have good direction, like you just pointed out.
00:57:57
Speaker
And therefore, we designed this whole system and this this philosophy to start with that so that it leads right into once we give you the tools, the the physical stuff to do, the movement, the exercises, or the the options that you can do for fitness, the options you can do for diet, then you can,
00:58:20
Speaker
more easily integrate and find those little those little chunks that you can bite off that feel comfortable for you within that that body of knowledge that that's there's a ton of knowledge out there. And we'll try to you know distill that down for you. And ah in addition, it's kind of the anchor for your longevity blueprint, your your the life you want to live and how you want to design it going forward.
Safe Evolution Through Identity
00:58:46
Speaker
So if you follow this sort of process that we give you then and you want to design yourself going forward, then you really have to know
00:58:56
Speaker
who you are and who you wanna become in so many ways. Not that you know who you wanna become can be always a shifting thing. So it's never locked in. It's like, I've decided my identity, then I learned this, this, and this, and this. And it's like, oh well, maybe I can do that, do a little adjustments along the way for sure. But it still gives you that that that North Star that you can sort of always point to as you're going. And so that's why we really start with the identity.
00:59:21
Speaker
And otherwise, you know You're going to try something and have to stop and restart. All that kind of stuff. So we really want to just have this identity going a direction. You can shift that direction slightly, but it's not about going back to the beginning ever.
00:59:38
Speaker
Beautiful. I love it. And yes, we know that transformation gets easier in the moment. Our identity stops fighting ah our goals or stops fighting our lifestyle.
00:59:52
Speaker
Yeah. And I love that. And a just to say, eve all of you who are listening to us right now or following us, if you like this conversation that we brought here, if it brings you a little bit of clarity, ah just please hit the the like button.
01:00:13
Speaker
We will
Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement
01:00:14
Speaker
love that. And follow the podcast and share it with someone who really needs and you think is going to be beneficial for them. And we wanted to share that we have some free resources that you can check out and take some actions if you want to start right now.
01:00:31
Speaker
Yeah, and we also have, you know, if you want to go deeper with us and we are coaches, if you want to check out our program, the body evolution program, there's a link below for that as well. And you can find us on all the social media and the links are in the description below.
01:00:45
Speaker
Thanks for being with us. We'll see you next episode.
01:00:49
Speaker
See you next episode.