6 Reasons Biohacking Your Health Can Backfire If You’re Retraining Your Brain

If you’re wondering how optimizing and biohacking your health can backfire while retraining your brain, you’re in the right spot! To begin with, I just want you to understand that we aren’t saying that you shouldn’t take care of your health. We are looking at things through a brain retraining perspective, and at times people take it too far with their health, it becomes an obsession and it can backfire. So, let’s get right into it.

1. It Causes People to Live Based On How They Feel

If you’re wondering how optimizing and biohacking your health can backfire while retraining your brain, you’re in the right spot! To begin with, I just want you to understand that we aren’t saying that you shouldn’t take care of your health. We are looking at things through a brain retraining perspective, and at times people take it too far with their health, it becomes an obsession and it can backfire. So, let’s get right into it.

When biohacking your health, it can take over your mind as you may constantly monitor your symptoms or energy levels from one day to the next or even one moment to the next. You might start tracking how you feel with certain foods or environments to the point where you’re super restricted. If you’re doing this, and you’re anything like me then you’re restricted to eating just a handful of foods. This can cause more harm than good because of the malnourishment it causes, as well as the negative thinking patterns that feed the chronic stress response such as…

• “I’m starving.”

• “I just want to be able to eat more foods.”

• “Will I ever be able to eat again?”

As I talk about all the time, brain retraining is all about doing things that create positive thoughts and emotions because this heals the brain as neurotransmitters are secreted such as dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin. Also, if people monitor how they feel with certain environments and they start avoiding the ones that make them feel worse, this can also backfire from a brain retraining perspective as you become isolated which is not good for mental health! I get that you may have to do these things temporarily because of debilitating symptoms, but you don’t want to have to do this long-term.

People who obsess over biohacking their health may not only compare their energy levels one day to the next but their energy to others. With consistent brain training, I had to train my brain to not live my life based on how I feel anymore. I started having more of a spiritual perspective and started seeing things through a spiritual lens. In brain retraining, it’s crucial to work on the mind and spirit, and eventually, the physical symptoms go away as the chronic stress response calms through the mind-body connection.

I had to pretend like the physical realm just wasn’t even there and I didn’t pay attention to it as much anymore. This is easier said than done when you have physical symptoms screaming at you. But it gets easier and easier as you train your brain not to focus on your physical symptoms. I had to fully trust God with that and it helped my mindset so much. Besides, our physical health does not come to heaven with us! Why not focus on what we have responsibility for and can change? Our thoughts, heart, and mind, and growing spiritually.

2. Having Too High of Expectations of Health and Feeling Good

If you are trying to feel better and are biohacking your health, you may monitor your symptoms and how you feel constantly as I mentioned. So you may remember one day where you felt excellent or optimal. Maybe it was last week, maybe it was even a couple of years ago prior to being sick. Then you have this high expectation of feeling “that good” again and you start believing that’s how you SHOULD feel. This can get you in trouble because when you wake up each morning and you don’t meet that high expectation of feeling as good as you did that one day a week ago, or how you did a few years ago, you all of the sudden start spiraling into negative thinking patterns as you’re disappointed.

As I mentioned earlier, some people even compare their energy to others. When you’re not as energetic or healthy as others around you or who you’re watching online you also get down. This is not healing for brain retraining because we know that anything that makes us spiral into negative thinking patterns and emotions is not helpful!

It’s tough because when you have sensitivities, you have all of these fear-based thoughts around food. You may even feel guilty for eating processed foods. God doesn’t want us to have guilt either, unless of course, we’re turning it into a sin such as gluttony or idolatry. 

The thing is, the Bible also says that our body is a temple and we should take care of it. As I mentioned, I believe we just have to be careful to not turn food into an idol. In other words, putting food above God and making it your main happiness. To be honest, I’m guilty of that a little. When I first started brain retraining, I went a little overboard on food because I was deprived for so long.

3. It Puts Too Much Hope in Supplements and Diets Instead of Changing at a Heart Level for Christ

In my opinion, the foundation of getting better from chronic symptoms or limbic system impairment is Jesus Christ. If you’re searching for the magic supplement protocol or specific diet that is going to give you the energy that you’re looking for, you may be misled a bit. Biohacking your health will not change your heart. Don’t get me wrong, a good healthy diet and supplements have their time and place and they can certainly help. However, what I did for about 4 years was put my total hope in those things. I tried over 1,000 supplements and I am knowledgeable about every diet out there but I was VERY let down. I didn’t do much for my mind or relationship with God and this was the missing piece.

4. It Makes People Focus on the Causes of Symptoms

This became an obsession for me. At one point, my husband said, “What did we ever talk about before you got sick!?” All I did was talk about illnesses and symptoms all day long. I constantly researched them and it completely consumed my life. Thank God, I am completely free of this now! Every time I got a symptom I’d wonder what caused it. I wondered if it was a certain food, chemical, supplement, or something else. It was an endless cycle of searching, and asking why, which led to so much fear and not trusting God. We know that fear just feeds the chronic stress response and it’s also going to feed those fear-based thinking patterns that make physical symptoms worse. Breaking this endless, miserable cycle made a huge difference for me!

5. It Can Make People Identify With All the Things That Are Wrong With Them

If you get labs back and you have parasites, SIBO, Lyme, mold toxicity, vitamin deficiency, etc. Initially, it’s a relief because something is actually wrong. But the problem is that it can make you focus on the negatives and everything that is wrong with you. You begin to identify as someone who has mold illness or Lyme or whatever else. That is pretty harmful if you’re retraining your brain.

How can you see yourself as healthy if you’re ruminating on all the things wrong with you? In our brain retraining program called Limbic System Rewire, it’s crucial to see yourself healthy and start thinking like a healthy person. This does not contribute to that at all. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t run these labs, it’s more about what you do in your mind with that information.

Remember, our limbic system is like a toddler listening to everything we think and say and this toddler believes it all! So if we just keep telling ourselves we are still sick and have all these things wrong with us, well that toddler (our brain) believes it.

6. Health Can Turn Into An Idol

Biohacking your health can make you turn your health into an idol. I know it did for one point for me. I’m not saying this is the case for you, but it CAN happen. Anything we put before God is an idol because He should be first in our life. For me, if I didn’t feel good then I just wasn’t happy or content. I was always thinking… “if I could just feel good then I would be happy.” But by the time I get over my symptoms, there could be another trial here. We live in a fallen world and there’s always going to be problems until we get to heaven.

What’s more important is what we do with our heart and mind because the truth is we don’t get to bring our health to heaven with us. It’s not eternal. This doesn’t mean not to take care of it because God DOES say that our body is a temple and we are to take care of it, but the obsession and making it our only happiness is where we get into trouble. I knew it was an idol for me when I would search illness and natural health for 5 hours a day, yet I didn’t even have a half hour for God every day. And I wasn’t doing much to grow His kingdom.

I encourage you to examine your heart and mind. Where do you spend your time? Are you growing spiritually and seeking Him daily, trusting Him with your trial? Or are you trying to figure it all out in your own strength like I was? I know for me, this lead to so much fear, pain, and frustration. I was putting my hope in the wrong place. No matter what is going on, we are to rejoice and be content in Jesus Christ in our heart.

Did you know that you can be content, even if you have symptoms or another negative circumstance? This only comes through getting to know the word of God and spending time with Him.

This article may have changed your perspective on health and healing a little. These were things I had to get away from when retraining my brain and it made all the difference so I hope it helps you! If you want to discover the natural 3 step system that can provide relief from food and environmental sensitivities without labs, supplements, or restricted diets, watch our free 60-minute masterclass. Also, join our free facebook group, Brain Rewiring for Health and Happiness if you’d like free tips every day. God speed and God bless!