Will You Allow Fear To Run Your Life?

Perhaps you snapped at someone? During this process, you’ll discover what was missing previously and what caused you to fall victim to stress. First, you need to get into a mindset that allows for burnout recovery. As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Felt nauseated or bloated? Or had brain fog or headaches day after day? This leaves you unable to be the best version of yourself. But choosing to take care of yourself can be harder than it sounds. If up to this point in your life, you’ve been an expert in serving others, making sure they have what they need, and ensuring that they are happy with what you are doing, then switching over to a take care of me first mindset is not as easy as it sounds. You may have experienced feelings of shame or unworthiness. Instead of thinking of what you need to do to make yourself better, you’d start thinking of all the things you need to do or what others are wanting you to do. You may have even experienced dark, convoluted thoughts that whisper, I’m not worth it. The reality is that you are worth it. We are not equipped to take care of others until we first acknowledge, prioritize, and have compassion for ourselves. I have personally battled with these feelings.

A Mind With A Heart Of Its Own

I pushed myself aside for over twenty years, ignoring signs of stress that manifested as severe migraines, which caused me to be in bed for days. I suffered in silence because as a naturopathic doctor I was ashamed of not being able to stop the migraines. Meanwhile, I was working to help thousands of people successfully solve their health issues, including migraines. The irony is that the migraines were my body’s way of telling me I was overworked and needed to recover. The belief that we should stop focusing on ourselves and be able to keep up with life’s demands without a sick day is terrible for our health. That’s the message I grew up hearing. I recently looked at my elementary school report card and saw that I had zero missed days of school, as if that were a good thing! It was the first time in over twenty years that I made Saturday a weekend day, not a workday. I got a standing desk so I could maintain good posture while at my computer. And I set my schedule so that I could meditate, exercise, and have a nutritious meal before starting appointments and meetings for the day. You can do all of this, too. As that happens, cortisol and adrenaline respond in the same way, based on our genetics and epigenetics. We automatically start doing things differently, shifting our schedule, buying different foods, and choosing different activities.

Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

Have you ever noticed a certain type of car, and then suddenly it seems like you see that same car everywhere you look? That’s because your brain is finding what you signaled it to look for. With practice and consistency, our brain will guide us toward what we want with ease. And as you do, little by little, day by day, it becomes more likely that your brain will automatically guide you to a new normal. It will become easier to choose relaxation. It will become second nature to buy arugula and flaxseed oil at the store, instead of packaged foods and canola oil. That system can kick into survival mode and create a perpetual state of fear that traps you and even makes you afraid to be out of survival mode. Notice that you are not the fear. You are the person living in this human body, and you can choose what you want to focus on in any moment. Will you allow fear to run your life? Or will you find a way to choose stress recovery? This is important to understand and implement when it comes to stress and adrenal distress recovery. The next thing you know, you’re back where you started. Change requires that you become completely clear about what you’d like to experience going forward and disciplined about creating it. Giving yourself personalized support based on your stress type will allow you to live your best life.

Contrasting Views

I developed my stress recovery approach over years of helping patients and myself recover from burnout. I’ve seen what doesn’t work, and I’ve identified the pitfalls that can send you straight back to burnout. Now that I’ve figured out the essential steps, and the order to implement them, I want to share that information, so you know how to get out of stress mode, optimize your cortisol and adrenaline levels, and cure your stress once and for all. Then we’ll talk it through from the perspective of how each stress type can achieve recovery. Get out of stress mode with calming support and by reducing stress exposure. Emphasis on connection with yourself. Optimize cortisol, adrenaline levels, and more. Continue to connect with yourself as you become more confident connecting with others. Maintain resilience to stress. Keeping balance within yourself while exploring more of the world around you. The first two phases restore healthy levels of cortisol, adrenaline, and neurotransmitters. In this way, you are correcting the imbalances stress caused. You rebalance your levels, you’ll become more resilient to any stresses that come along. Optimal levels will also make it easier to process the emotions associated with past stresses and to make deeper connections with people in your life. Once everything is balanced, you’ll also know what your body needs to maintain those levels over time, which brings us to phase three. Maintaining optimal levels doesn’t usually require the same amount of effort and supplements as is needed when you are depleted. It does require that you use your newfound connection with yourself and awareness for how stress affects you to feel confident interacting in the world without fear of returning to stress mode. It’s like pressing the gas pedal when you don’t have brakes.