Flourish Health & Wellbeing eMag - Latest Edition - Flipbook - Page 12
The newest twist:
optimisation is bleeding
into identity
Over optimisation is about
self worth. When wellness
becomes constant
evaluation, it is easy to tie
your value to compliance.
You are not just eating
a salad, you are proving
something. You are not
just going for a walk,
you are maintaining your
identity as a person who
has it together.
The backlash:
regulation over results
A backlash is brewing,
and it makes sense.
Many people are not
simply stressed, they
are dysregulated, with
nervous systems stuck
in survival mode. In that
context, more effort,
more discipline, and
more tracking is not
always the answer.
Instead, people are
seeking practices that
prioritise safety over
striving, and connection
over comparison.
What does healthy look
like when we stop trying
to win at wellness?
Here are some practical
ways to step back from
over optimisation without
throwing your smartwatch
into the ocean:
• Try a data diet: pick
one metric that
genuinely helps you
and ignore the rest for
a month.
• Replace score chasing
with check ins: before
you look at an app, ask
how you feel in your
body right now.
• Use the 80 percent
rule: if your routine
requires perfection
to work, it will
eventually
fail.
• Aim for regulation,
not optimisation: build
a day that supports
steadiness, not max
performance.
• Put joy back on the
plan: if your wellbeing
routine has no pleasure
built in, it becomes
pure self management.
Over optimisation is what
happens when health
becomes a performance,
and wellbeing becomes
another area where you
can fail. The shift many
people are craving is
not less care, it is more
humanity. At some point,
the question stops being
what does my dashboard
say and becomes do I
actually feel like I’m living.
