In an earlier post I talked about what adrenal fatigue is and provided a backstory as to how I was living my life prior to adrenal fatigue. While I thought everything was going well, the ancient wisdom within knew this way of living was unsustainable and untrue to how life is really meant to be lived.

How did I even know I had adrenal fatigue? It was first of all – the fatigue. There was absolutely no energy to do even a 20 minute walk to the nearby park! This drove me insane at the time for someone who was used to being extremely active with daily crossfit workouts and going hiking on the weekends.

What was also debilitating was the deep sense of anxiety that I had. To be honest, whenever the bouts of anxiety occurred I became so scared because I couldn’t recognize myself for feeling so lost, vulnerable, and weak.

Generally experiencing adrenal fatigue made me feel as if I was wiped clean of any power I thought I had and any sense of who I thought I was.

So what did I do to manage adrenal fatigue? A LOT. And while I will list them out below please understand this did not happen all at once but in divine timing as we know how synchronicities work.

1. Find good practitioners who can champion for your health

   • I went through three practitioners who would help me in various areas. I didn’t see them all at once but moved through each practitioner once I felt a level of health was achieved so that I can focus on the next thing.
     • Dr. Justin – for full lab testing (benchmarking purposes) and execution of adrenal fatigue support
     • Gail Clayton – for genetic testing and understanding my personal bio-chemistry
     • Karla Maree – for nutritional support
   • Acupuncture – whether you believe in it or not give it a shot. Find someone who you feel energetically positive with as I believe acupuncture can help a great deal with moving energy around within the body. My go to gal in San Francisco was Dr. Holly Boland.
   • Chiropractic care – trust me. I used to be the person that didn’t see any benefit from seeing a chiropractor, especially after having seen two different doctors when I had a back injury in 2014. But as timing would have it my acupuncturist was sharing an office with a chiropractor and as I would wait for my acupuncture appointments I would notice that the patients coming out of the chiro’s office were beaming. Literally beaming!  I still remember my first chiro visit with Dr. Wang where he spent a full 30 minutes releasing all the tension in my back. Tears would flood my eyes whenever he applied deep pressure in my upper back and that is when I realized I was holding so much emotion in my body. Chiropractic care helped me to release this.
   • Body work – After my first few appointments with the chiropractor I realized that I was someone who, with the right person of course, did extremely well with touch and release. I decided to get bi-weekly body massages by a sports massage therapist who can truly help to release tension being held within the body.

2. Get deep

   • Books –
     • The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself – If there was ever a book that re-sparked my soul and gave me deep peace it would be this book. This book will either be an eye opener to an entirely new realm of life or a good reminder to what is good and true in your life today.
     • A Course In Miracles – Have you ever opened a book and the moment you read the first few lines knew it was speaking truth to you? The real deal? Well, this book will speak to your bones and help you, as Marianne Williamson would say, to psychologically un-do the ego of the mind.
     • A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles” – A Course helped me to learn of Marianne Williamson. She not only has a weekly lecture teaching from a Course but also wrote several books that I found myself vigorously nodding along with. This was one of them and is also a good primer to A Course in Miracles.
     • Outrageous Openness: Letting the Divine Take the Lead – Tosha Silver… what an angel. Tosha has a way of helping you to see that the Universe, the Divine, God… can truly be your best friend. She has a way with words through her life stories that help you to learn how to trust in the Divine. As a bonus, if you live in San Francisco or have a heart for this city by the bay, you will love her stories even more as they recount her experiences of living in the city and growing closer to God.
   • Yoga – I found an amazing teacher in San Francisco, Dana Damara, and she was truly one of the first yoga teachers who helped me to understand each pose had a purpose and yoga could be a means to help you to truly be in your body.
   • Therapist – There is NO shame in talking things out. This is exactly why I love what I do because I allow the person to be who they need to be as part of their recovery. Hopefully, in this day and age the taboo of having a therapist is long gone, but depending on which micro subculture of America (or the world) you live in having a therapist and owning it can still be downright scary. But the benefits? SO GOOD. To have someone you can see on a weekly basis to help support you and your emotions as you go through this healing journey is priceless.
   • Morning meditation – The morning is the first moment upon waking where you aren’t filled with the day’s worries… what better time than that to start the day with the right momentum? If you need help starting a meditation practice I wrote about a simple framework that can help you to get started here.

3. Tone down technology

   • Circadian rythm – Learning to rise and set with the true nature of your own body’s rythms is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Our bodies are hard wired to be in tune with mother nature. What does that mean? That means when the sun rises so should we, and when the sun sets so should we. But how does this work when our bodies aren’t able to due to fatigue? One day at a time… each morning when you wake up step outside your house or open a window and allow your skin to soak up the sun’s rays for at least 5-10 minutes. This will help your body to become more in sync with the natural rythms of nature. And with that said…
   • Dim the lights – When it comes to winding down at night try not to have all your electronics on in the evening. Rather, turn everything off and light a candle or turn on a small lamp. Again, this will help send a signal to your body that it’s time to wind down.
   • Get off the socials – When I was experiencing adrenal fatigue in the first few months my anxiety was so high I couldn’t even handle social media. I vowed to myself I wouldn’t check it for one month; and then one month led to two, three, four… It was during the first few months I realized social media was a major source of noise in my life at the time. Don’t get me wrong, there are so many benefits to technology and social media but depending on why/how you are using it, it can also be quite the downer. If I had an analogy to my experience of going social media free it was as if I was driving for hours and suddenly someone turned the radio off and it was dead silent. Ah- the glory of silence.
   • Put your phone on airplane mode – You know that saying, “nothing good ever happens after midnight?” Well, let’s adjust that to 9pm. Each night at around 9pm put your phone on airplane mode. This will help ease the anxiety of constantly looking out for notifications and will allow you to truly focus on any night time rituals you might have such as meditation, smuding, or reading.

4. Have fun!

   • Spend time in nature – As humans on this earth we are primal beings and nothing can bring us quite to our senses the way nature can. Get out to a park, touch a tree, say hello to the flowers, and don’t be afraid of the bees! Feel the earth energy and if possible, put your bare feet in the rich soil of this earth. There is a deep exchange of energy here that is incredibly healing.
   • Connect with your family and friends – Having adrenal fatigue was brought to you by stress and unfortunately trying to recover can be stressful in itself which actually won’t help you to recover – go figure. Instead, focus on your family and friends. Take advantage of this slowness and build deeper relationships with those around you. Get in tune with building a deep and rich community around you. Sometimes, taking the focus off of you and instead pouring the love into others can be the perfect remedy.
   • Let go of the fact that you are “recovering” – I actually want to spend a full post on this topic alone. In its essence… it is with deep heartfelt love that I ask you not to focus every minute of every day trying to “recover” and/or think about adrenal fatigue. While it is with good intentions it is not of the highest vibration. After all, if you were constantly searching for the answer the underlying message you are telling your unconscious self is that there is something wrong with you, which doesn’t serve you at all. Your highest vibration knows you are exactly where you need to be.
   • Be present & be thankful – While this may be one of the hardest things to do when someone is going through something as hard as adrenal fatigue, it may very well be the number one thing to do in order to start a true healing path. Remember, in THIS moment you are safe. In THIS moment you are divine love. In THIS moment you have everything you need.

This is just skimming the surface of this topic but I plan to continue to share more in future posts. With that said, I am sending love and light to everyone out there experiencing adrenal fatigue. Do not lose hope because there IS a way to live with adrenal fatigue and experience the fullness of life.

In wellness,

Susan

Susan is a Life Coach based in Seattle, WA. Her main focus is to coach people build a strong emotional container so that we can experience the fullness of life coming from a place of deep confidence. Susan also coaches clients looking to heal adrenal fatigue by using a mental meta-model aimed at breaking down old mental patterns and behaviors so that we can finally tap into our own personal power.