Maybe you’re like me and you’ve had a long and windy road of learning how we create healthy homes. Or maybe you’re just choosing to take the first steps in creating a healthy lifestyle for you and your family. No matter where you are in your journey, it can feel frustrating when either a friend or a family member won’t adopt some of the healthy habits you’ve begun to implement.
This can be especially hard when it’s a loved one or friend who already has compromised health. So why doesn’t everyone change their lifestyle like you? It can be tough to understand WHY and it because of this break in understanding, it can be really hard to help in the right ways.
Sometimes, understanding why healthy homes are not important to others can help you take the right approach to helping them create a healthy lifestyle in the right way. Below are some of the excuses so many of us make when it comes to creating our healthy homes and adopting a healthy lifestyle. These are excuses I had swirling around in my head for months, and some of them years. To be honest, some of these excuses still rear their ugly head when I’m thinking about making a change in the future.
So let’s look at the excuses that surround creating healthy homes and changing our habits to create a healthy lifestyle.
EXCUSE #1: TOXINS ARE EVERYWHERE, WHY CHANGE NOW?
When you start down the path of trying to reduce toxins in your life, it feels REALLY overwhelming. I know for me I became really disheartened to find out JUST how many toxins are in my home, let alone the ones I come in contact with every day that I have no control over. I remember starting to think what it really mattered if I couldn’t control the toxins around me. Could I really make a difference by just changing my home?
The answer is YES. After I began to learn about what body burden was and how it was affecting my health and wellness, I began to feel more positive about making the changes I could. It made me feel better about taking steps to reduce toxins and ultimately reduce body burden. (This post explains in depth what body burden is and how it affects your immune system).
Basically, the more toxins we remove from our environment, particularly the environment we spend the most time in, the more we allow our body to return to its regular function, without being bogged down by trying to protect our bodies from an overwhelming amount of toxins.
EXCUSE #2: I’M PRETTY HEALTHY, SO MY BODY CAN HANDLE IT
This is another phrase that maybe we don’t say out loud, but we think to ourselves when improving our healthy homes. Sometimes it’s easy to think we won’t be affected by particular habits or toxins in your home because the REST of your healthy lifestyle is so strong.
The truth is, you never know when your body is going to suddenly give in to whatever the negative toxin or habit is. Body burden works in a way that our bodies can only take so much before the toxins begin to affect the other areas of our bodies. (STUDY)
On top of which, even though only a percentage of people may be affected by a particular toxin, YOU may be that percent. None of us are invincible and oftentimes we tend to think we are. I think this is one of the biggest reasons we choose to ignore healthy lifestyle changes or creating healthy homes. But in truth, every small change reduces the risk of burden on our body more and more.
EXCUSE #3: IT’LL NEVER HAPPEN TO ME. PROBLEMS ARE SO RARE
You might think you’re in the majority of people who won’t be affected by toxins like formaldehyde or other VOCs. You might think that EMFs are really not that big of a deal because you haven’t been affected by them yet.
Unfortunately this way of thinking when it comes to healthy houses is a limited mindset and doesn’t allow us to really step up into a healthy lifestyle. We allow ourselves to believe the lie that we are invincible and because toxins have been around for such a long time, they really aren’t the cause of health problems.
But believing this lie means we are never going to seek out better options for healthy houses or a healthy lifestyle. And in the future, as our bodies become more burdened, older in age, and we become exposed to more unhealthy toxins, we slowly become able to withstand the toxins we come in contact with.
EXCUSE #4: I’M COMFORTABLE WHERE I’M AT
No one ever wants to change, for the most part. We live in our comfort zone and don’t necessarily venture out unless we’re forced to do so. This may be the number one reason healthy houses aren’t as prevalent as one might think. Unless there’s a pressing need to change our cleaning products or an immediate reason to change our habits, generally, we don’t. I think healthy homes often come from a necessity to change, not necessarily just a willingness to change.
So many times I see someone in the family become burdened so much with chemicals and toxins that parts of their body aren’t functioning as normal. THIS is the moment that the concept of healthy houses comes into play. THIS is the moment that the family realizes they MUST make a change.
But until this problem arises, families just continue on as they always have because they’re comfortable and their comfort outweighs the potential for healthy problems. Their comfort outweighs the need for a healthy lifestyle or to create healthy homes.
EXCUSE #5: I DON’T WANT TO SPEND A LOT OF MONEY TO CHANGE
This was me for the longest time. I never wanted to invest in my health, but I soon realized I was willing to invest in a lot of other unhealthy habits. All it took was shifting some of my priorities a little bit, and honestly I had a lot more to put into a healthy lifestyle than I thought.
Creating healthy homes can take a lot of work and time, but oftentimes it doesn’t take as much of an investment as I thought. When it comes to switching out products and materials to toxin free options, it can definitely cost more, but in the grand scheme of the project, it’s definitely worth it.
These investments just need to be planned for and budgeted for in advance. When you take this approach, you really run into fewer reasons to make excuses for your choosing healthier products.
Realize that it costs less to choose a healthy product that will prevent your body from becoming burdened than it is to pay for medical issues that arise in the future. Trying to fix a problem that has arisen is much more costly and stressful than preventing the problem in the first place.
THE TRUTH ABOUT HEALTHY HOMES TO SUPPORT A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
The truth about healthy homes is that they are something you can gradually change over time. There are things that someone can do in one afternoon for free (this post is full of free ideas you can implement and do at home to create a healthier indoor space).
It doesn’t have to be incredibly expensive or complex to create a healthy lifestyle that works for your family. Simply begin with the places in your home you spend the most time in. Or you could start with the items or products you come into contact with most throughout the day. These are the toxins that will affect your body the most as you have the longest and most frequent contact with them.
Break your routines and spaces down into micro-tasks and just start checking them off. If you’re going to be helping a friend or family, help them break it down into really small, manageable tasks so that they don’t become overwhelmed.
There are many options to getting someone started in creating a healthy lifestyle and healthy homes. My full home detox course is a great way to start with all the information right at your fingertips.
