Are you having a hard time to relax?
Do you find it hard to just sit and do nothing or what about even when you’re playing with your kids or you’re talking with possibly another adult?
You find it hard not to constantly have something in your hands or be listening to music or you know just this constant kind of stimulation, do you find it hard to just sit in the quiet and for your body to actually relax? This is something I hear quite often from women whenever I suggest that they spend more time relaxing and have these little breaks throughout the day and it’s something that they really struggle with.
So I wanted to just kind of dig into this topic and just give you some ideas on why that might be. If this is you stick around because hopefully you’re going to learn something about the steps that you can take so that you can fully relax and get the rest that you need.
Signals are important!
This whole topic of “why is it so hard to relax”, I think it’s just important to first off pay attention to the signals that your body is giving you because when it is hard to relax and you’re kind of fidgety and you have this kind of anxious tendency or maybe you have heard from someone that you’re working with your health or you just know maybe that innately you just need to spend more time.
I’m saying relaxing here but I really mean in the quiet not distracted from all of that but you just find it really hard to do that and you just are almost like it’s just hard right.
That is really our body’s way of saying that our nervous system is kind of on edge all the time and that is definitely a physiological thing that is going on.
Also, it’s a habit if we are constantly on our phone or busy doing something or even mentally our thoughts we just find it really hard to quiet them. Obviously we know some of these habits we probably need to break but yet what is going on inside our body? So one thing that definitely could be going on is that your body has actually become addicted to stress hormones and stress hormones are not innately bad and i’m talking about cortisol and adrenaline there’s others but those are the main two.
Our bodies aren’t messing up!
These things are there for a reason! Our body is not messing up whenever we have become addicted to these stress hormones, It’s actually just this form of survival. Our body wants to survive and so it’s going to constantly emit these stress hormones if we’re telling it to and you know typically the scenario that our body is getting ready to run away from something that is posing danger to us. Yet we are constantly having these thoughts and our body is emitting a response to that these stress hormones but yet it’s behind a screen and we’re not like running away from a tiger or something, so there’s no way for our body to like burn through these stress hormones.
So the response builds and builds and it’s definitely something that our body can get addicted to. It’s almost like we need them for that little bit of high. Not being able to relax is a really good indication that cortisol and adrenaline may be something that you’ve become dependent on. Feeling weird without these stress hormones is a really good sign that you’re locked into this chronic state of stress but you might be unaware, possibly unwilling or maybe even unable to make changes right to break this habit so that might be something to kind of dig into and think about more.
Mineral balance, undernourishment, parasites and heavy metals
Parasites
They are something that may sound like oh I definitely don’t have parasites but you know you don’t have to live in a third world country to get parasites now they are very very very common. Most people have them, it just depends on how many and what type of parasites you might have. Parasites in general their presence undermines your nervous system and this can cause it to really be out of balance . They can cause a decrease in certain chemicals that are needed to have your nervous system perform properly. Parasites can make us to where we just kind of numb out to things or it could make us to where it’s just really hard to relax and we’re kind of on edge all the time but that can definitely mess up some of your nervous system regulation.
Heavy metals
also disrupt your nervous system and so they cause you not to be able to calm down appropriately. Heavy metals are sometimes a controversial topic because some people believe that we should have no heavy metals and others believe that they play a part they play a role in in a healthy body. But mostly it just depends on how much you might have of these and which ones.If you’re curious about this a hair test might be a good option for you if you have maybe looked into some of these other things and you just really want to continue to dig down deeper to get to the root cause.
Mineral imbalance is something that maybe you’ve heard about before. Obviously you know we have minerals and they’re important but the imbalance really is a big deal when you think about your nervous system. It might be the reason it’s a little bit harder to relax because when your minerals are off it does affect your nervous system, your adrenals and your thyroid. The reason is, they all work together– your thyroid ,adrenals and your nervous system . I want to make sure you know the connection between these, so whenever our body looks for energy and power l it goes to the thyroid first and whenever the thyroid is kind of burnt out and is not giving it what it needs it goes to the adrenals next. You can think about this like the thyroid is the power source of your home and then if your power source goes out you might need to get a generator (aka your adrenals). But when that happens you wouldn’t just run on the generator for weeks or months, you’d fix the main power source!
So things can really go astray whenever we burn out our thyroid and then we go to the adrenals. You wouldn’t run your house on a generator all the time so that’s kind of what happens though whenever we don’t really support our thyroid. And we’re just constantly in this state of stress our adrenals get a lot of stress put on them and so they can actually burn out as well and so all of this really fits together. For instance, Calcium and Magnesium are two of the main four minerals that are very important, they really dictate a lot of the other mineral balance that is going on in your body- if they are off, other things are off also. These two in particular can really affect your nervous system and just your ability to wind down and even your sleep. Consuming an adrenal cocktail daily could be a really great way for you to work on this without really knowing where your levels are.
Finally, there’s
Under nourishment
– which really just means that you are not getting enough calories and or not getting enough nourishing foods that contain the vitamins and the minerals that your body needs. So often in our culture we think gosh we’re eating way too much and that there’s a problem with obesity. But I think that maybe in the holistic health world there’s a problem with under-nourishment because we’ve scaled so far back and become so restrictive.
The obsession with the way you want your body to look on the outside is so high t and before we know it there is some serious under-nourishing going on for our bodies. We’re not getting enough calories or nourishing foods. If you don’t give your body enough food then it’s constantly in this state of hunger and survival mode! And that really is a stress on your body. A great way to see is to track your calories and check in on how many calories you are getting. I can tell you 1200 is not enough! Women typically need at least 1800 to 2000 and even upwards of that if you are a nursing mom or if you are um doing a lot of heavy exercise.
We must realize that we cannot heal in the same environment that we sick in. Really dig in and see what might be the best thing for you and just take purposeful and intentional steps to create an environment that supports healing. You will begin to find it easier and easier to relax and get really good quality sleep at night and even though you might still have stressors during your day, you’re going to take blocks of maybe even five minutes to focus on just breathing deeply. That alone can help SO much! Taking a walk outside, doing a little 10- 20 minute meditation- whatever works for you to change the state of your nervous system so that you’re not in this constant state of fight or flight.
I address this issue and explain a few of the root issues that may be contributing to it in the video below!
Do you struggle to have the energy you need to do all God has called you to each day? Check out the free PDF resource I put together with 3 steps to support daily detox for better energy that actually gets to the root of the issue when it comes to fatigue!