3 Steps To End Your Body Burnout

Are you stuck on the “busy” cycle – over-doing, overwhelm, perfectionism, people pleasing – and now your body is feeling burrrrrrned-out?…Energy, mood, gut & other inflammatory issues?

Have you hit a roadblock with your GP?

Dr Google failing you?

Even the diets, supps & naturopathy protocols aren’t quite getting to the root?

Because…try as you might, your symptoms keep coming back & you can’t seem to relax?

Yep that was me too – a chronic over-doer, with a body that was screaming at me!

If this is you now – you’ll want to continue reading on to discover the missing steps you likely haven’t taken yet…

Step 1 – Test & Treat Body Systems

After working with over 2500+ burned-out clients in the past 15 years, the three main symptoms I see when a person is in a state of body burnout are energy, mood and gut issues. Other associated symptoms look like: hormonal imbalances, autoimmunity, skin issues, chronic body pain, low immunity, sleep issues, brain fog and headaches.

You might be ticking a bunch of these off in your head!

Now the thing is, you can’t have symptoms in the body without there being a body system imbalance, specifically in your neuroendocrine system (brain, adrenals, mitochondria, sex hormones), gastrointestinal system (pathogens, microbiome, digestive organs) and your detoxification system (detox pathways, methylation, inflammation, oxidative damage). These imbalances aren’t tested by regular GP’s or medical specialist, but they can absolutely cause symptoms and major dysfunctions in the way you feel, if they are out of whack.

So if you haven’t yet worked with a functional medicine practitioner to test these body systems, and therapeutically supported them, this is an important first step to heal from body burnout.

But it’s not the only step.

Step 2 – Heal Deeper “Metaphysical” Root-Causes

Step 2 involves looking at the deeper root-causes, that caused your body systems to burnout in the first place. This is where we start asking WHY? Why do you have adrenal fatigue? Why do you have leaky gut? Why do you have blocked detox pathways?

Yes, some of these things are related to your lifestyle and environment (we’ll get to this in Step 3), but even deeper – and more crucial than that – is looking at how you are BEING.

Stress is a major root-cause in people running “busy” patterns doing allll the things, and it also literally burns-out body systems – your adrenal glands, your neurotransmitters, your gut function, your immune system.

But the thing is – stress isn’t an “outside” thing. Stress is always internal, and how you are responding to your external world.

If there are hidden dysfunctional beliefs about yourself (I’m not good enough, I’m unworthy, I’m broken, I’m flawed), as well as hidden unprocessed trauma stuck in your body, triggering and heightening your stress response, this MUST be addressed in order to end your body burnout.

If you don’t, your nervous system will continue being dysregulated which will block your ability to heal your body systems, and/or you’ll continue running “busy”, overwhelm, stressed patterns that led to the health issues in the first place. This might look like over-working, eating sugar or drinking coffee to get through the day, doing things (even things like healing protocols) out of force and fear.

You will never get better. Period.

So, start looking deeper into why you’re sick in the first place. How have you been programmed? How can you rewire the deeper parts of yourself so that you can heal?

Step 3 – Nutraceuticals & Lifestyle Support

When the deepest part of yourself has been (or is in the process of being) rewired, you are now ABLE to heal. Step 3 to end your body burnout is to optimise your body systems and your lifestyle.

With lab tests back, you can now start therapeutically supporting imbalances in your body systems – with exactly what YOU need. There’s no guess-work anymore. We can see clearly where imbalances lie in your three main body systems, and can create a therapeutic nutraceutical protocol to rebalance and support your body.

And now you’ve reprogrammed deeper dysfunctional “busy, burnout” patterns, you can start dialling in your lifestyle to support the healing of your body and optimise your health long-term, with more ease and flow.

This looks like optimising your nutrition based on what your body needs to heal and thrive. For example, if labs showed up candida overgrowth, a low-carb diet will assist to reduce levels. Or, if you’re recovering from adrenal fatigue, eating regular macro-balanced meals will help stabilise blood-sugar levels, which will then support stress hormones.

Reseting your sleep-wake-cycle is also essential, as the majority of healing takes place while you sleep. Everyone is different in terms of their ideal bed time and wake up time. For example, I am definitely not in the 5am camp! My body much prefers a good solid 9 hours, from 10pm – 7am. The journey for you is learning how to listen to your body, to discover what YOU need to thrive.

Movement is also critical. If you’re in a state of body burnout, and you’re doing lots of exercise or feeling more crappy after exercise, you’ll want to reduce the intensity and load, as too much movement can put more stress on an already stressed out body. Pare it back to walks, yoga or stretching. And if you’re sedentary, start working on increasing steps, and adding in mini 2-minute movements into your day.

Keen To Go Deeper?

If you’re keen to dive deeper into how to implement these 3 steps into your life, so you can finally break-free from the body burnout cycle, I’d love to invite you to our (free) webinar: 3 Steps To End Your Body Burnout, held on Mon 28 May, 7-8pm AEST.  This event is being held in celebration of Natural Medicine Week!! 🙂

Stress, Burnout & Why Your Gut Protocol Isn’t Working

Are you feeling stressed, burned-out & now your gut is not happy?! You know…bloating, gut cramps, heartburn, diarrhoea, constipation?

Does your gut & other health issues flare up when you’re stressed?

Have you tried alllll the supps, diets, maybe even hypnotherapy, and still your gut is not right?

And now you’re stuck, not sure which way to turn to resolve your health issues?

I see you, I’ve been there too!

My Gut Issues Story

I struggled with chronic heartburn for a good 20 years. It sucked! I tried all the usual things. Apple cider vinegar before eating, ginger tabs, rubbing lemon essential oil on my chest after food, eating less, avoiding certain foods. These things helped, but they only ever “managed” the underlying issue.

I had periods where the gut issues were mild, and other periods (in times of high stress) where it was chronic, everyday, after every meal, and was also really affecting my skin, hormones and mental health.

I was feeling stuck, until I came across functional medicine.

Test Not Guess

At this point in time I had graduated as a Clinical Nutritionist. And when I started doing my own functional lab testing, I discovered I was riddled with pathogens – h.pylori (a common culprit for heartburn and other gut issues, but not always picked up on GP tests), parasites, candida overgrowth. All of these were massively contributing to my own gut issues, and no amount of healthy eating had rebalanced my microbiome.

I see this now in practice, so many clients having done so many diets, tried different supps recommended by Dr Google or the local health food store, yet no resolution to their issues.

So first up, I would always test the gut, to see what is actually happening inside of you.

Now, you might be thinking: but I did that big expensive stool test or SIBO test with my practitioner, I took the supps, yet my symptoms keep coming back!

This is very common, and will always happen if other body systems are out of whack. You see, the gut does not function in isolation. Other body systems like your adrenal glands, sex hormones, brain, nervous system and detox pathways also play a role in a healthy gut.

And if you’re running “busy” patterns (over-doing, perfectionism, people pleasing) and constantly feeling stressed and burned-out, then it’s highly likely these other body systems aren’t doing so well, and are preventing you from getting full resolution of your gut issues.

Is it time to run some additional functional medicine lab tests to see what’s happening?

But What’s The Root-Cause of Body System Imbalances?

Now you might’ve worked with a practitioner who has tested a bunch of body systems, you’ve done the protocols, but still your body is feeling burned-out. If this is the case, you haven’t yet identified deeper root-causes.

In my functional medicine practice, we go beyond just treating the physical body systems. We look deeper into WHY the gut & other body systems have burned-out. Leaky gut, pathogens, microbiome depletion, inflammation – these all lead to symptoms, but they are NOT the root-cause of your gut issues and other body burnout symptoms.

In our practice, we work off the presupposition that you are not broken. The results you are getting in every area of life – including your current state of health – are the exact results you’ve designed your system to create in order to try to protect yourself.

Sure you might hate your gut issues & other body burnout symptoms. Sure you might feel like your body is broken, like it is fighting against you. But actually, it’s fighting FOR you! It’s sending you strong pain signals to try to protect you and to help keep you safe.

This is where stress and burnout patterns come into play. Is your body screaming at you, trying to say: Stop! Enough is enough! Your way of being is sucking the life out of us!

Often we develop health issues, too, to keep us small, or as an excuse not live fully in life. This comes back to deeper unconscious core beliefs we have about ourselves – if there are hidden beliefs that you are not good, unworthy, weak, incapable, dumb, bad, broken, etc, then your body creates health issues to keep you safe from ever being found out.

If it’s the sick you showing up and you get rejected, it won’t hurt as much as if it were the healthy you showing up and getting rejected. Your unconscious mind is so clever at trying to protect us, even if rationally and consciously it doesn’t make sense because you HATE your health issues!

I actually had a major flare up of heartburn when COVID hit that went on for a whole year. This time no lab test or supps or diets could “fix it”. It wasn’t until I resolved these deeper metaphysical root-causes (for me, I had hidden beliefs of being weak and incapable which was causing major dysfunction in my body and stress in my life) that I could free myself from the heartburn.

Until you can get to the bottom of this & reprogram your WHOLE self, you’ll constantly be managing your health issues – or worse, they’ll end up screaming louder at you!

It Takes Healing The Physical & The Metaphysical

Your body isn’t just a physical body. It is also a mental-emotional body, a spiritual body, an energetic body, an unconscious body and a nervous system. When it comes to healing, you CAN NOT separate the bodies.

Which is why in my functional medicine practice we help our clients heal all parts of themselves, for long-term resolution. It’s fascinating how quickly and robustly it works when you stop treating your symptoms in a reductionist way.

I’ve had clients who have seen 10-20 practitioners (allopathic and natural), and have hodge-podge tried to treat different parts of themselves, with little long-term change. When they joined our award-winning 6-month healing accelerator program, finally we could get all parts of themselves talking to each other and on the same page. This is when healing happens!

Keen To Learn How?

If you’re keen to learn how to holistically heal your gut, and get out of stress, overwhelm and burnout, I’d love to invite you to our (free) 3-Day LIVE Coaching: Stress, Burnout & Why Your Gut Protocol Isn’t Working, held on 21, 22 & 24 April at 12-1pm AEST.  This event is being held in celebration of Natural Medicine Week!! 🙂

Behind the scenes of Natural Medicine Week: Insights from a naturopath and a kinesiologist

Natural Medicine Week 2023 was another great year with 55 events hosted, 82,590 visiting the www.naturalmedicineweek.com.au website; 190,227 people engaging across our ATMS channels with likes, comments, clicks and shares; 2.6 million consumers reached via social media and a total estimated reach of 4.1 million.

We recently had the chance to speak to two Natural Medicine Week Ambassadors about their experiences being involved, to find out what they’ve learned and how its benefitted them and the industry.

Meet Danielle Elliott, a naturopath, herbalist, and homeopath with a special interest in digestive complaints and Alice Bullivant, a kinesiologist, mind body medicine therapist and integrative complementary therapist, two of our Ambassadors since 2021 each passionate about their therapies and sharing their knowledge.

  1. How did you first become involved in Natural Medicine Week, and what inspired you to become an Ambassador?

Danielle: I hosted my first event in 2019. It was a big learning experience for me, but I loved it. When the pandemic hit, it really gave me opportunities to continue to reach new clientele. I was approached by ATMS to be an Ambassador for the first time in 2021 and immediately I was excited about the prospect of helping to build awareness about the massive difference naturopathy can make in people’s lives.

Alice: After hearing from colleagues about Natural Medicine Week, I thought I’d give it a go and try something new by hosting my first online webinar (well first week of webinars). I learned so much in that first year about time management and overcommitting myself, but also how rewarding it was. I was honoured to be invited to be an Ambassador, as my therapy, kinesiology, is not well known or understood, and being an Ambassador is such a great opportunity to share the gift of kinesiology with our community.

  1. How has your involvement with Natural Medicine Week benefited you and your business?

Danielle: I think you learn to step up and be more visible, to not ‘play it small’. It made me get over my fear of being visible and in the last three years I have been sharing so much more of what I do and what I can help people achieve. Being able to help each other promote what we do and feel supported is a great part of the Natural Medicine Week experience and I get excited each year. Every time I am involved it helps to grow my following and my email list too, by having another angle or reason to create and share content on my social media accounts.

Alice: Being an Ambassador has benefited me with admin tasks, like time management and deadlines, and in marketing tasks like promoting my events, and being on camera to talk to an audience. It helps my business on many levels – it gives me both a reason and a deadline to get in front of the camera and be the face of my business, which can be a challenge to make a priority as a small business owner.

  1. Can you share some highlights or memorable moments from Natural Medicine Week?

Danielle: The most exciting thing for me, is the feeling I get after presenting my masterclasses for Natural Medicine Week, it leaves me so inspired and grateful to be doing the work I do. Attendees’ reactions at the end are always heartwarming. Sharing our knowledge with people who are interested and willing to hear about ‘another way’ is always exciting.

Alice: My favourite year was last year, where I talked about a familiar but unknown topic, cycle syncing, or how to flow with the natural rhythms of your body. It was also my most popular webinar to date, and my most well-developed plan that aligned well with where I wanted to take my business.

  1. Is there anything that you’ve learned from the experience?

Danielle: To not shy away from opportunity and putting yourself out there. It has got me over my fear of sharing what I do in clinic, for fear of what others might think or that I might ‘say the wrong thing’ or something ‘I’m not allowed to’.  I realise people need to hear what we have to say and to be able to share exactly how we can help people out there that are searching for answers to their health concerns.

Alice: I learned to not over-commit! I’ve learned how important being the face of your business is, and to talk all things natural therapies and to share the gift of what we do. This experience brings back many elements of my training in the corporate world in terms of project delivery and being reminded how a lot of my skills are transferrable to small business.

  1. What is their advice to other practitioners on getting involved with Natural Medicine Week?

Do not hesitate to say yes, just do it! You will grow in so many ways and be able to be involved in so much positive change for our industry.

“I believe that a growing awareness of what we do has led people to seek us out first, not as a last resort, which is really refreshing and is an incredible shift when you think about it. But we still have more work to do.” – Danielle Elliott

“This opportunity is so beneficial to you if you are starting out your journey, to get your name out there and establish some credibility for your business brand.  If you, like me, are more established, it helps you re-affirm your authority in your field, make strategic decisions, keep talking to people about your business and your modality, and create new opportunities, year-on-year.”- Alice Bullivant.