What if it was easy?

Why does even “good” health advice sometimes fall flat? In this episode, Samantha Holmgren explores the messy middle where great advice meets real life — chronic illness, fatigue, and all.
She also shares how arthritis changed her relationship with springtime and introduces a fresh question to make your health journey feel lighter: What if it was easier?
Listen in for a compassionate, no-pressure perspective on rebuilding habits, making sustainable changes, and giving yourself permission to do less — but do it better.

Free ebook! Bare Minimum Health Plan: https://samanthaholmgren.ca/plan

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Welcome back to the Bare Minimum Health Podcast!

We’re resetting the podcast with a brand-new series — and you helped choose it!

I offered my email newsletter two options:
The Spoonie Spring Reset or What If It Was Easy?
A whopping 83% voted for What If It Was Easy? — and honestly, I’m not surprised.

Sometimes — maybe most of the time — we overcomplicate things.
We're bombarded with shoulds and secrets, magical morning routines and life-changing hacks. We set high standards for ourselves. We want to do everything, and somewhere deep down, we expect that we should be able to:
✅ Have a fulfilling job
✅ Spend time with friends and family
✅ Enjoy hobbies
✅ Start a business
✅ Eat well, cook healthy meals
✅ Exercise, sleep well, journal, read, meditate... and do it all perfectly

The amount we expect of ourselves every day is completely ridiculous when you actually try to put it all on a calendar.
And that's before you layer on a chronic illness — unpredictable energy, pain, and brain fog.

Then, on top of the “do it all” pressure, there’s an avalanche of advice for "fixing" your chronic condition:
Drink smoothies, go vegan, meditate, take this supplement, try a green drink, eliminate stress, sleep more, go on a yoga retreat...

The frustrating thing?
Some of this advice is excellent. Some of it is... well, crap.
Some supplements genuinely help people. Others are harmful — to the wallet at the very least.
And even the stuff that works most of the time — like meditation, yoga, or eating more omega-3-rich fish — doesn’t work for everyone all the time.

There’s so much that’s annoying and exhausting about living in a body that doesn't always cooperate — and all this pressure and overwhelm just makes it worse.

For example, I'd love to be gleefully excited for spring like I used to be.
But the way my arthritis behaves? There's a big part of me that's cautious.
I'm always wondering: What kind of spring will it be?

Some years are worse than others, and I still don't fully understand why.
I think it's tied to how much — or how fast — the weather changes.
But… I can't control the weather.
Meteorologists can barely predict it, especially in the spring!

So, I just have to wait and see.
Wait and find out later whether I'll get to enjoy spring or not.
And it's frustrating.

Our lives are filled with situations like that — things we can't control, complications, uncertainty.
When we can control something, it's tempting to overcompensate and try to nail everything down perfectly... which is part of why we over-complicate things so much.

Instead, I want us to ask a different question:
What if it was easy?

Over the next six weeks, I’ll be exploring variations on this theme, offering small experiments you can try in your own life.
We’ll apply What if it was easy? to rest, movement, eating, and more.

This week, I invite you to start here:
Think about a change you've been trying (and maybe struggling) to make.
Now, imagine — What would it look like if it were easier?

🌟

One more thing — I'm inviting you to participate in this series!

I'm doing something a little different with the podcast:
Each week, I’ll send an email to my newsletter list with the core message before the podcast episode goes live.
That way, you can hit reply and share your thoughts — and your responses might even be featured in future episodes!

Like one reader who replied after the first email and said:
"I've been trying forever to create a morning and evening routine. After reading your email, I thought — exactly! What if it was easy? Why am I making it so complicated? I'm going to see what works best and just stick with that."

If you’d like to join in, make sure you're on the email list so you can participate.

Have a great week — and remember:
Seek ease to keep moving forward. 💛