Personal Power Archives - Page 5 of 15

Seattle Burnout and Adrenal Fatigue Coach

Hot Letters: Getting Your Anger Out The Safe Way

Ever sent an angry text or email to someone and instantly regretted it? Or maybe the regret wasn’t instant but you still felt crummy?

Chances are you said a few things that might not have been stated so eloquently let alone matter to you 3 months from now.

Why in the world do we do that?!

Anger is one of those emotions that does not serve. It’s an emotion that needs to be processed with love so that you can begin to see clearly again.

Once you’ve gained conscious awareness that you are in an angry state, I like to recommend the process of Abraham Lincoln called Hot Letters.

Good ol’ Abe Lincoln wrote letters to whom he was angry at and wrote until he had nothing else left to say. He would then keep these letters in a safe place. Yes, that’s right, he never sent them.

Because here’s the thing, when in history did anger ever lead us to peace?

The next time you feel angry write it all out. Address the person, thing, or event; call names; say whatever you need to say and let it all out until you start to repeat yourself.

And trust me. Don’t send it. Your future self will thank you.

And then, instead of keeping it in a safe place why not burn it or rip it up into tiny pieces?

The very act of physically watching your thoughts get thrown away actually helps to release your thoughts from your brain.

Anger happens. It’s a human emotion. But don’t let it get the best of you.

Love yourself a little more during this time…

Stay calm and write the letters.

In wellness,

Susan

Manifesto

There’s something amazing about declaring your goals and intent out into the world.

Maybe it’s the energetic act of pulling it out of your head & heart, and into the open.

Or, perhaps it’s the next step in creation itself to go from thought to voice.

Either way, these personal aspirations of mine have been on my heart for quite some time and I wanted to share it in hopes that it would spark some inspiration in your own aspirations as we turn another season.

I will act and serve in love over fear
I hope to impact as many people as I can
I will move my body in a way that serves me always
I will nourish my temple mindfully and thank it every day for what it does for me
I want to blow my own mind with what is possible
I will never forget the value of learning and evolving into my next best self
I hope to be inspiring
I will live an interesting life
I want to die knowing I did everything I ever wanted to do without fear
I want to have the most fun as I can

So what’s on your personal manifesto?

Am I missing some good ones?

Let me know and let’s share what we’ve got to offer in this epic life we have.

In wellness,

Susan

Learn if this one thing is keeping you in BURNOUT.

Learn If THIS Is Keeping You In Burnout

If anyone’s been through burnout it’s me, and I can’t say it was pretty.

And if you’ve been there yourself, most likely you’re nodding along with the words on this page.

While on the surface there seems to be many reasons for burnout, there is only one source of it.

Your mind.

You see, if you have a ton of things you’re juggling in your life right now, and especially if you’re Type A to boot, well most likely there’s a sense of urgency driving you to do the things you do.

And if you’re in burnout then you are always, and I mean always, driving yourself from a sense of lack or fear.

The one exception there is are results. If you can look at the past 30 days and physically account for the new results you created in your life, then yes hun… take the break (and if you’re fearful of taking the break then that’s a whole other issue we need to discuss!).

But if you can’t find the results and most of your explanations are in your thoughts, then at least we have something to dissect so that we can get to the core of the issue.

Take a look at these questions below and block out 30 minutes for yourself to take an honest inventory:

What am I most hard on about myself?
When was the last time I treated myself because I was proud vs. because I was tired?
How do I talk to myself when I am embarrassed or failed at something?
What do I say when I look in the mirror?
Do I spend too much time thinking about what decisions I should make?
How often do you think about what other people think about you?
Do you reach for the wine, the bag of chips, or incessantly check Instagram the moment you don’t feel good?

The way you talk to yourself stem from a thought you have about the situation and ultimately yourself.

Once we address THIS, it will determine whether you continue down the path to burnout or recovery.

So tell me…

How often do you think thoughts of success? Abundance? Love?

and

How often do you think thoughts of fear? Worry? Confusion? Scarcity?

The honest truth is that burnout is never caused by working too much. When you accept the moments for what they are, you can put in the hours and never feel as if you worked.

Burnout is caused by the thoughts you have about the situations in your life. Ultimately it is what you are resisting, and when you argue against reality you will always lose.

So what can you do?

You think better thoughts.

No one ever tell us we can choose our thoughts, but we can.

This is true personal power.

Once you realize you are the director of your own movie you are now playing at the causal level.

No longer are you being tossed around like a leaf by the wind. You ARE the wind itself.

So be responsible. Take charge. Own your thoughts and commit to the future you want.

No one is here to save us, and that is good news my friends because now we can finally take action of our own lives.

In wellness,

Susan

Learn The Biggest Mistake You Make When Trying To Get Rid Of Stress!

Before I start going into the biggest mistake we make when trying to get rid of stress, I wanted to take a moment and make one thing clear: stress is a part of life; some stress is even healthy for you.

But so often what happens is that we make stress mean something other than it is.

You see, as humans we have been given the power of free will. The power to choose our thoughts. And we get to choose between positive, negative, and neutral. So when things happen in our life we choose to make things much more stressful than they actually are.

For most, this is a hard concept to grasp because what we think we are reacting to is just the fact of life, but what we are ACTUALLY responding to is a thought about what is happening.

(I know, this stuff can get confusing but I promise it’s simple)

Here’s the biggest mistake we make when it comes to getting rid of stress.

The very act of getting rid of it is the mistake. By getting rid of it you are creating resistance and giving stress more power. By thinking there is a need to “get rid of it” you are presupposing there is something wrong to begin with.

What if peace comes first after you acknowledge you are at peace with the situation?

What if, by recognizing things are just happening because they are happening you stop resisting the moment?

What if, by allowing yourself in a non-judgmental way to feel whatever it is you are feeling, you are actually speeding up the process toward peace?

You see, stress is ultimately what we make it. When we are stressed, it allows us the opportunity to inquire within and ask, what is actually stressful here? Because when we really dig deep and ask ourselves, “so what?”, we will often find there is fear to be found and THAT is the real work we must tend to.

So the next time you feel stress creeping up around the corner, ask yourself, “so what?” and see what unfolds for you.

In wellness,

Susan

Adrenal Fatigue Life Coach - Coaching you to FEEL better

How To Set A Goal In 4 Easy Steps

One of my absolute favorite ways to goal setting is in 4 easy steps. I don’t like to over complicate things and find that when I follow this simple formula, I make it very clear and actionable to my brain to reach my goal.

The first step to any goal setting exercise is to – SET THE GOAL!

What is it that you want to focus on? Try to keep your sentence simple and straightforward without adding any additional goals interspersed. For example, a clear goal would be: I want to learn to meditate.

A not so clear goal would be: I want to learn to meditate the various forms of meditation and master one of them.

While there’s nothing wrong with mastering meditation what makes it difficult for your brain is that suddenly there is more than one goal for it to focus on. Pick one and commit before moving on to the next goal.

The second step to setting a goal is to focus on your desired feeling.

Take some time here to visualize yourself once you’ve achieved your goal. Where are you specifically? What does your face look like? How do you feel in your body? What are you saying? Who is with you?

Take yourself to that moment and FEEL what it would feel like to achieve this goal.

What I love about this exercise is that you’re already feeling what you initially wanted to feel. Think about it, what drives every human being to DO something is because they want to FEEL something. I often tell people to feel it first and sometimes, not all the time but sometimes, the client may realize it wasn’t so much the goal they were after more than it was the FEELING. Pretty awesome.

So next it’s pretty simple, we need to set actionable steps to get to your goal! If we’re using the “learn to meditate” example above a few actionable steps might be:

Research local meditation centers in the area
Visit one meditation center each week
Pick one and go weekly
Meditate 10 minutes a night before bed

A word of caution: learning the difference between PASSIVE action and straight ACTION is key.

Passive action is when it feels like you’re taking a lot of action but there’s no outcome to prove it. For example, learning about meditation is not the same as visiting a meditation center or actually meditating.

Next is my second favorite about goal setting. It’s setting CONSTRAINTS.

Constraints are limitations or restrictions you set yourself so that you can stay laser focused on the goal. One constraint can be, no social media or blue light activity after 9pm. Another constraint might be, commit to ONE form of meditation.

Constraints help us to keep the blinders on so that we aren’t constantly distracted by the next shiny, tempting object.

Last but not least, I always like to end the goal setting session by asking this final question: How will I know I achieved my goal?

This does one of two things.

First, it allows you to understand the direct result you’re looking for and forces you to be specific. That way, you don’t end up setting one goal, and have it be a never ending goal…

Second, it provides a way for your brain to receive a dopamine hit once you’ve achieved your goal. If you don’t get specific about the goal, how will you know you ever reached it? Small, short wins are the key to keeping yourself motivated and excited about every step you take.

So there you have it dear souls! Goal setting in 4 simple steps.

In wellness,

Susan

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Masterclass: Elevate Beyond Adrenal Fatigue & Major Burnout

It’s happening folks! My vision for this book I was going to write has now transformed into a Masterclass! For some of you who have been following closely you know this has been in the works for quite some time.

Trying to find the time to fit the scripting, recording, and editing has been quite fun to observe, but well worth it.

This means everything I know and used to help manage my adrenal fatigue so that I could start living my life despite diagnosis, all in one place. And the good news? I made full recovery.

But here’s the thing, everything that I teach in this Masterclass I STILL use today! Because when does managing stress and your mind ever stop?!

Years of learning all in this one Masterclass. Head on over to the website and sign up to be on the early bird wait list to hear all about the launch soon!! I can’t wait to share it with you.
🧠
www.susanchoiwellness.com/master-class

Why Mindset Is The Key To Feeling Better With Adrenal Fatigue

In my practice I particularly enjoy working with clients who are experiencing adrenal fatigue or other auto-immune related illness. Why? Because I’ve been there myself. I understand what it took to full recovery and wish I knew the tools and thought management techniques I know now. Regardless, I am incredibly thankful to share what I know today.

What I notice happening a lot with people experiencing adrenal fatigue (or other related illness) is a three part phase:

Despair/Breakdown
Determination/Identify Protocol
Maintenance or Plateau

The first phase is clear for anyone who suddenly understands the depth of their situation. It’s a time where you begin to question everything in your life and analyze what lifestyle patterns may have caused adrenal fatigue in the first place. Bottom line: give yourself a good cry. Don’t judge yourself for why you got here or panic about how you can change things. Let it be and give yourself compassion.

The second phase is a re-birth of sorts. You begin to track down some of the best doctors who can help you identify a path to recovery. It’s a time to learn more healthy lifestyle habits to incorporate and if there’s one piece of advice I give to anyone going through this now it’s this: don’t get overwhelmed about the plethora of information out there, this is the opposite of recovery. Trust the information will flow to you; trust the timing and don’t rush it.

The third phase is what I wanted to emphasize in today’s blog post. You see, how you manage your brain will be the KEY to whether or not you can mindfully continue through to maintenance phase or it will be the point it which you plateau completely or retreat back to phase one.

You have to understand that one of the biggest root causes for adrenal fatigue is stress, and stress can only come from one place – our minds.

If we can’t manage our minds to begin with, we will have a much longer time recovering from adrenal fatigue. This is why understanding how your brain works and whether or not it is serving you will be key to achieving peace.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to understand whether or not you need to evaluate your current thought process:

Do you often feel rushed, anxious, angry, or worried throughout the day?
Is there a set of thoughts and/or problem you repeat over and over again in a given day?
Do you feel overwhelmed by a thought and/or problem to the point where it starts to cause physical stress?
No matter how much you apply will power, do you find yourself using food, drinking, working out, or the internet to avoid/buffer in order to feel better?

If you answered yes to any of the above, chances are you would benefit from understanding why your brain works the way that it does, and how making tweaks to your own internal process can help provide more peace, joy, and personal power into your life.

You see in a nutshell, when you understand your brain and why you have certain thoughts you start to uncover limiting beliefs, habituated thought and behavioral patterns. With this recognition you can now do the work to understand your individual mental model that has been driving your actions until now.

After all, if you’re doing all the work to live a healthier, more mindful lifestyle why not work on the one thing that can help you manage stress to begin with?

Because the good news is it’s completely possible to optimize your very own internal world and THAT, is priceless.

In wellness,

Susan

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

What To Do After Major Adrenal Fatigue Or Burnout

I like to call this phase the i-think-i’m-a-zombie phase.

If you’re the type of person that wants to just move on with your life to the good stuff, chances are you haven’t fully absorbed the meaning behind why adrenal fatigue happened and how you can transform adrenal fatigue to serve you.

You might still be in a daze as to why adrenal fatigue even happened, especially since you’re smart, well intended, and nothing that stressful really happened. Right?

It’s not until we look back and realize just how hard we were working and just how hard we were on ourselves during these times.

If we don’t take the time to understand why our bodies couldn’t habituate to the stress and what was causing the stress in the first place, we just might find ourselves in a similar situation in the near future.

And that is no good.

Anyone who’s ever been through adrenal fatigue would never wish it upon anyone, even their worst enemies.

So what can you do during this zombie phase?

You can start by simply taking the time to reflect on what was driving you so hard to begin with.

What were you so hard on yourself for? What were you afraid of?

Now I’m not talking about things outside our external control.

I’m talking about your internal drivers. What motivates you and why, and why you place meaning behind the things you do.

You see, once we can start to understand the root of what was driving you to do, be, and act the way you did prior to adrenal fatigue, we can begin to build new internal drivers.

This is the most important work you can do for yourself.

This type of investment is the kind of investment no one talks about.

What if you could have invested in yourself THEN so you wouldn’t have had to go through adrenal fatigue?

What if, now knowing this, you can invest in yourself NOW so that you can prevent another breakdown in the future?

What if by investing in yourself now you can live the life you always dreamed of?

Understanding your internal drivers is one of the best things you can do for yourself. If you don’t take action for yourself, who will?

In wellness,

Susan

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

The One Thing You Can Do To Make Your Wildest Dreams Come True

“It’s wild. It’s crazy. That can’t be…”

And yet you’re curious. “Can it be? Is it really that simple?”

That was my process years ago when I started to write out my wildest dreams. Yes, I wrote it out.

And I didn’t just write simple one sentence statements. No, I wrote out pages worth of what it would feel like, what it would look like, what the air would feel like on my skin, what my eyes would see as if I were living that moment I wanted. I wrote out every single thing I wanted to feel, hear, and sense in every way.

So guess what happened? Things started shifting.

I started to believe, and in that belief I started to act.

Remember, what you THINK you feel, and what you FEEL leads to inspired action.

I slowly started to see things come to life. I started to sense, “this is starting to happen.”.

And it’s not to say things will happen exactly the way you wrote it, but it can be even better than your wildest dreams.

So what is your wildest dreams? Have you given yourself time lately to really dream? If constraints flew out the window, what would you REALLY want for yourself?

I know there will be objections. The scoffs, the excuses of, “but I don’t have time to dream.”

But why not give it a shot? If all it takes is 30 minutes of your life to write out your wildest dreams, why not see if it will really happen? Aren’t you the least bit curious?

Put your powerful, creative brain to work and see just what happens once you plant the seed.

In magical wellness,

Susan

Photo by Neven Krcmarek on Unsplash

10 Top Paleo & Health Resources You Need To Know

Over the years I’ve tried a few diets and lifestyles. I loved few, disliked most. Nothing ever seemed to be “the answer” until I blended everything I knew from the top experts in various fields and found something that worked for me.

I have found myself applying this to various areas of my life when it comes to formulating what works for me, from diet, lifestyle, learning, coaching, mindfulness, exercise, and more.

It probably helps that I’m the type of person that absolutely LOVES to learn. I can’t get enough of it! Any time I have spare time I’m watching a conference on YouTube or listening to a podcast. I find it absolutely fascinating at how much information is out there and why people feel so strongly about one stance vs. another.

What I also find fascinating is how much new information is discovered every year. Who knows what really works other than to getting to know your mind and body for yourself?! I mean, in the 90s it was low fat, and now?

Now fat is the cool kid on the block.

This is why I keep an open mind. Just like how conventional medicine says there is no such thing as “adrenal fatigue”, and while the naming of this syndrome is yet to be conclusive, what I do know is the effects that this hormonal dysregulation had on my mental and physical self.

What matters is finding out what works FOR YOU.

What matters is getting to know YOUR OWN body and mind and not compare success stories.

What matters is identifying the right people and resources that will help you become your OPTIMAL SELF.

With that said, here are the top Paleo experts and other resources I keep an eye on for the latest and greatest as this field continues to expand.

While they all have common themes, they also differ in slight ways. What’s most important to consider here is not what they say, but how you feel, perform, and think, as you apply advice and adjust your lifestyle.

If you don’t know where to start, choose one adjustment and commit to two weeks, then see how you feel. Give yourself constraints and honor your decision to try something new.

Finding what works for you is a journey; and you have to remember that as you evolve so will the lifestyle – so you might as well enjoy the ride.

In wellness,

Susan

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash