How Your Terrain Shapes Both Metabolic Health and Mental Wellbeing
A few years ago, I was diagnosed with heart disease, and it forced me to confront the reality that I was not as healthy as I thought I was. That diagnosis led me to a deep understanding of functional medicine and metabolic health, where I discovered that the real issue wasn’t just my heart. It was my terrain, the full context of how I was living.
So, I changed my eating, sleeping, and movement patterns. Over time, I reversed type 2 diabetes, normalized my blood pressure, lost weight, and felt physically healthier than I had in decades. What surprised me most was how much better I felt mentally. My thinking sharpened. My mood steadied. I felt motivated to learn again.
That experience reshaped how I understand health and mental health. Just as the soil determines how well a plant may grow, a person’s terrain influences their cellular biology, metabolism, and, consequently, their mental health and resilience in the face of daily challenges.
When I use the word terrain, I’m talking about the whole context of a person’s life, both internal and external. I am talking about the physical, emotional, social, and psychological conditions that shape how their bodies and minds function.
Terrain includes:
Social relationships and the sense of connection or isolation
Living environment, including access to light and nature, safety, exposure to toxins, and daily stressors
Beliefs, narratives, and mindset
Food choices, nutritional quality, glycemic content
Habits and daily routines, especially sleep, movement, and rest
Past traumas, which can remain stored in the nervous system
The research is clear; your terrain deeply affects how your cellular biology functions. Stressful relationships increase inflammation. Chaotic sleep disrupts hormonal functioning. Trauma keeps the nervous system on high alert and drains energy. Self-deprecating thoughts can change a person’s blood sugar.
If your brain is not functioning the way you would like, it may be a good idea to look closely at your terrain. This approach moves away from seeing mental problems as isolated issues. Instead, we ask: What is happening in your terrain that might be pushing you out of balance, and how can we support the whole context, not just the symptoms?
When the terrain improves, through better routines, healthier food, meaningful connection, safer environments, and healing from trauma, metabolic health strengthens. And when metabolic health strengthens, most people experience clarity of thought, calmer emotions, more energy, and a greater sense of wellbeing. In this way, terrain becomes the foundation for mental and metabolic resilience, demonstrating that healing is much more than changing the brain’s chemistry or the way you think.
Healing happens not only by changing brain chemistry, but by nurturing the ecosystem in which your brain and body live.
If you want to feel better, start by tending your terrain.
