ChrisPickard

ChrisPickard An ever increasing amount of the population are stressed, in pain, overweight, or all three.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Join us to discover Advanced Personal Development Strategies to Detox, DeStress, Unleash Energy & Perform at a high level in work & life - go here > https://www.facebook.com/groups/thehealthlab7/ At Body In Balance we restore and rejuvenate you, so you can be the YOU, you want to be

Most people over 50 accept the mid-afternoon energy crash as inevitable.Even those much younger think it’s normal.It isn...
02/06/2026

Most people over 50 accept the mid-afternoon energy crash as inevitable.

Even those much younger think it’s normal.

It isn't.

Here's something I see repeatedly in clinical practice:

People running on the wrong fuel — not enough protein, not enough plant variety, blood sugar swinging up and down — and wondering why their energy runs out by 3pm.

The crash isn't a mystery. It's a signal.

Your energy levels are downstream of what your body has to work with. When you give it more of the right raw materials — adequate protein, diverse plant foods, stable blood sugar, consistent movement — something shifts.

The crash becomes less predictable. Then less frequent. Then it stops being the default.

This is one of the foundations of The Eight Week Wellness Plan.

Not a stimulant. Not a hack. Eight weeks of giving your body more of the right inputs — consistently — and letting the biology do what it's designed to do.

✅ More stable daily energy
✅ Meals structured around blood-sugar stability
✅ Movement that builds capacity, not exhaustion
✅ Practical hydration and mineral support

You are not broken. You may be under-resourced.

Link in the comments 👇

Some great exercises to add in at some point in your day to help lower blood pressure (and stay strong)
29/05/2026

Some great exercises to add in at some point in your day to help lower blood pressure (and stay strong)

Quick question for my followers over 50 👇Have you ever left a GP appointment feeling like you were told what was wrong —...
28/05/2026

Quick question for my followers over 50 👇

Have you ever left a GP appointment feeling like you were told what was wrong — but not what to do about it?

😴 Sleep not restoring the way it should
⚡ Energy running out by mid-afternoon
📈 Blood pressure or blood sugar heading in the wrong direction

And the answer was either "let's monitor it" or "here's a prescription."

Because I hear this constantly.

After 30 years working in healthcare I built The Eight Week Wellness Plan specifically for this — a structured, practical eight-week programme that actually gives you a road map.

✅ Food
✅ Movement
✅ Sleep
✅ Nervous system recovery
✅ Supplements

All in one place. Plus a custom AI recipe builder so you always know what to cook.

💷 Available this week at a discount.

Comment YES below if this sounds like something you or someone you know needs — I'll drop the link for you 👇

We spend much of our lives chasing the wrong kind of magic.The magic of finally feeling ready.Finally being free of unce...
28/05/2026

We spend much of our lives chasing the wrong kind of magic.

The magic of finally feeling ready.
Finally being free of uncertainty.
Finally reaching the point where effort is no longer required.

Phil Stutz calls this false magic.

The fantasy that when life becomes easier, safer and more predictable, then we will be able to live fully.

But after 30 years in clinical practice, I have seen the cost of that belief.

People waiting to feel motivated before looking after their body.

Waiting to feel confident before having the conversation.

Waiting for certainty before beginning the work that matters.

Waiting for the fear to disappear before taking responsibility for their life.

But life does not work that way.

In True and False Magic, Stutz identifies three unavoidable realities:
Pain. Uncertainty. Constant work.

Not as punishments.
Not as evidence that something has gone wrong.
But as the terrain through which we grow.

Pain asks us to expand beyond the safety zone.

Uncertainty asks us to act without complete guarantees.

Constant work asks us to return, again and again, to the practices that keep us connected to life.

This is where his message connects deeply with my own work.

Because it is very difficult to meet pain courageously, tolerate uncertainty wisely, or return consistently to meaningful work when the body beneath you is exhausted, inflamed, sleep-deprived or trapped in threat.

That is why I believe the sequence matters:
Biology → Behaviour → Psychological & Spiritual Depth

Support the system first.

Then use that capacity to face what you have been avoiding.

Then, through repeated action, access something deeper: courage, creativity, connection, meaning and contribution.

True magic is not a life without struggle.

It is becoming the kind of person who can meet life as it is — and still create something good from it.

And perhaps that matters far beyond personal development.

Because people who can tolerate discomfort without blame, uncertainty without hostility and effort without resentment are not only healthier people.

They are more peaceful people.

Peace does not begin only in politics.
It begins in human capacity.

It's hot outside, but it's still Mental Health Awareness Month, and I'd like to cool down your mind:Most self-help start...
25/05/2026

It's hot outside, but it's still Mental Health Awareness Month, and I'd like to cool down your mind:

Most self-help starts with a question: why am I like this?

It's a good question. But over the past 30 years I've watched too many people understand their patterns perfectly — and still not move.

They know exactly why they avoid the difficult conversation. They've named their childhood wounds. They can explain the cost of carrying resentment. And they still avoid, still hide, still lie awake rehearsing the argument from three years ago.

Insight is not the same as movement.

That's why Phil Stutz and Barry Michels' book The Tools is one of my favourites.

I regularly re-listen to the audio version, as well has having many notes.

It doesn't ask you to wait until you feel confident, calm, or forgiving before you act. It hands you something to do in the exact moment you're blocked.

Five practices, five very human traps:

When you're avoiding something that matters — a tool for moving towards the discomfort rather than away from it.

When you're trapped replaying what someone did to you — a tool for releasing the grievance without abandoning the truth or the boundary.

When you're terrified someone will see the uncertain, imperfect version of you — a tool for drawing strength from that part instead of hiding it.

When your mind has narrowed to threat, failure and what's missing — a tool for opening it back up.

And when you've drifted, gone quiet, convinced yourself the work is over — a tool for remembering what's actually at stake.

Here's what I'd add as a clinician, and what the book doesn't claim to cover: none of this lands well on a depleted system. A sleep-starved, inflamed, metabolically exhausted nervous system isn't waiting to "try harder" psychologically. It needs the biology underneath it supported first.

That's the sequence I keep coming back to.

Health creates capacity. The tools turn that capacity into courageous action. And courageous, self-responsible people are the quiet foundation of a more peaceful world.

Inner peace was never private. The state you carry into a room becomes part of the room.

What's the tool you keep forgetting to pick back up?

Be Well,
Chris
p.s. see fist link in comments for a free audio summary.

😤 Have you noticed how irritable everyone seems lately?The short fuses. The brain fog. The decisions people make that th...
21/05/2026

😤 Have you noticed how irritable everyone seems lately?

The short fuses. The brain fog. The decisions people make that they would not have made five years ago. The conversations that should be easy turning into arguments.

We tend to put it down to stress. Or being too busy. Or "just getting older".

But after 30 years working with people in my clinic, I want to share something I see almost daily that hardly anyone is talking about with regards to optimal mental health.

🔥 Chronic, low-grade inflammation.

Now I know "inflammation" sounds like one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around. So let me explain what I actually mean.

When most people hear inflammation, they think of a swollen ankle or a sore throat. Acute. Visible. Obvious.

But there is another kind. The slow, quiet kind. The kind that builds up over years from ultra-processed food, poor sleep, too much sitting, unresolved stress, too much alcohol, blood sugar swings, and a gut that is not quite right.

This kind of inflammation does not hurt.

It just slowly changes how you think and feel.

It feels like slower thinking. Shorter fuses. Decisions you regret. The feeling of "I am not quite myself today" that becomes "I am not quite myself most days".

🧠 Here is the part that surprises people.

The front part of your brain – the bit that handles patience, perspective, good judgement and seeing the bigger picture – is particularly sensitive to this kind of inflammation. When it is running hot, that part of the brain literally works less well. And the older, more reactive parts of the brain start running the show.

So the person who used to be patient becomes snappy. The parent who used to listen properly starts interrupting. The partner who used to be thoughtful starts firing off responses they regret an hour later.

It is not always a character problem.

Sometimes it is a biology problem.

✅ And the good news is – this is one of the most responsive systems in the body. Change the right inputs and within a few weeks, the inflammation comes down. The fog lifts. The patience returns. The version of you that you remember being starts to come back.

🥗 Real food.
😴 Better sleep.
🚶 Daily movement.
🍷 Less alcohol.
🌱 Sorting out the gut.
📉 Stable blood sugar.
💊 Enough magnesium, B vitamins and omega-3s.

Boring on paper.

Life-changing in real life.

💛 If you have been wondering why you (or someone you love) just does not seem to be themselves lately – it might not be them.

It might be the inflammation nobody is measuring.

Be Well,

Chris
p.s. if any of this rings a bell and you would like to know more about what to do about it, drop me a message or a comment below 👇

The most practical mental health skill: notice before you obey.Day 2 of Mental Health Awareness Week.One of the most pow...
12/05/2026

The most practical mental health skill: notice before you obey.

Day 2 of Mental Health Awareness Week.

One of the most powerful mental health skills is not positive thinking.

It is learning to notice a thought before you obey it.

This idea comes from Dr Dan Siegel, the man who mapped the 9 functions of the prefrontal cortex and developed the concept of 'mindsight' – the ability to see your own mind at work.

Here is the key shift.

You are not your thoughts. You are not your feelings, cravings, fears or stories.

You can notice them.

And once you notice something, you have a little more freedom around it. That gap between noticing and reacting is where mental health lives.

Try this simple check-in next time you feel hijacked. Siegel calls it SIFT:
• Sensation – What do I feel in my body?
• Image – What picture or memory is showing up?
• Feeling – What emotion is present?
• Thought – What sentence is my mind repeating?

Then ask one question:
"Is this present-moment truth, or is my nervous system replaying an old pattern?"

That single question can stop a bad afternoon in its tracks. It can stop you firing off the email you would regret. It can stop the spiral before it gathers speed.

Yesterday I wrote about Marcus Aurelius preparing his mind BEFORE the day began. SIFT is what you do once the day is already in motion and something has landed on you.

Mental health does not begin when the difficult feeling disappears.

It begins when you can notice the difficult feeling without being completely owned by it.

Tomorrow – another action you can use straight away.

Be Well,

Chris

"Each person has the potential for love. But potential is never realized without work. This does not mean pain. Love is ...
09/05/2026

"Each person has the potential for love. But potential is never realized without work. This does not mean pain. Love is learned best in wonder, in joy, in peace, in living."

It's from Leo Buscaglia's book, Love, What Life is All About. I read it in an email from Brian Johnson yesterday morning, sharing the Philosopher's Note he made on it. So I downloaded the audio and listened.

Personally, I'm on a mission to create more 'wonderful, warm, human beings' as a mentor of mine once said.

To do that, we need to see love as a human development practice. Not a Hollywood fantasy.

Here's some simple Buscaglia inspired actions:

1. See someone. Look properly. Not as a role.
2. Hear someone. Listen without fixing or preparing your reply.
3. Say one true encouraging thing. Recognition, not flattery.
4. Drop one label. Replace judgement with curiosity.
5. Share something. Time, warmth, humour, forgiveness.
6. Express affection. Say it, show it, soften.
7. Let someone be free. Don't make love a cage.
8. Act before you feel ready. Love grows through doing. [Love isn't something you feel first and then do. You do it, and the feeling follows]
9. Ask for what you need. Don't expect mind-reading.
10. End the day asking: "What did I learn about love today?"

07/05/2026

Symprove. A number of my patients thought it was excellent.


One of the most powerful men in the world stopped to notice how pleasing it was that bread crust split when baking. Not ...
04/05/2026

One of the most powerful men in the world stopped to notice how pleasing it was that bread crust split when baking.

Not conquest. Not status. Not achievement.

Bread.

Marcus Aurelius wrote about the simple beauty of a loaf splitting open in the oven. And that, to me, is what gratitude actually looks like.

Not forced positivity. Not pretending life is easy.

Just the ability to pause, see clearly, and let something small but real land in the chest.

This month is Mental Health Awareness Month. The numbers are sobering:

• 1 in 5 adults in England has a common mental health problem
• 23.4% of US adults experienced mental illness in 2024

Gratitude isn't just a nice feeling. It's one of the fastest ways to shift your nervous system out of threat mode.

We need better systems. But we also need simple practices people can use today.

Psychiatrist Phil Stutz calls one of them the Grateful Flow. You close your eyes, take a breath, and name three specific things you're grateful for. Not vague things. Specific ones.

The warmth of the sun. A working kettle. Someone who smiled at you.

You feel it in the chest. You let it stay.

And in that moment, you've changed state.

Gratitude isn't spiritual bypassing. It doesn't silence pain. It brings a little light into it.

Try it once today. Sixty seconds. One breath. Three specific things.

Because the first step back to mental strength isn't always a breakthrough.

Sometimes it's just noticing the bread.

If you want the full practice, see the link in the first comment.

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