I shared my history with depression yesterday in my private Facebook Group. And as I wrote it out, sharing the details that still stick with me when I take the time to think about them, I was reminded of how crappy I used to feel, how far I’ve come, how far I know YOU can go, and the biggest change I truly made.
And I was inspired deeply to share the key that unlocked my motivation and energy levels.
I hated feeling exhausted. I was constantly hurting at the fact I didn’t feel in control of my mood. And I was tired of not liking my body.
But I didn’t know what to do.
More than anything, I just wanted to feel motivated.
I just wanted to feel that get-up-and-go.
I wanted to wake up refreshed and love life.
This morning I was excited to get up. I lied in bed and actually jumped out of it, deciding there was too much possible fun to have to stay lying down.
Seriously.
That doesn’t always happen, but when I care for what I’m sharing with you today, it can (and often does).
Now, my disclaimer with love for you guys is that it didn’t happen over the course of one day.
I’m all for speed-healing, and I go feisty with natural stuff so they hit me hard and I feel them. But when I first focused on healing my adrenals, it took a few months before I felt as energized as I wanted.
On the bright side, once you’ve healed them up and feeling confident, shielded from stress and sunshine-y, you can bring yourself back to that in a couple of days with the right supports in place (should you slide off your A+ habits). So it’s well worth it.
So, what are the ‘these’?
‘These’, the magical things that can tank you down or help you feel amazingly good, are your adrenal glands.
What do they do?
They spit out your stress hormones. So if you get cut off in traffic, you’ll feel them go. When you have a coffee, that’s the mechanism by which you feel alert (unless you’ve over-taxed this system and you don’t feel enlivened anymore after drinking one); the coffee stimulates stress hormone release. If your boss is an awful person and you hear him or her walking towards you, you’d also probably release some stress hormones.
Why are they important to take care of?
If you don’t care for them, coffee won’t hit you (even though you’ll likely try drinking more and more), you’ll develop a fairly noticeable (at least to you) inability to deal with stress you used to think was fine, you’ll crave salt like a mofo, and probably eat more sugary things than you should (because you’re crazy low energy and just want a quick burst), you may sweat excessively, you’ll likely have some head rushes and you’ll generally feel pretty exhausted, draggy, slow, foggy and un-motivated.
Ack! What can I do about them?
So, in order of first-to-mind when I think of the most effective adrenal helpers, here are 5 incredible things that can support your stress glands.
Supplements
There are some awesome supplements out there that can REALLY help your adrenals out. The two I tend to recommend to different women are AOR Ortho Adapt Vegan (and I opt for the vegan version whether or not these ladies eat meat, because I truly don’t believe an animal who was waiting to get slaughtered would have adrenal glands I’d want in my body – how crazy stressful) or CanPrev Adrenal Pro.
I love them both because they contain herbs and nutrients. Herbs can’t work as magically well if you don’t have the nutrients needed to make things happen in your bod, and they can work really, amazingly well when you do. So I always like the blends.
Always read and follow supplement labels or the advice of your Holistic Nutritionist. I carefully choose which one (or would recommend something completely different) based on whether a client is breastfeeding, pregnant, has a disease or is on certain medications.
Safety first guys!
Meditation
I used to think meditation was friggin’ weird. And now, I’m not at my best if I don’t do it, and I think people who DON’T do it are astoundingly weird (and I’m not sure how they function without being a basket-case all the time).
It works to support your adrenal glands by lowering your stress hormones. And as those lower, you feel calm, refreshed and able (or at least much more able) to take on what’s ahead of you. (You can find out more astounding things about meditation right here)
For me, after a year or two of meditating on and off I found out that if I didn’t meditate one day, I didn’t feel as capable, calm and collected the next. I ruled everything else out, and then it just became a ritual I always made time for.
If you’re just getting started with meditation, or you’d like to try it out, I created a free, downloadable mp3 guided meditation here for bringing you out of chaos and into appreciation. Listen to it right here.
Sleep
Oh my GOSH I can’t stress this one enough.
And it’s the pure reason I got up so psyched this morning.
We NEED sleep. And fabulous QUALITY counts.
For the best sleeps, you need a fairly dark room. Blacked out is often recommended, but I’ve struggled to wake up sometimes without some amount of light (which makes sense based on how our sleep-wake hormones work).
And being asleep before 11 pm is really rejuvenating because most people’s stress hormones are lowest at that point which means your sleep quality is better and you haven’t stressed yourself back out before falling asleep (by staying up past when your stress hormones were low).
I am ON IT the next day when I’ve gone to bed mega-early, and I bet you’ll notice a difference, too (if you, too, learn to care deeply about your stress glands).
Passion
Do something that you really love, either more often or as much as you can. Honestly.
I don’t think you can be completely enthralled in what you’re doing, and also stressed.
So go for your bliss.
At first, that might be relaxing things, especially when you’re healing; things like reading or baths or acoustic music or slowness.
But as you really care for your adrenals and you get them back (and yourself back), things you’re passionate about will start to feel more fun and energizing because you’ll feel able to say yes to them, instead of not having the energy for them.
Eating Awesome.
Lastly, and this is the key to everything, eating really nourishing food targeted to support your adrenals will help heal them up and give you more energy.
For example, when you’re stressed, you pee out wayyyyyy more B-vitamins, which means you’re using them up, and your adrenals love them.
So aim to add in a few superfoods like nutritional yeast or spirulina or chlorella, all fabulously loaded in B-vitamins.
If you’re too burnt out that this feels overwhelming, jump over to this post on adrenal burnout and start there.
And if you need more help, check out The Glow Membership here.
I think you’re fabulous, and I can’t wait to hear your wild success story coming from exhausted and un-motivated to full of energy and loving life again.
Keep shining,
Nathalie
Holistic Nutritionist
PS – what are you going to put into place TODAY to help yourself get energized? I want to hear and help keep you accountable and rocking your health. Let me know in the comments or in The Glow Doer’s private group on Facebook.
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