[g_podcast id="13002053"]
I recentlyheardthe term anti-fragility from Brooke Castillo on her podcast The Life Coach School.And it totally intrigued me. She refers to a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb called Anti-Fragility.
And I think the concept can be applied very well to the topic ofhealth anddietarychange.
In this episode, I talk about:
Hello and welcome to a new episodeof theDarmglückpodcast. Today I have a somewhat special topic for you. I want totalk about a conceptthat Ionlyrecently becameaware ofand that I find very fascinating.PerhapsI'll go intoit in more depthfrom time to time. TodayI'm just going togive youa brief overview.
It's the concept of"anti-fragility". I don't know if that means anything to you. There is a book about it,written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Ihaven't read the bookyet. If you are interested, you can listen to it in English. But Iknow that many of my listenersdon'tunderstand Englishvery well.Soinstead of just recommending this podcast, I thought I'dsay something about it andexplain why I find it so fascinating.
"Anti-fragility " - whatdoesthat mean? It's the opposite of fragility, and fragility means "fragility".I keep noticing that many people describe themselves as a bit sensitive, as fragile."I 'm just sensitive. I'm just like that."I hear this again and again, especially when it comes to nutrition and health.Sometimes bad thingshappen in your life, or youexperiencesador stressful situations. You experiencethings that somehow throw you off track.If you are fragile,you withdraw into your shell,neverwantingtoexperiencesomethinglike thatagain. Maybe you give up or say that you can't handle it.
The concept of anti-fragilityis about recognizing that such things are important for your development and for your progress, because you grow from them. Friedrich Nietzsche said:"Whatm data-contrast="auto">I don't kill myself, makesmestronger". Anti-fragilitygoes inthis direction.Now you could say that the opposite of fragility is simply robustness. Robustness means being able to stand up to adverse experiences, so to speak,but anti-fragility goes a bit further. Itmeans that younot only stand up tounpleasant experiences, but that you recognize that the adversity or the stress or the sadness or whatever it may be actually helpsyou to develop further.
The reason this fascinatesand excites me so much is that I thinkit'svery similarwith health.Wejust don't want any setbacks. Wejust don't want things to go badly for us. But you can also take the opportunity to perhaps realize that this is something that will take me further or that shows me:"Ah, that's not how it works. I could try something else." This attitude is incredibly important, because I notice time and again that peoplewant to stop a dietary changeimmediately, for example,the first time they feel bad.
Thentheysay:"Oh God, now I feel even worse than before. This can't be good. I'll stop immediately." If they perhaps take intestinal cleansing medication andthen perhaps get flatulence or constipation or diarrhea, thenthe first reaction isusually:"I'll stop immediately. That can't be good for me." It could be that the system -for example the gut, the digestion-firsthas toregulateitself and thatyou first have togo throughthis"bad" phase in order to emerge stronger at the end. And that is a concept that I simply love.
In her podcast, Brooke used strength training as an example. With strength training, you train your muscles. You "break" your muscles, so to speak, so that they canthen build up stronger. Training is actually always a minor injury. The regeneration - i.e. therepair of these small injuries - orgetting stronger is then the training effect. And that is anti-fragility, i.e. muscles are anti-fragile.
Another exampleislearning to walk. We learn this as children. The child can't justwatchaYouTube video orread through a manual-"How do I walk? " -butstarts by crawling around. Then it will pull itself up, and then it tries to walk a few steps and falls down.Then it has to see how it can stand up again. In the beginning, its legs are still too weaktopull itselfupagain. But the more oftenitfalls down, the stronger it gets, the quickeritcanget up again and at some point it can walk.
That' s exactly how we learn. We fall down. If I'm fragile, Imightstay down or withdraw and say:"I'll never do that again."If I'm robust, I might say to myself:"Yes, well, I'll just try it again sometime." Or:"I can do it!", you say to yourself and force yourself to do it again if necessary. If you 're anti-fragile, you say to yourself:"Themore often I fall, the faster I'll learn to walk and the better I'll be at it later." So you take the negative things that have happened to you("I fell down") anduse them to help you develop. You use itto learn and grow from it and then do better.
And I think thatappliesso well to nutrition.It means notgiving up at the first setback, but instead data-contrast="auto"> say to :"Okay, I'll try again." Or:"I'll keep at it." -"I'm looking for what's right for me." I see this with my course participants too, because of course I canset rules. I can give pointers, and yet everyone is different. These things are not black andwhite. Nutrition is not an exact science. It is an experience.It's a way of getting toknowmy body better. That meansit's always an individual thing in the end.
I can't tell everyone what's good for them and what's not. I canexplain general rules and I can give instructions on how to find out what is good for you.You have tohavethe courage to try something out.People often ask me:"Is this or that good?"
I've just been asked again:"What about alcohol?" I can of course saythatalcohol is atoxic substance. Its presencein the metabolismnaturallyleadsto other metabolic processes being interrupted as long as this toxin is in circulation.Butthatdoesn't mean that alcohol isalways harmful to everyone.First of all, it depends on the dose, the frequency of use, but also on the individual reaction.For example, if someone hasa histamine problem, red wine could trigger a reaction. Not for someoneelse. You can't always knowthat.
That's why you have to try things out andsee: How doesmy individual body reacts,my individual metabolism.If you thenhave a setback and realize: "Oh, I couldn't tolerate that at all", you can't necessarilyconclude from this: "None of this works for me." Or decide: "I won't try anything new at all", or:"I'll just retreat into my shell and stop experimenting altogether." It doesn't work like that. A setback only shows that Ican learn something.
Sometimes it's also the case that alcohol or wheat or sugarmight not workrightnow.If I tryit again in a few weeks, then it will work. After all,we are complex beings. It also depends on howyou're feeling at the moment. Am I perhaps stressed? Then, for example, I can't take something that puts additional stress on my metabolism. But if I'm balanced, relaxed and happy, then it may be that something that would bother me in a stressful situation or thatwould be intolerable would work wellat the moment when I'm doing well.Inotherwords, it's important to stick with yourself, see how you react and notgive up immediatelyat every setbackand say:"None of this is working for me."
The way Iapplythis to nutrition also works in life. Here in the podcast and in my course, we always talk about life and howwe think. How do I perhaps let setbacks affect me? We humans always want to be as happy as possible. The so-called"bad" feelings, such as fear or sadness or perhaps even envy and resentment -all the things that we consider negative - we would prefer not to feel at all. Anti-fragilityhooks into this and feels these things and realizes that you don't die from them, but that you get to know yourself better and become stronger.So you have a training effect.Maybe you can take away from this episode that everything that happens in our lives that is so-called"negative" is actually a kind of barbell, like in strength training. They are"free weights" that help you to become stronger.
We are in this world to develop ourselves.If we were already happy and had everything we wanted, then life wouldn't even have not make so much sense, becausethere would be nothing left for us to strive for. And thatmeans that we don't see the negative things thathappen to usand where our bodyperhaps also showsus our limits as adversity, but as a training opportunity and as free weights that we can use to grow, learn and develop.
I just wanted to share this with you today. It's possible that negative reviews are coming in again. Irecentlyhada negative reviewfrom someone whothoughtthispodcast was too esoteric - I talked about affirmations. Butyou know what? That'sallpart of it. I'm not just talking about nutrition and gut health, because that just falls short on its own. My aim is for you to develop yourself further, to come into your own power, to live your life the way you want to, and that includes topics like these: How do I deal with feelings? How do I deal with thoughts?
These topics are part of it, which is why I willtalk about them from time to time.If you don't like that, then my podcast isn't the right one for you. There are so many nutrition andpurelyscience-based podcasts about gut and health. You're better offthere. But if you did likethis podcast, then of course I'm very happy to receive a positive review. I have a lot of positive reviews, and of course I'm always happyabout that.I appreciate any feedback and suggestions and, yes, I'm just happy that we're in contact.
I would also like to thank you once for listening so diligently. My higher download numbers are increasing every week, so I know that people are sticking with it, and I just want to thank you for that. I know that's not a given and I look forward to you joining me again next week for the next episode of the Darmglück podcast.
The links to the episode are:
Podcast episode by Brooke Castillo: https://thelifecoachschool.com/podcast/284/
Book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb:Antifragility: A Guide to a World We Don't Understand: https://amzn.to/36rlE6s
Now I recommend you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people to find the podcast so that we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
I recentlyheardthe term anti-fragility from Brooke Castillo on her podcast The Life Coach School.And it totally intrigued me. She refers to a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb called Anti-Fragility.
And I think the concept can be applied very well to the topic ofhealth anddietarychange.
In this episode, I talk about:
- What is meant by anti-fragility
- How so-called negative things can make us stronger
- Why you can compare negative situations to free weights
- The importance of not giving up too quickly when changing your diet
Hello and welcome to a new episodeof theDarmglückpodcast. Today I have a somewhat special topic for you. I want totalk about a conceptthat Ionlyrecently becameaware ofand that I find very fascinating.PerhapsI'll go intoit in more depthfrom time to time. TodayI'm just going togive youa brief overview.
It's the concept of"anti-fragility". I don't know if that means anything to you. There is a book about it,written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Ihaven't read the bookyet. If you are interested, you can listen to it in English. But Iknow that many of my listenersdon'tunderstand Englishvery well.Soinstead of just recommending this podcast, I thought I'dsay something about it andexplain why I find it so fascinating.
Anti-fragility
"Anti-fragility " - whatdoesthat mean? It's the opposite of fragility, and fragility means "fragility".I keep noticing that many people describe themselves as a bit sensitive, as fragile."I 'm just sensitive. I'm just like that."I hear this again and again, especially when it comes to nutrition and health.Sometimes bad thingshappen in your life, or youexperiencesador stressful situations. You experiencethings that somehow throw you off track.If you are fragile,you withdraw into your shell,neverwantingtoexperiencesomethinglike thatagain. Maybe you give up or say that you can't handle it.
The concept of anti-fragilityis about recognizing that such things are important for your development and for your progress, because you grow from them. Friedrich Nietzsche said:"Whatm
Anti-fragile health
The reason this fascinatesand excites me so much is that I thinkit'svery similarwith health.Wejust don't want any setbacks. Wejust don't want things to go badly for us. But you can also take the opportunity to perhaps realize that this is something that will take me further or that shows me:"Ah, that's not how it works. I could try something else." This attitude is incredibly important, because I notice time and again that peoplewant to stop a dietary changeimmediately, for example,the first time they feel bad.
Thentheysay:"Oh God, now I feel even worse than before. This can't be good. I'll stop immediately." If they perhaps take intestinal cleansing medication andthen perhaps get flatulence or constipation or diarrhea, thenthe first reaction isusually:"I'll stop immediately. That can't be good for me." It could be that the system -for example the gut, the digestion-firsthas toregulateitself and thatyou first have togo throughthis"bad" phase in order to emerge stronger at the end. And that is a concept that I simply love.
Growth comes solely from failures
In her podcast, Brooke used strength training as an example. With strength training, you train your muscles. You "break" your muscles, so to speak, so that they canthen build up stronger. Training is actually always a minor injury. The regeneration - i.e. therepair of these small injuries - orgetting stronger is then the training effect. And that is anti-fragility, i.e. muscles are anti-fragile.
Another exampleislearning to walk. We learn this as children. The child can't justwatchaYouTube video orread through a manual-"How do I walk? " -butstarts by crawling around. Then it will pull itself up, and then it tries to walk a few steps and falls down.Then it has to see how it can stand up again. In the beginning, its legs are still too weaktopull itselfupagain. But the more oftenitfalls down, the stronger it gets, the quickeritcanget up again and at some point it can walk.
That' s exactly how we learn. We fall down. If I'm fragile, Imightstay down or withdraw and say:"I'll never do that again."If I'm robust, I might say to myself:"Yes, well, I'll just try it again sometime." Or:"I can do it!", you say to yourself and force yourself to do it again if necessary. If you 're anti-fragile, you say to yourself:"Themore often I fall, the faster I'll learn to walk and the better I'll be at it later." So you take the negative things that have happened to you("I fell down") anduse them to help you develop. You use itto learn and grow from it and then do better.
Your path is unique
And I think thatappliesso well to nutrition.It means notgiving up at the first setback, but instead
I can't tell everyone what's good for them and what's not. I canexplain general rules and I can give instructions on how to find out what is good for you.You have tohavethe courage to try something out.People often ask me:"Is this or that good?"
I've just been asked again:"What about alcohol?" I can of course saythatalcohol is atoxic substance. Its presencein the metabolismnaturallyleadsto other metabolic processes being interrupted as long as this toxin is in circulation.Butthatdoesn't mean that alcohol isalways harmful to everyone.First of all, it depends on the dose, the frequency of use, but also on the individual reaction.For example, if someone hasa histamine problem, red wine could trigger a reaction. Not for someoneelse. You can't always knowthat.
That's why you have to try things out andsee: How doesmy individual body reacts,my individual metabolism.If you thenhave a setback and realize: "Oh, I couldn't tolerate that at all", you can't necessarilyconclude from this: "None of this works for me." Or decide: "I won't try anything new at all", or:"I'll just retreat into my shell and stop experimenting altogether." It doesn't work like that. A setback only shows that Ican learn something.
Sometimes it's also the case that alcohol or wheat or sugarmight not workrightnow.If I tryit again in a few weeks, then it will work. After all,we are complex beings. It also depends on howyou're feeling at the moment. Am I perhaps stressed? Then, for example, I can't take something that puts additional stress on my metabolism. But if I'm balanced, relaxed and happy, then it may be that something that would bother me in a stressful situation or thatwould be intolerable would work wellat the moment when I'm doing well.Inotherwords, it's important to stick with yourself, see how you react and notgive up immediatelyat every setbackand say:"None of this is working for me."
A new perspective on setbacks
The way Iapplythis to nutrition also works in life. Here in the podcast and in my course, we always talk about life and howwe think. How do I perhaps let setbacks affect me? We humans always want to be as happy as possible. The so-called"bad" feelings, such as fear or sadness or perhaps even envy and resentment -all the things that we consider negative - we would prefer not to feel at all. Anti-fragilityhooks into this and feels these things and realizes that you don't die from them, but that you get to know yourself better and become stronger.So you have a training effect.Maybe you can take away from this episode that everything that happens in our lives that is so-called"negative" is actually a kind of barbell, like in strength training. They are"free weights" that help you to become stronger.
We are in this world to develop ourselves.If we were already happy and had everything we wanted, then life wouldn't even have not make so much sense, becausethere would be nothing left for us to strive for. And thatmeans that we don't see the negative things thathappen to usand where our bodyperhaps also showsus our limits as adversity, but as a training opportunity and as free weights that we can use to grow, learn and develop.
I just wanted to share this with you today. It's possible that negative reviews are coming in again. Irecentlyhada negative reviewfrom someone whothoughtthispodcast was too esoteric - I talked about affirmations. Butyou know what? That'sallpart of it. I'm not just talking about nutrition and gut health, because that just falls short on its own. My aim is for you to develop yourself further, to come into your own power, to live your life the way you want to, and that includes topics like these: How do I deal with feelings? How do I deal with thoughts?
These topics are part of it, which is why I willtalk about them from time to time.If you don't like that, then my podcast isn't the right one for you. There are so many nutrition andpurelyscience-based podcasts about gut and health. You're better offthere. But if you did likethis podcast, then of course I'm very happy to receive a positive review. I have a lot of positive reviews, and of course I'm always happyabout that.I appreciate any feedback and suggestions and, yes, I'm just happy that we're in contact.
I would also like to thank you once for listening so diligently. My higher download numbers are increasing every week, so I know that people are sticking with it, and I just want to thank you for that. I know that's not a given and I look forward to you joining me again next week for the next episode of the Darmglück podcast.
The links to the episode are:
Podcast episode by Brooke Castillo: https://thelifecoachschool.com/podcast/284/
Book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb:Antifragility: A Guide to a World We Don't Understand: https://amzn.to/36rlE6s
Now I recommend you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, I really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people to find the podcast so that we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
