Self Care September
It would be safe to say that any woman who has children is a super mum, it’s a 24/7 job that requires consistent energy, planning, preparing and is truly one of the most selfless jobs on the planet. I would certainly recognise the work of dads and their vital parenting role also but for the purpose of this blog we are making it all about the ladies.
Ok, so 12 weeks ago we had a walk by visit from a lady, let’s call her Kelly, super mum to 4 children who had ‘help me’ me written all over her face and body. Her shoulders were slumped forward, although she looked beautiful you could see fatigue in her face, she was nursing a coffee with hopes of some buzz would give her a little pick me up and had a rare 60 minutes for herself where she found herself wondering looking for something to inspire her. She had her hands full of flyers and as she walked in to ask some questions you could sense her feeling overwhelmed by all of the information she was being fed before entering here and didn’t know what direction to take and then there were tears…I just wanted to be a ‘super mum’ she cried as more tears came.
Sadly this is not an uncommon scene that occurs here as many mums experience similar issues of burn out, exhaustion, unable to juggle anymore, no down time which then opens up the flood gates for Stress, Anxiety, Depression to creep in and run their course. So we sat Kelly down, filled her up on some calming tea and listened to everything she had to say. Amongst the feelings of like she couldn’t cope, her body was now not functioning well, she had a series of new symptoms start a month prior: headaches, tingling here, pain there, leg cramps, unable to sleep, mind going at a million miles, low grade common cold feeling and fatigue, fatigue, fatigue. Kelly had visited her GP (smart women and we got the basics all ticked first) she had great blood results, he requested for her to see a neurologist for her bizarre symptoms, nothing came up there either, MRI? Yes she had that too, but she was a perfect bill of health, by the standard of that there was nothing that was an emergency situation….so why did she feel so blahhh, what was the cause and could we help?
When there is a range of bizarre symptoms and their general health is ok (nothing serious neurologically & most likely need some immunity/gut support) we can often put it down to a serious Nervous system overload more specifically our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). Your ANS (consists of two sections – Sympathetic & Parasympathetic) is like your internal Super Mum, it controls and coordinates all physical function even down to our breathing. It is constantly working and preparing our body and senses for whatever needs to occur and does so without a single thought process from us to occur. When in danger, defending ourselves or going through high amounts of stress our bodies go into a flight or fight response releasing stress hormones like no tomorrow in order for us to act or get through the situation, once the immediate stress is stopped then our ANS attempts to calm our body back to normal resting state. But here is the kicker…our ANS doesn’t know the difference between feeling stressed because we are stuck in traffic vs you have tripped and broken your arm. It gives the same response when you are big stress or small stress and when this is repeated on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly basis then your ANS actually never really gets your body back into a resting state or it doesn’t stay in that resting state long enough for your body to repair. So before you know it your blood pressure is consistently high, breathing is short and shallow, your muscles are tense, your energy depletes, immunity plummets, digestion is in struggle town and then because you are feeling awful your mental and emotional state start to suffer. Final product…one overwhelmed Kelly.
So how could we get Kelly flying high again ?
By way of nothing that is over stimulating to her or her nervous system, and every treatment must be monitored for her bodies reaction to ensure that we are calming her ANS. Our first stop was Reflexology, the ultimate way to target the nervous system without overloading her senses like a massage would through consistent touch (massage is amazing but for where Kelly was at, we had to approach very gently). Her response was amazing, she slept during the treatment and slept the whole evening through waking up feeling refreshed. We did 2 x 30minute Reflexology sessions each week for 2 weeks and on the 3rd week introduced one Yoga class into her routine. Yoga again is a brilliant tool for our Nervous system, allowing the mind to quieten, stretching the physical body whilst promoting a healthy lymphatic drainage ridding it of toxins and waste products. So as she started to feel more human and her coping mechanisms were much more tolerable we needed to tackle her diet changes through Naturopathy. Foods that are less inflammatory and more nutritious combined with supplements to support healthy nerve and muscle function. Four weeks on and Kelly looks brighter, is smiling, relaxed and feeling more motivated, nearly all of her symptoms have diminished or completely gone. As she starts to increase her exercise for more walking, low weights, swimming her muscle pain is now that of a post exercise tightness and she starts to introduce Myotherapy to her new Wellness regime. Although Kelly was feeling incredibly different she was still noticing that it was easy to fall back into that stressed state with everyday life and needed a tool to help her manage this is her own time without the heavy reliance on a treatment. Her answer, Mindfulness Meditation. She learnt how to meditate, how her brain and nervous system functions, how to live in the now and not have her thoughts sit in what happened last week and what she needed to do in 5 hours time and the best gift was how to set aside time for HER! Cue round of applause please for the improved and sparkly super mum.
Now 12 weeks on I received the most beautiful phone call from Kelly and it was like listening to a new a woman full of enthusiasm for life it was incredibly heart warming and the exact reason why Contagious Enthusiasm exists, but most importantly it gave Kelly the opportunity to learn about her body and to listen to it when it gives you an important shout out to stop, slow down and be still.
In finishing, Self care isn’t something that is easy, we have to make time for it. It’s like fuelling our car so it can keep on driving and if we put a round of dodgy fuel into our cars then we have a poor performance. Self care also doesn’t have to be complex or require a regime like Kelly’s, it may only mean you need to sit in the sun for 15minutes, or hug your sister, have a facial once a month, or like me have a really really good dance anywhere anytime!! Whatever floats your boat make time for it and enjoy it, your mind/body with replenish and give it back to you in focus and energy x 10 and never feel guilty for it.
Happy Self Care September tribe!!
By Natalie Hartwig (Myotherapist)
