S8E5 When You Don’t Trust Yourself Anymore How to Make Health Decisions with MS Without the Overwhelm Transcript
[00:00:00] Do you trust yourself to make the right decisions to manage ms? Or are you stuck in a loop pressured by your doctor? Overwhelmed by research and inspired, but also slightly intimidated by everyone on social media. It's enough to make you freeze, scared to move an inch in case you get it wrong. In this episode, we're talking about what it really means to make confident health decisions, not because you have it all figured out, but because you're finally learning to trust yourself more than the noise around you.
If you've ever felt like you're standing in your own way, this is for you. And before we get started, I wanna invite you to something special. Living with MS can feel overwhelming, but one habit can shift everything. That's what I'll show you inside my free webinar. How to help Slow MS progression?
Starting with just one habit. [00:01:00] Think of it as your first step towards more energy, confidence, and hope. Save your seat at alene brennan.com/webinar. Welcome to my MS podcast, where women with MS learn how to slow progression and live a life they love. I'm Alene Brennan, your Ms sister and a practitioner who knows the science and the reality of living this too.
Each week I share simple. Science backed habits to boost your energy. Stay consistent and feel like yourself again, because Ms. May be a part of your story, but it doesn't get to write the ending. Hello my friend. Welcome back to my MS. Podcast. Today we're diving into something I am kind of embarrassed to admit.
I've wrestled with almost my entire life in decision. I grew up avoiding conflict at all [00:02:00] costs, and by nature I think we're all just trying to fit in with those around us and then add in some insecurity, especially around my ability to make good decisions. And what you get is a lifetime of self silencing.
And second guessing. Now, to be fair, being indecisive kept me out of a lot of drama, especially when I was in high school and college because I wasn't the person that was stirring the pot. I didn't make any waves, and I certainly was not the person that you went to to get caught up on the latest gossip.
And honestly, because I never did anything too bold or too risky myself. I didn't draw much attention or spark any drama in my own life, so I just kind of was living this very vanilla fly under the radar. Don't attract too much attention. Don't disrupt the norm that's around you. Just. Go with the [00:03:00] flow, and all of this at the time felt like the right thing to do.
It felt safe, but here's what I didn't realize until later, that way of living, that mindset, some of those, what I would refer to as limiting beliefs. Were learned, right? So part of that was just the house that I was raised in. You don't go against the flow. You don't challenge anybody. You don't create conflict.
You actually avoid conflict at all costs. So some of that. Yes, it did serve me well growing up, I suppose, but what I didn't realize until later was it completely sabotaged my ability to trust myself as an adult, because when you are chronically indecisive, here's what happens. Other people make decisions for you.
And look, sometimes that's fine. Like if I'm trying to figure out what to wear [00:04:00] and I reach out to my friend who is always on trend and she sends me an idea of the perfect outfit. Boom. Done. It's like problem solved provided that I like it, of course. But if that same pattern is playing out with your health decisions, what to eat, what supplements to take, when to rest, or even what treatment plan to follow, and you're handing over the reins to somebody else, that is where this gets risky.
Not because people are trying to hurt you, they're not, but because they. Don't live in your body. They don't know what it's like to carry MS fatigue. They don't know the humbling weight of that or navigating brain fog or feel like you're failing because you can't follow a protocol that everyone else seems to swear by.
And here's the thing I wanna say with love, but [00:05:00] also some directness. At the end of the day, you are the one who lives with the outcome of the decisions, not your doctor, not the well-meaning person on social media, not your spouse, your sister, or your best friend. You. You are the one who wakes up in your body tomorrow.
You are the one who feels the effects of every yes and every no. So today I wanna talk about how we can together start making changes. We can actually feel. Good about even when you're dealing with fatigue, brain fog, or just way too many options, not by pretending that you've got it all together, but by learning how to trust ourselves a little bit more and take the next doable step instead of getting stuck trying to find the perfect one.
Is this resonating with you? I am willing to bet that it is because when [00:06:00] you are living with ms, not only are there so many decisions to make, there's so much information to consume, but also, let's face it, there's a lot on the line. The decisions that you're making about your health are not as simple as what outfit you're wearing that day.
The importance of these decisions is so much greater. So let's talk about how we can shift from this place of indecision if you're part of that community with me as well. Um, or maybe you're not, maybe you've made decisions with ease before, but you're stepping into this new world of ms. Or maybe you've been in the world of MS for a while and you're just like, I'm just.
Done with all of these decisions that I don't even know what to trust, what to do, or how to move forward with all of this. So let's see if we can break some of this down so that we can all move forward with a little bit more clarity, not in making the same decisions together, but in allowing us to [00:07:00] make the best decisions for each of us individually.
So one of the hardest things about living with MS, and there's a lot of them, is that we're constantly swimming in information. I'm sure you know exactly what I mean. You watch one reel on Instagram that says fasting is the key to reducing inflammation. Then a podcast says that fasting wrecks women's hormones.
You scroll through your social media support group and you see people swearing by cell reduce raw vegan keto. Protocol, carnivore, no oxalates, low histamine. And suddenly you're 45 minutes deep into a rabbit hole, and all you've done is stress yourself out. That my friend, is what I call the confusion trap.
And if you are nodding your head right now, it's because you have been there too. We gather all this information, sometimes outta fear, sometimes outta desperation, and then we just sit on it. Frozen, [00:08:00] overwhelmed and afraid to make the wrong decision because what if we pick the thing that makes us feel worse?
Or what if it doesn't work or contradict something else? We heard yesterday, and this isn't just about food or supplements, it can show up in things like, should I push through this fatigue or should I rest? Should I say yes to this invitation, even though I know I'm completely wiped out? Should I try this new protocol?
Or do I stay where I'm at? Do I try a new treatment or do I not? We get stuck trying to do it right, and in the process we forget to listen to ourselves. I've said this before, but MS turns us into professional researchers, right? Like we get this diagnosis, we hear those words. You have Ms. And all of a sudden you feel like you have to research [00:09:00] all of this information on a diagnosis, on treatment plans, on diet, on lifestyle, on supplements, on exercise, all of it.
But it can also turn you into a professional. Doubter, and that is exhausting. But here's what I want you to hear. It's not that all this information is bad, it's not. It can be really good and really empowering. It's just that it's not all meant for you, at least not right now. So the question becomes how do we sort through the noise and actually make decisions we feel good about?
And that's where I wanna take us next, because confusion comes from too much noise and not trusting your own voice. And because I've been a pro at being indecisive virtually my entire life, I created a simple framework that [00:10:00] I call the three filters, something I've used again in my own life, and I've shared with my clients who feel stuck in second guessing and in overwhelm.
These filters are how you move from confusion to clarity. To confidence. So let me walk you through it here first start by asking what does credible science or a practitioner I trust, say? Now this doesn't mean every single study or every single social media post. It means choosing a few trusted sources and tuning the rest out.
So for me, that may be my own neurologist or integrative practitioner or Dr. Walls. It's not about chasing every trend. It's about coming back to people who actually know your body. Your diagnosis [00:11:00] and maybe even your labs. So let's just make this super practical. Let's just say you see a post on social media this morning that says, coffee is terrible for people with autoimmune diseases, but your neurologist, or maybe your nutritionist said, listen, if you wanna have a cup of coffee a day.
One cup of coffee a day is fine for you and you know that morning cup actually helps you go to the bathroom, boost your mood, have some sense of energy in the morning, and actually does not spike any symptoms. So that's when you can say, thanks Instagram, but I've got this one covered. So you're identifying what are the credible sources that you want to trust and lean on when you can narrow it down to maybe two or three, and then turn down the volume on all the other noise that's out there, it reduces the overwhelm [00:12:00] dramatically.
Dramatically. So this is just a little maybe upfront work. I don't wanna even refer to it as work, but just like, just deciding who is it that you want to be? Some of your trusted resources, people who live this, people who walk this, people who study it, people who know it. Maybe this podcast is one of those trusted resources for you.
Because it's a source of understanding MS in a way that maybe you haven't before. And it's helping you to process not only the diagnosis, but also how you're choosing to live with it. So the first thing you wanna do is identify what are the credible sources, um, that you wanna trust, and what are they saying next?
What has your own body shown you? This one is huge. It's easy to ignore our own data when we're overwhelmed by someone else's. If you are so overwhelmed by what Mark Hyman says, or Dr. Walls, or your [00:13:00] neurologist, or what somebody said in his support group on Facebook, when you are so overwhelmed by all of that noise, it's easy to tune out what you are feeling in your own body.
But you have lived experience that matters. How do you feel after eating a certain food? What did your energy look like after following a certain protocol or diet? How was your sleep after that supplement? Even if something is. Quote unquote, good. If it makes you feel terrible, that's really good information to know.
We forget that MS gives us a front row seat to real time feedback. Now, the feedback isn't always dramatic, especially if you're talking about a supplement, like you're not gonna take it and then within a couple hours, or maybe even not in a couple days, like feel a dramatic difference. But when you start to tune in and listen to your body, you do that by [00:14:00] turning down the noise on.
All of the other inputs that are coming at you so that you can turn to your body as a trusted source as well. Your body is talking to you. It just needs some space to be able to speak. And let me tell you, when we give it that space now, it's a lot. Easier because it can speak to us in a whisper. It doesn't have to get a megaphone out to scream to us, right?
So how can we start to tune in to listen to what our body is saying more and allow ourselves to trust that feedback? And then finally, what feels doable for you right now? This is the filter that so many people skip, and it's why most protocols fail because just because something is effective doesn't mean it's sustainable for you in this season.
Maybe you are in deep, heavy fatigue right now, and you can. [00:15:00] Barely get outta bed. Maybe your life is full with caregiving or work stress, or maybe brain fog has made cooking complicated meals feel impossible, or just cooking a meal. Forget about a complicated one. Just a meal feels impossible in those moments.
Confidence isn't about pushing through. It's about choosing what's. Actually doable so that you can build momentum without burning out Sustainable confidence comes from decisions that fit your life, not fight against it. So when we use all these three filters, when we identify what is the evidence, like, who are the trusted sources that we wanna turn to and what are they saying?
What is my experience? What is my body telling me? And then third, ease. What is actually doable for me right now? When you can [00:16:00] lean on these three filters, evidence, experience, and ease, you are not just guessing. You are making thoughtful, grounded decisions based on what's true to you, what's real and what actually works.
And of course, we will make decisions. That we will look back on and say, I don't know that I really nailed that one. I probably should have done this, and that is life ms. Or not? That is life. But here's the thing, not making a decision because you're afraid you're gonna get it wrong, is making a decision, not making a decision.
Is a decision if that lands for you, you know that it is true because when you choose to delay, maybe 'cause you're waiting for the perfect time or you don't have it all together yet, or you're waiting for more information or you wanna do more research, that is a decision to not move forward and that is holding you back.[00:17:00]
It's holding you back because sometimes you need to have, again, that experience to have feedback, to know if this is working for you or not. So this gives us the framework, the tools to be able to make a decision and move forward. And you can always reevaluate. You can always adjust as needed. We need to make sure that we are putting things into action.
And it doesn't have to be huge. It's not about, you know, overnight transformations. You say, you hear me say that all the time. We're talking about one small step forward, something that feels. Doable because the truth is you don't get more confident by thinking about your options over and over again. You get more confident by trying something, by paying attention to what happens and adjusting from there.
That's it. Try the new food. Try the new supplement or stop the supplement, add in that [00:18:00] rest day. Say no to the plan that drains you. Whatever the decision is, take the step and pay attention to the results. Even if it's not perfect, you're learning. And that's where confidence starts to grow, not from doing it all, quote unquote, right, but from building your own experience, one.
Decision at a time. And my friend, if I can tell you the, the decisions that we are making, especially the ones that just get us started, aren't going to have detrimental effects on us. Sometimes we overthink some of the smallest things, whereas if we were just take some. Action. Then you get better feedback and you can move forward with confidence because you know, hey, this is working for me.
This is the right decision, or this isn't working for me, and now I know not to do this. This is the exact strategy that has changed. How I live, how I heal, and even how I coach it is actually the heartbeat [00:19:00] of what I teach inside My Healing Habits program, which is all about small, doable decisions that actually stick.
So if this is resonating with you. Definitely register for my free masterclass this Friday at aen brennan.com/webinar where I teach how to slow progression, starting with one habit, starting with just one habit. So just a quick plug there this Friday. Check it out at alene brennan.com/webinar. There's your invitation.
I would love to see you there. All right, my friends. Let's wrap this up here. We've talked about how to trust your body again, even when the noise around you is loud and to take one small, doable step instead of chasing the perfect answer. So here's what I want you to remember. You don't have to be 100% sure to take the first step.
You just have [00:20:00] to be willing to try to listen and to learn. Confidence isn't about getting every decision, right? It's about learning how to make decisions. You can stand by because they're coming from you. That is the thing that I always go back to when I make a decision and I look back on it, I'm like, at least I can stand by knowing that that was the decision that felt right to me.
In that moment with the information that I had available to me at that time, if I gain new information in the future or if something changes, of course I have the ability to adapt, but I know that I made the decision based on what felt right to me, and I didn't outsource it. I didn't stand. I didn't stay in that place of indecision and then allow somebody else to make that decision for me.
That is something I cannot continue to live with anymore, not when my health is on the line. That's something that I had to [00:21:00] learn the hard way, and honestly, I am still learning it, but this process, filtering out the noise, listening to your body, and taking one small step at a time. It's what has changed everything for me, and I hope that today's episode gave you something solid to stand on.
So you can start on this journey too. And again, remember, you don't have to wait until the confusion is gone to take the first step, decide what feels best for you in this moment with the information that you have available, and then take a small, doable step. Towards that and pay attention to the results.
And my friend, remember, I am always here cheering you on. I hope today's episode was helpful for you. And I hope you take me up on that invitation for the free class this Friday. I'll see you then. Take care. And that's it for today's episode of my MS podcast. I hope you're walking away [00:22:00] with one's. Small step you can put into practice today, because that is how real change happens.
And remember, MS has its own biological clock, which means the sooner you start, the more power you have to influence your future. The best time to begin is now. That's why I created my free webinar, how to help slow MS progression. Starting with just one habit today. Grab your spot at alene brennan.com/webinar.
See you there.