It’s an interesting fact that this is the one day of the year that we critically evaluate the things we receive to see if they’re genuine or not (thanks to Lars Avemarie for the idea).
Why should we critically evaluate anything?
Well, we don’t want to be taken in by something or someone, do we?
What kind of things am I referring to? Nutrition is a major one.
You will see all sorts of things on t’interweb about diets, supplements, foods and food types, and there are many, MANY people out there who are trying very hard to relieve you of your hard earned cash by persuading you that this thing they’re plugging ‘works’.
Some will show you testimonies, studies and ‘science’ to play on your particular worries.
They are VERY good at it.
So we need to be able to critically evaluate what they are saying, and the ‘evidence’ they supply to support their claims.
Let’s use carbs as an example. You’ll see, very quickly if you look, that carbs are bad. Evil, in fact. And very persuasive arguments will be presented to you to make you accept that as fact.
The ‘science’ will be compelling.
And it’s nonsense. Carbs are NOT bad for you.
You need to be able to critically evaluate what is being presented to you.
Exercise is another one.
You’ll find, very quickly, that there’s a specific way to exercise, let’s call it exercise ‘A’, that is ‘guaranteed’ to do X.
More than exercise ’B’, even although they do exactly the same thing. And they might have a ‘product’ that makes it even more ‘guaranteed’ if you buy it.
The ‘science’ will be compelling.
And it’s nonsense. If you want to build bigger shoulders, then any exercise that involves the shoulder muscles will do that. No one, single exercise is better than any other.
You need to be able to critically evaluate what is being presented to you.
What about pain? A big one for me.
You will find, VERY quickly, an absolute plethora of people who ‘promise/guarantee’ that they can reduce or remove your lower back pain by doing ‘X’, which normally involves buying something from them, whether it’s an app, signing up to a course, a product-anything that they can use to pray on your worries.
The ‘science’ will be compelling.
There is NO one, simple ‘cure/fix/guarantee’ that will remove or reduce your lower back pain.
There are plenty of things that MAY help, like education, therapy (from a therapist who reads and applies the latest pain science), lifestyle changes (more and or better sleep, for example)- but NONE are guaranteed to work.
Pain doesn’t behave in a way that there’s a ‘one size fits all’ solution.
You DEFINITELY need to be able to critically evaluate what is being presented to you.
So here’s what I think critical evaluation means.
If someone promises that THEIR way is the only way, it is highly unlikely to be true.
If a product promises to be the ONLY thing that will work, it is highly unlikely that it will.
If a course suggests that this the ONLY SOLUTION for your pain, then it simply will not be.
Learn to be vigilant, to be questioning, to research, to pick apart what is being presented to you.
It’s not easy, because particularly with pain, we want it to go away. And we’ll try anything when it’s persistent and it compromises our lives.
Be on your guard.
Don’t be taken in.
Don’t be conned, especially because it’s something that is so important to you.
Critically evaluate.
Save yourself time, save yourself money, don’t allow someone else to cash in on your hopes and worries.
Image by <a href=”https://pixabay.com/users/satheeshsankaran-11196627/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=7031969″>Satheesh Sankaran</a> from <a href=”https://pixabay.com//?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=7031969″>Pixabay</a>
