The "Wellness" Industry Sells Us On Rigid Optimization. It Doesn't Work–But This Might. | Nidhi Bhanshali Pandya

This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Hello everybody, how are we doing? Today we're going to talk about the problem of self-optimization. We're also going to talk about some ancient alternatives to optimization, but let's stay with the problem for a second.

This issue of optimization is a symptom of a deep problem, I think, in the overall wellness world where we're sold sometimes this idea that we need to spend an enormous amount of time and energy and money fixing ourselves. Endlessly tweaking our workouts, tracking our sleep, counting our steps. It really preys on our insecurities, our fears, our pervasive sense of insufficiency. And I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to be healthier or better in any number of ways, but, and this is paradoxical, the first thing you need to do if you want to grow and change is to accept yourself as you are. Because you can only get so far if you're approaching personal development, spiritual growth, whatever you want to call it, from a place of self-hatred, if you're succumbing to what has sometimes been called the subtle aggression of self-improvement.

So like I said, today we're going to talk about an ancient alternative to self-optimization. Specifically, we're talking about something called Ayurveda. Ayurveda often gets reduced to overpriced supplements and spa treatments, but at its core, it is a deep and sophisticated system for health that has been refined over millennia. Some of the ideas in Ayurveda have been studied by modern science, others have not, so you can think of this episode as an exploration rather than strictly speaking medical advice. If something here sparks your interest,

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