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The Buffer Method: A Simple Way to Fix "I Feel Off" · Doctor Turned Health Coach

• 0:21
  Today, we're going to talk about a method that I have.
• 0:25
  Well, I usually refer to it as the buffer method, and I'll explain why.
• 0:31
  I want to give you a classic patient example.
• 0:36
  So this is somebody who comes to me and says, look, I'm not really sick.
• 0:40
  Nothing major is going on, but I feel off. I don't feel right.
• 0:44
  I know I should be feeling better.
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  There's something going on, and I know I could improve it with a few minor adjustments.
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  I certainly don't want to be on all these medications, or I certainly don't
• 0:54
  want to get started on medications.
• 0:58
  And this is a very common problem that I see.
• 1:02
  People either are going to ignore the early signs that their body is giving
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  them, or they're going to panic.
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  If they ignore it, it's because they're saying, oh, I'll just address it later.
• 1:13
  Ah, it'll probably get better or I don't have time to address it.
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  And if they panic, it's often because they're saying that this is probably a cancer.
• 1:23
  This means I'm aging. This means that my entire lifestyle is off.
• 1:27
  I have to change everything.
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  The problem is both are going to lead to bad outcomes.
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  They're going to lead to poor outcomes if you ignore it or if you catastrophize it.
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  So really, what I've designed is a reframe of this entire process.
• 1:45
  We want to think of early signals, not as a crisis, but we want to think of
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  them more as a signal or a clue about things in our body that are not behaving
• 1:58
  appropriately or not optimized.
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  And I call these buffers. So think about it like the buffer of sleep,
• 2:06
  the buffer of nutrition.
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  There is a certain amount of leeway
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  that every one of these processes or concepts in
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  our body has so for example i can
• 2:16
  probably get six hours of sleep and i can get 10 hours of sleep i'll probably
• 2:20
  be okay but sometimes that buffer is running thin and i really am not getting
• 2:27
  enough sleep and if that sleep buffer is not there a lot of things are going
• 2:32
  to happen downstream that are going to be problematic.
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  The same is true for the stress buffer, the nutrition buffer,
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  the recovery buffer. So we'll get into that.
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  So step one, how do you, what do you do? What is my process?
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  My process is step one, I tell my client, notice the signal.
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  What exactly feels different to you? What is actually the problem?
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  What is it that's happening? And you have to write this down.
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  That's really the only way.
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  You write down, I can't focus. I know I should be able to focus on my complicated tasks.
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  I am not able to focus. That's it. One simple.
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  Signal that we're noticing. We're not going to create any story about this yet
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  because that's usually what happens. And that's step two.
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  What is the story that you're telling yourself? It's because I don't exercise
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  enough. It's because I don't have a good schedule. It's because I have too much on my plate.
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  It's because I don't get enough restful sleep or I don't eat the right foods.
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  But these assumptions are actually stressing you out.
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  And we have to get these assumptions down on paper.
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  So the step two of this process is I want you to write down every single fear,
• 3:47
  assumption, thought that comes into your head.
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  Maybe it's a visual thing. Maybe you're seeing something that is trying to explain away this signal.
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  That's step two. Step three, I want to ask which buffer might be thin. I just want you to guess.
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  I just want you to take, think about what you wrote down.
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  Think about that signal you're feeling in step one. And now ask yourself,
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  what is one of my buffers that is wearing thin?
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  Maybe I'm not paying enough attention to my nutrition and I'm just letting myself
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  eat whatever I want, whenever I want.
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  Maybe my calorie balance is not good. Maybe my nutrient balance is not good.
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  Or maybe I'm doing a lot of exercise, a lot of mental thinking,
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  but not giving myself adequate time for recovery.
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  So maybe my recovery buffer is getting too thin.
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  Maybe I'm taking on a lot of responsibilities. A lot of people are coming to
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  me for questions and advice.
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  And my stress buffer is wearing thin. I'm under constant stress,
• 4:51
  meaning my heart rate is up, but I'm not exercising.
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  That's essentially what stress is. and there is the
• 4:57
  sleep buffer which is complicated because
• 5:01
  sometimes you don't really know that sleep is an issue
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  but guess what i think if you go and tap into your subconscious mind you will
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  be able to answer which one of these is a problem and you don't have to know
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  the answer because in step four we're going to run a small experiment for just
• 5:18
  one week we're not going to undertake some major overhaul,
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  and we're not going to expect something from this experiment.
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  We're just going to do it, one small change, one tiny little change,
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  based on the buffer you identified, and you're going to consistently do that
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  every single day for a week.
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  And now we're going to let your body answer, that's step five,
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  we're going to let your body tell us what happened after this week.
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  Is it better, is it the same, or is it worse?
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  Now if it's better, we know that we're headed in the right direction,
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  We can use that information to make further adjustments.
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  And we can now check our story that we tell ourselves in step two and realize
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  maybe that's not really true. That story really is not true.
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  If things got worse, okay, that's good. Now we know that actually now I'm maybe
• 6:11
  creating more problems.
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  Maybe I'm wearing another buffer too thin.
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  And that's also good information. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong.
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  It's just more data that we can work with.
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  Now, what if nothing changes? You're exactly the same.
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  I usually push back on my clients when they tell me that nothing has changed
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  because if you are making a change in your lifestyle, in your routine,
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  in your habits, in your pattern, there is always some sort of a change.
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  So things shouldn't stay the same. And if that is the case, I like to then tap
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  into my clients' ability to sense what is going on in their body.
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  Are they really in tune with their body because maybe they lost that ability
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  to gauge whether they're eating well, whether they're adequately rested.
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  Sometimes it's all in our head.
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  It doesn't mean, of course, it's all in your head. It just means that sometimes
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  your head is creating another story that we need to check.
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  Otherwise, it'll be so difficult to get you the ideal health goals.
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  So, I think this is, of course, very different than other processes in healthcare
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  because healthcare has become very much about science and biomarkers and tests
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  and analyze this, and this is exactly what this means.
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  But this process is all about listening to the body's feedback as early as possible,
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  forgoing any diagnosis, avoiding the goal of wanting perfection.
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  No, this is just to listen to the body, make small adjustments.
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  It puts you in the driver's seat.
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  It stops you from catastrophizing, and it really is an empowering concept.
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  Now, healthy aging, to me, always begins when we immediately recognize and respond
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  to these tiny changes in our body.
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  Instead of of waiting for a big problem to arise.
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  So healthy aging happens when you catch these little things early and make these
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  small changes so that you don't have to deal with major medications and surgeries
• 8:11
  and problems and hospitalizations in the future. And that's my goal.
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  That's my goal with healthy aging to keep you guys in your 30s,
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  40s, and 50s healthy, to help you gain your energy back, gain your weight back,
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  well, gain your normal weight back,
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  get you back to the healthy weight, get your energy up, make you feel resilient and strong.
• 8:33
  So if you have any questions, of course, always feel free to email me.
• 8:38
  And this concept, this buffer method is one of the things that I use one-on-one in my health coaching.