First, let’s start here – your personal health is your responsibility. We’ll say that again; you are in charge of your own health. Your doctor isn’t responsible, your work isn’t responsible, your parents aren’t responsible…nobody but you.

Potential Medical & Wellness Professionals

Secondly, here is a quick, non-exhaustive list of potential medical and wellness professionals that you may come in contact with during the year, sometimes for preventative reasons and others reactive:

• Primary Care Doctor

• Physical Therapist

• Trainer

• Dermatologist

• Dentist

• OBGYN

• Nutritionist

• Surgeon

• Cardiologist

• Therapist

Our question is this – “How many of these resources, that you might utilize during a given year, communicate with each other?”

In other words, it should feel like there is a “Team [Insert Your Name]” taking care of you…but it’s not like that, is it?

Similarly, HIPAA laws aside, you are allowed to give permission to varying parties to speak with each other. Each has a specialty, but lots of them speak a similar language (more like a different dialect of the same language). For instance, your physical therapist should understand what you and your trainer are trying to accomplish, and your nutritionist should be there to support those goals. Your primary care doctor should take note of what you do for activity and provide insight into the “back end” of your health data. Your therapist should understand what challenges you might face, and utilize your varying interests and helping parts of the “team” to improve your mental wellbeing.

Your first argument might be, “Wow, that seems expensive to get all that help.” Yes, certainly if you pay for top talent and get one-on-one, in-person attention. However, there are free resources to take advantage for many of those areas. And, it might benefit you the most to focus on one to two areas first before trying them all.

In short, it’s your responsibility to take action, remember? How can you provide the cohesion between your “team?”

Other questions to ask yourself:

• What books are available on these subjects?

• What podcasts exist (all for free) to give me insight?

• Can I look up who the top talent is in each area and consume all pieces of free media I can find before I pursue personalized care?

• What apps can I download to use for free?

• What communities can I join for free to keep me accountable?

• Can I utilize social media to help my journey?

One of the things we pride ourselves on at Live Better is helping to be a filter for honest, direct, and empathetic wellness information. We want to provide the care our community needs to get physical and mentally healthy, then push them to fulfill their potential and change the world in their own unique way. This email is free. Our podcast is free. Our social media is free – use it all.

Above all, start to take stock of who you need on your wellness team; the first step is to identify your strengths and weaknesses, developing goals, and starting to take action. Then, plug in where you need help to get you where you need to go.

Need help looking where to start? Shoot us an email at hello@livebetterco.org.

Your best day ever starts right now.