I want to share my story with you about my brush with adrenal fatigue. I was diagnosed before I left Sydney to come to Bali, but I believe the adrenal fatigue was a long time in the making.
I am coping quite well considering, as my diet is supporting me a lot (plus lots of adaptogenic herbs and medicinal mushrooms), but I do get tired easily and need to go to bed early or on time (no more late nights!). I feel I don’t quite have the full power energy that I used to have doing a work out or just running around.
If I look back at my working career and how much its all about DOING and ACHIEVING, its become ingrained in how I do EVERYTHING. Even after leaving busy corporate life where this is not only a normal way of being, its expected, I found myself repeating the same patterns running my own business.
I over commit to projects and crazy deadlines, social engagements, say Yes to everything, and I fill my day up with so much doing there is not enough time for me. I am working from sun up to well past sun down.
But in the beginning starting a business was all new and exciting and I had loads of energy. It was completely ok for me to work 14 hours days and 7 days a week for the first two years.
Fast forward to 4 years later and the body is saying its not ok.
So in between hosting my retreats here in Bali I am trying to take extended time away from doing.
Its not easy.
Undoing all 20+ years of doing takes time. And a focused effort. Listening to my body and resting a bit more when it needs rest. Sleeping in or staying in bed if I wake up tired. And not feeling guilty for not doing so much.
Saying no to projects, and being ok with myself if I am not putting myself out there all the time and hosting and running workshops, retreats or events. Its very hard for me to do this as is my key driver for what I do, sharing, connecting and igniting the inspiration in people that is raw foods.
Healing from adrenal fatigue can be a slow journey as it certainly took a long time to get here but I am ok with that. Every day is a new day and as I go through this journey, I am finding meditation more and more rewarding, its like its softening me, helping me change my outlook of always constantly pushing and doing to being more in flow and accepting of being ok with whats happening right now, even if its not much.
A modern day illness
On a bigger picture note, adrenal fatigue is a chronic, modern day illness, caused by primarily I feel by stress, as once stress is in the body, it disrupts our hormones, appetite, sleep and our dietary choices.
How many of you experience stress on a daily basis? How does stress play out in your life? If you can’t unwind from a day at work, are hormonal, grumpy or suffer from insomnia, perhaps turn to alcohol or other substances to numb out, stress is most likely ruling your life in some way.
On a bigger picture observation, when I look at how the corporate world runs, we are fed into the corporate masculine machine that makes you feel like you must work hard, achieve more, do more, make more money, be independent. Its all about how valuable you are as a product – what sales targets you hit, how much you contributed to the corporate’s bottom line. How many KPI’s you met.
What about if the corporate machine really valued us as people with limitations and need for balance, rest and time out on occasion? The current paradigm is so far removed from what we need and want to be in harmony with our bodies. We are feminine, we need to nurture, we need to rest, we need balance. We need to be in an environment where its ok to have your needs met, and being recognised and valued as a human being.
I am not asking you to kick the corporate career bucket and go live in a tree but we do need to find more balance, there are too many of us caught up in all this DOING that seems to be the normal, yet its making us sick.
And this includes what happens after work finishes, social engagements, family commitments, relationships, financial worries, this all contributes to the stress we are dealing with on a daily basis.
What’s working for me:
Meditation, yoga (but more gentle styles too – most of my yoga was very yang = doing) walks not runs, epsom salt baths, supplements. Saying NO. Getting 8 hours sleep. Lots of juices and smoothies – easy on digestion, which gets compromised during stress, and just generally slowing down.
Supplements I’m using to support my adrenal fatigue:
Vitamin C
B Vitamins
Magnesium
Omega 3
He Shou Wu
Reishi Mushroom
Ashwagandah
For more information on adrenal fatigue check out this page:
http://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/causes-of-adrenal-fatigue/
If you can do more of just one thing to support your rest, and your needs what would it be?
Love to hear from you, please feel free to leave your comments below…
Much raw love x
