Commusings: Knowledge Is Not Enough by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

Dear Commune Community,

Five years ago, when I hit my bio-psycho rock bottom, I was forced to take a deep personal inventory. As I filled out the intake form in my head, I came upon a horrifying realization. I was totally reliant on a panoply of externalities to feel a sense of completeness and contentment.

Of course, the happiness provided by a turkey club or a glass of cabernet or a successful IG post or a bout of Amazon Prime retail therapy was fleetin­g. Eventually, the excess of dopamine produced a resistance to itself. I was a hungry ghost – sucking the products of capitalism through a narrow straw trying to fill an ever-expanding belly of need.

This recognition propelled me on a quest of craving not to crave. This is obviously an anachronism. But I was seeking a life where I didn’t need anything outside of me to assuage my discontents or perceived deficiencies. 

For me, this pursuit began with fasting. When I got hungry outside my eating window, I was required to witness the nature of my hunger. Most of the time, the origin of my hunger was anchored in an emotional desire, not a biological need. I was “eating my feelings.” This awareness began to punctuate other aspects of my life. If I could stop mindlessly wandering to the pantry, could I not also blunt my dependence on IG and alcohol?

This week’s excerpt from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee’s new book, Make Change That Lasts, explores this very theme: how our reliance on external comforts often masks deeper, unresolved discomforts. Rangan’s concept of “Minimal Reliance” resonates deeply with me. It’s not about depriving ourselves—it’s about reclaiming our agency. The doctor urges us to look within, to develop what he calls “insight” instead of relying solely on “outsight.”

As you read the excerpt, I invite you to reflect on the invisible strings in your own life. What do you rely on to feel complete? And how might letting go of those reliances free you to thrive?

In love, include me,
Jeff

P.S. One of Rangan’s central themes in Make Change That Lasts is our dependence on creature comforts. It is this very idea that inspired me to write GOOD STRESS: The Health Benefits of Doing Hard Things. In an era of uber-convenience, we must self-impose “good” stress to realign the way we live with our biology.

If you pre-order now, you’ll unlock early access to the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 of the book — text and audio. And … receive $900 in Commune course bonuses featuring Schuyler Grant, Dr. Mark Hyman, and Dr. Casey Means, among others.

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Knowledge Is Not Enough
by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Excerpted from his new book Make Change That Lasts

As soon as I answered the call, I could tell my old friend Helen was in a bad way. Helen had been a GP for sixteen years and was one of the most resilient, positive people I knew. Despite the grueling demands made on her in her inner-city practice, I’d never once heard her complain. She was a brilliant doctor who cared deeply about people. I felt lucky to know her. But on the phone that morning, I was surprised to hear her voice break as she asked if she could discuss something with me, face to face. Something was definitely wrong.

When we met for coffee that weekend, Helen explained that she’d had a run-in with a patient that had left her deeply upset. This patient was pre-diabetic, and she was talking to him about modifying his diet. There weren’t many GPs who were more knowledgeable than Helen about the damage that too many ultra-processed and sugary foods can do to the body. She was a true expert in the field, always up to date with the latest peer-reviewed studies, many of which she would email me, alongside her own informed and fascinating commentary. She was carefully explaining to this patient how excess sugar can increase his levels of inflammation, when he said to her, ‘Why should I listen to you? You’re fatter than I am.’

I was shocked to hear this and felt terrible for Helen. But as Helen herself pointed out to me, her patient was right. ‘God, it was so humiliating,’ she told me. ‘I just didn’t know what to say.’ She shook her head and laughed sadly. ‘I’m lecturing him about the harmful effects of sugar, when I’ve got a bag of Cadbury’s giant buttons sitting right there in my desk drawer.’

Helen had been trying to control her chocolate habit for years. The reason she had become so well-versed in the science of unhealthy eating, she told me, was because she had been trying to educate herself into having a better diet. ‘It clearly hasn’t worked,’ she sighed. ‘I know everything there is to know, pretty much. I know sugar is harming my health and now, apparently, it’s harming my ability to help my patients. But I still can’t stop. There’s always some excuse I manage to come up with to treat myself, you know? I don’t know what to do.’

I immediately thought of some of my own patients, who seemed to already know everything I could tell them about health and yet, despite being desperate for change, somehow couldn’t turn their knowledge into action. I also thought about the listeners of my podcast, Feel Better, Live More, and the readers of my books. So many times I’d spoken to people who were enthusiastic and committed to learning about health and made absolutely sure they were up to date on the latest ideas and findings, but still struggled massively to achieve the change they were so desperate for. They might be eating too much sugar, like Helen, or ultra-processed foods, or drinking too much caffeine or alcohol. They might be struggling to manage their stress or sleeping poorly. They might be failing to move their body enough. I could think of so many people who knew perfectly well what they should be doing, and why they should be doing it, but were still unable to make the final brave leap to successful change. They had all found what Helen had also discovered: that – sometimes – knowledge is not enough.

How could I help these people? What was going on with them? What, exactly, was the short-circuit that needed fixing?

INSIGHT VERSUS OUTSIGHT

This book is the result of years of deep thinking about how to help anyone who finds themself in Helen’s position. It will teach you how to achieve the life you want, not by looking outside to the wider world for the latest facts, findings, and health trends, but by looking inside. Because inside is where so many of our problems begin.

Unhealthy habits are always seen as a cause of ill-health. Get rid of the habit, then you’ll improve your health. This sounds so easy, but we all know that it’s anything but. I believe it’s hard because we’ve got the concept of unhealthy habits all wrong. Instead of being a cause of problems that need to be somehow eradicated, I see unhealthy habits as a symptom of other upstream problems – problems that are, very often, completely invisible to us.

An individual’s overconsumption of sugar, for example, may be their way of dealing with a toxic work environment. Someone else’s excess alcohol consumption may be their way of dealing with unresolved issues in their intimate relationships. In order to get rid of the downstream symptom, we have to first identify its upstream cause. This means developing our powers of insight.

I think of it as being the difference between a thermostat and a thermometer. Helen was a brilliantly effective thermometer. She knew everything there was to know about the harm caused by the overconsumption of sugar. Just like a thermometer, she had the power of ‘outsight’ – the ability to look out into the world and read its information. She could use her excellent outsight to make a judgment on how well, or how badly, she was doing. But that’s all she could do. She didn’t have the power to actually change anything. For that, she’d have to become a thermostat. A thermostat has outsight but also insight – it has the knowledge and the power that enables it to change what it needs to change to achieve its ideal temperature.

MEET YOUR INVISIBLE RELIANCES

By learning the art and practice of looking inside ourselves, we can discover the hidden causes of our unwanted behaviors. Almost without exception, the stubborn habits that damage our health and well-being are an escape from inner discomfort. As we go through our days, we inevitably encounter many situations that have the potential to generate emotional stress and internal tension. This stress and tension has to be neutralized somehow. Most of us do it mindlessly, by relying on unhealthy yet soothing habits, whether it’s doomscrolling on our phones, drinking alcohol, or gorging on sugar, carbs, or highly processed foods. By becoming conscious of the situations that trigger these responses, we can respond to them intentionally and make changes that actually last.

I’d like you to start thinking about your emotional triggers as ‘reliances’. Without really being aware of it, we all have different things we rely on, in order to feel calm and happy. Why not take a moment to make a rough list of all the things, large and small, that you’re reliant upon to feel good? What’s on your list? Do you need your partner to have woken up in a good mood? Your children to have put their shoes away and to not be arguing? For your smartphone to be always at hand? For there to be no terrible news in the morning headlines? For there to be no opinions you don’t agree with on social media? For there to be no heavy traffic or bad drivers on your way to the school, office, or station? For there to be someone you admire leading the country? For there to be no racism, homophobia, or misogyny in the world? Do you need to be pleased with the reflection you see in the mirror? For there to be no new signs of increased weight or aging? Do you need your boss to be always kind, generous and complimentary towards you? Do you need queues in coffee shops and supermarkets never to be too long and for checkout staff to always be polite and efficient? Do you need the weather to be neither too hot nor too cold and for the wind to not be blowing too hard?

If you’re anything like me, you’ll find this simple thought experiment a little jarring. When I first did this exercise around five years ago or so, it felt like I could go on listing things forever. I realized that waking up to rain would often put my mood off and traffic on the way to work would leave me feeling frustrated – which, if you really think about it, is crazy. How could I expect to live my life to the fullest when I was being tied down by all these invisible needs and expectations, all of which were completely outside my control?

MINIMAL RELIANCE

Every individual reliance we have ties us to the ground and prevents us from thriving. When we’re over-reliant, we’re like the hero of the famous book Gulliver’s Travels, bound to the ground by an army of tiny Lilliputians who are intent on keeping us prisoner. Every invisible reliance is a separate point of risk. Yes, we’re able to feel somewhat good when some of them are met. On the rare occasions when most of them are met we can even feel extremely good. But the cost of all that reliance is vulnerability. We’re giving our power and agency away and putting our well-being in the hands of people and forces that we can’t control.

This is a huge problem, especially in an era in which many of us are already feeling out of control. Our lives are increasingly complex and demanding. It wasn’t that long ago that one parent could afford to look after their children full-time, while the other went to a job that was often ‘nine to five’. The working partner would be home by six and they’d be able to enjoy evenings and weekends together as a family, with the shops shut on Sundays. There are many reasons to see this kind of life as antiquated and contrary to modern values, and I understand them fully. My point is that this was a simpler, less stressful existence, one that was completely normal until relatively recently. Today’s family has to endure far more pressure if, as is usual, both parents work. And even if you don’t have children, there is still a cultural pressure to overwork, and balance in life feels hard to achieve. On top of this, we have smartphones and constant access to social media, which has surely played a huge part in the surge in mental health problems that we now see. Then there are the various crises we have lurched from over the last few years, one after the other – from the global financial crisis all the way up to the cost-of-living crisis, with the COVID pandemic happening in between. With all of this going on, it’s almost impossible for every single one of our reliances to be met; as a consequence, we feel our lives are out of control.

When we feel out of control, we feel stressed and anxious. When we feel stressed and anxious, we often seek short-term release from discomfort in the form of an unhealthy habit. This is why I believe it makes sense to radically reduce our reliance on a world that is – and always will be – almost entirely uncontrollable. If you follow the advice in these pages, you will achieve a state of freedom and inner power that I call ‘Minimal Reliance.’

Forbes called Dr. Rangan Chatterjee ‘the most influential medical doctor in the UK’. He has been practicing for over 23 years, is Professor of Health Communication and Education at Chester Medical School, and is known for his ability to simplify complex health information and inspire people to make positive changes in their lives.

Excerpted with permission from Dr. Rangan Chatterjee's Make Change That Lasts (BenBella Books; December 2024