Health advice often focuses on what one should do or not do, eat or not eat, and can often contain confusing contradictions. Sometimes the science supporting a certain practice is clear, but to actually carry out the recommendations is too difficult for the average person.
“We are at the forefront of this health and wellness movement, but we can’t even do these protocols that have a lot of rigidity, and it’s not just because of our life-stage as parents and entrepreneurs. It’s a lot, and it can be overwhelming,” Colleen said.
“The Joy of Well-Being” was two years in the making, and the advice included had to meet three key criteria: be backed by science, be accessible, and offer the possibility of joy.
In the Wachobs’ view, joy is not just a happy byproduct of one’s wellness journey; instead, it should be a starting point and accompany you throughout the journey. In fact, the first chapter includes this takeaway: “If you only remember one sentence from this book, let it be this one: Any healthy change you make has to be a joyful one.”
“So much of [health and wellness] is about adding and restriction and scarcity. We believe in abundance,” Jason said. Rather than take things away, it is about what you can add, revise, or integrate, he suggested. That includes in discussions about longevity. People are now focusing less on “lifespan,” the number of years you live, than on “healthspan,” the number of healthy years you live.
Jason added that it’s worth looking at “joyspan” as well. “What’s the point of living that long and being healthy, fit, and mobile, if you’re not having fun?” he said.
80 Percent Health
The Wachobs offer eight main pieces of advice that can take you to about “80 percent of maximum well-being.” Why 80? By any measure, Americans are not healthy. We suffer from stress, live sedentary lifestyles, and have one of the least healthy diets in the world. At 80 percent, you wake up energized and feel good about the day, joyful even. That’s a major improvement.Breath, sleep, food, movement, stress, regeneration, connection, and purpose each get a chapter in the book with the science and statistics needed to support simple, actionable takeaways that can take you to 80 percent health. There are also tips for optimizing for that last 20 percent if you so wish.
“The beauty of having been in this business for 14 years and being obsessed with health is that though the science has evolved, so much of the science points to the practices and modalities that require very little time and are low cost or zero cost,” Jason said. The book focuses on the biggest “needle-movers” in health, tips that give you the greatest yield.
“And they tend to be time-tested and a lot more simple than the things that get a lot of airtime on TikTok,” Colleen added.
For instance, the chapter on breath reveals that a startling 50 to 80 percent of adults have dysfunctional breathing patterns, which in turn can ruin sleep, throw off psychological stress state, change blood chemistry, and create a whole host of other factors that impair health.
The solution? Breathe through your nose. Do so consciously for a few minutes per day and you train yourself to do so automatically, even in your sleep. Then you can enjoy the improved immunity, cardiovascular health, stress management, and other benefits that come with optimal breathing.
The rest of the chapters are similarly practical, scientific, and potentially joy-inducing.
Start With Joy
When the Wachobs started writing the book, a statistic that stood out to them was that half of Americans reported not having meaningful daily interactions. That was bad enough, but this was a 2019 poll and the numbers had likely worsened during and after the pandemic.Recently, the surgeon general reported that three hours of social media a day doubled incidence of depression. Amid of a widely recognized mental health crisis, the Wachobs have also seen some positive signs. With the growing awareness, more people are taking charge of their health.
“I think we’re at the beginning of what’s going to be an exciting tidal wave of reawakening our relationship to all of these topics, but most importantly redefining and reclaiming how we want to live,” Colleen said.
“We have a series of questions that people can ask themselves [in the book], and one of the ones I think is so important is: What is it that brings you joy? And there’s a lot of times in life when we’re unable to answer that question, but I think getting closer to the things that make your heart sing, that make you realize the uniqueness of the human spirit, that bring us joy, are going to get us closer to the answers.
“When you do things that bring you joy, you’re more likely to find more community, more people who have shared connections and shared values.”
- What about your life feels sweet and fulfilling?
- What about your life feels rushed and chaotic?
- How does your body feel?
- Are there any health issues that you are working with?
- What could be better: energy levels, sleep?
- How about that big brain of yours? Are you challenged and engaged? Or are you on intellectual autopilot?
- Would you say your days are filled with purpose? How does that manifest for you?
The Wachobs’ book isn’t meant to be a checklist. One needn’t try to complete every one of the tips. Instead, the reader should pick the ones that bring them joy and fit into their lifestyle and make them their own.
“Make wellness work for you; don’t work for wellness,” Jason said.
“We all deserve to be healthy and happy, and you can do it. It doesn’t have to be time consuming or a pain in the butt. It doesn’t have to be expensive. There are so many great things you can do for your health. Pick the ones that bring you joy.”
