Why “This Worked for Me” is Detrimental in Health and Yoga

“This worked for me” is often shared with good intentions. Really good intentions.  We find something that healed our back pain and want to share it.  We found a certain way of eating helped our digestive issues and want to share it. 

But personal experience isn't always transferable to another person.

In health, it sounds like:

• “This supplement fixed my sleep.”
  
  
• “This diet healed my gut.”
  
  
• “This protocol changed everything.”
  
  

In yoga, it shows up as:

• “This pose fixed my back.”
  
  
• “This breath will relax you.”
  
  
• “This is how my teacher taught me to do it.”
  
  

The problem isn’t experience.

The problem is universalizing it.

What worked for one person reflects:

• their nervous system
  
  
• their stress load
  
  
• their capacity
  
  
• their history
  
  
• their timing
  
  
• their mindset 

When someone else applies it without that context and it fails, they assume something is wrong with them.  

That’s how confusion, shame, and over-efforting can creep in. Responsible health work and responsible teaching require moving beyond personal experience and even what's trendy and flashy in social media. 

You would be surprised by the number of people who have told me that they go to yoga class to have the teacher tell them that box breathing will relax them only to find that box breathing makes them feel more anxiety or stress.  Box breathing is a tool.  It might calm people, it also might not.  The power in that practice is not in the practice, but in the student deciding if it's the right tool for them at the time.  

An example in nutrition is that everyone should stay away from white flour because it's bad.  If someone has ulcerative colitis and is in a flare, it's a different game.  If your colon is inflamed and hypersensitive the goal is to reduce fermentation in the gut, it's to maintain calories, to reduce irritation and guess what does that well... low fiber, low residue, easy to digest foods like white rice, white bread, sourdough, peeled potatoes.

Nuance isn't easy-taking control of your health can be complex.  Teaching yoga can be complex.  All of that is ok, but helping people realize how important it is to customize their practice, their training, their nutrition, their recovery strategies to meet them where they are at is one of the most effective tools we can provide.