A question we've received several times is: "I'm tired all the time, what should I do? I think I'm exhausted."
When you experience extreme fatigue or exhaustion, you have likely gone through noticeable or underlying stress for an extended period. You may also have experienced a traumatic life event.
After prolonged stress, your stores of the neurotransmitter serotonin are often depleted. When serotonin levels drop below an optimal value, you may have difficulty falling asleep or wake up during the night, experience worry and/or anxiety.
When serotonin becomes very low, the adrenal glands don't receive signals from the brain to produce cortisol and DHEA.
This can make you feel exhausted, depressed, and find it difficult to handle stress and pressured situations. Here's information we hope can support you if you recognize yourself in this.## Patience
The most important thing is to have patience with yourself and your life situation. To pause and be kind to yourself. If you've pushed yourself too far, there is no "quick fix" - it takes time to return to your former self or better yet: a "new you".
Recovery
Recovery can take a long time but it is absolutely possible! Giving yourself time every day for relaxation and rest as well as sleep is very important. Rest. Sleep. Reduce stress. Say no to everything you cannot manage.
1. Relaxation
If you find it difficult to relax, techniques such as pre-recorded meditation or breathing exercises work well. Other tips include talk therapy, meditation, calming music, and walks in nature. Meditation is a fantastic tool for pausing momentarily, which everyone can learn, little by little. Meditation releases calming neurotransmitters that transform reactions into relaxed states.
2. Listen to your body
If you find yourself becoming sad, angry, or panicked when saying yes to things and taking on tasks such as a new assignment at work, you need rest. This is experienced differently by everyone, but remember that there's nothing wrong with you, you just need to take care of yourself.
3. Rest
If you experience a feeling of "shaking" inside - a sensation someone with exhaustion can often relate to - it is extremely important to rest, and rest with warmth can be beneficial. This could include taking a bath, using a hot water bottle on your body, visiting a spa, or getting a massage.
Closeness to someone you can relax with works too. Or simply holding someone's hand. Someone who can help you regulate yourself. You can also drink a cup of herbal tea or miso soup, or eat a piece of fruit. Anything that gives you a feeling of well-being and provides "comfort." Being close to animals also provides great comfort, if possible.
Healthy Diet
4. Clean Food
It's important to choose food that is as clean as possible with as much nutrition as possible.
5. Nutritious Food
Real, nutritious food includes vegetables in all colors and forms, sprouts, fruit, berries, nuts, and seeds. Try to vary your vegetables so you get different colors on your plate with each meal. Green juices are also highly nutritious. Since "living" foods are full of nutrients, they provide us with pure energy. Unrefined carbohydrates (whole grains, beans, and vegetables) along with good protein and healthy fats like cold-pressed olive oil and Omega 3 are also important.
6. Reduce Gluten and Dairy
It's worth trying to eliminate gluten and dairy products for a while to see how you feel, and instead try plant-based alternatives. Fish can be beneficial but in smaller portions, as it unfortunately contains heavy metals today which can weaken us. There are also environmental concerns surrounding fish which means it's no longer an obvious choice.
7. Avoid Stimulants
It's important not to overstimulate your body with too much coffee, cocoa, alcohol, or sugar. If you're severely exhausted, you can easily experience heart palpitations or anxiety from certain foods and drinks. Yes, you read that correctly, you can experience anxiety from food and drink if your liver isn't capable of handling the intake. During certain periods in life, the liver has too much work to do.
Alcohol is one example that can be immediately felt when you're exhausted. Sometimes you feel the effects right away, sometimes you notice them after a few hours.
8. Drink Water
Drink plenty of water, water with lemon/lime, and herbal teas.
How Often Should I Eat
9. Eat Smaller and More Frequent Meals
If you're exhausted, it can be beneficial to eat smaller amounts more frequently. This is because when you experience low levels of adrenal hormones, your blood sugar can fluctuate, and low blood sugar can put additional strain on your adrenal glands. To reduce this effect, it's important not to become too hungry. This can make you feel even shakier.
10. Don't Fast
If you're exhausted, you should avoid intermittent fasting or complete fasting as it can stress your body even more. This is something you can do when you're 100% recovered and your body has all its building blocks again. Your body needs nutrition to handle detoxification.
Exercise
11. No Intense Exercise
Intense exercise is not a good idea when you're exhausted - instead, you need to exercise in a more gentle way. For example yoga, dance, cycling, swimming, or forest walks. You can gradually build up your exercise routine over time until you feel more energy and strength and find that slightly more challenging exercise works. Then exercise will provide the energy it should.
12. Exercise Should Make You Happy
After exercising, you should feel happy and fulfilled. If you feel unwell, the exercise was too intense. Herbs, such as adaptogenic herbs, can be a very good idea. Adaptogens are herbs and plants that work to increase the body's ability to adapt to different forms of physical, mental, chemical, and biological stress as well as changing situations.
Finding which adaptogen suits you best is something you need to discover through trial and error. We recommend taking one adaptogen at a time.
Read more about adaptogens.
Supplements
13. Take Supplements
Suggestions for important supplements that provide support in different ways:
Vitamin C – a superb antioxidant that really supports us in all situations
B-complex – B vitamins are so important.
Extra B-12 – consider getting your B-12 levels tested to see where you stand.
Probiotics
Magnesium – very beneficial for anxiety, pain, and stress.
CoQ10 – for cellular and heart energy.
Lemon balm – both calming and uplifting.
An herbal blend for good sleep – such as Sleep Balance.
L-Theanine – a fantastic amino acid for stress and anxiety.
Iodine – supports the thyroid.
Selenium – very important for both the thyroid and immune system.
Infection & Inflammation
14. Take Care of Infection and Inflammation
Be aware that if you're carrying a long-term infection, your immune system and adrenal glands are working overtime. It's important to identify and address the infection or inflammation. Common infections can include digestive problems or dental issues. Culprits like bacteria, viruses, fungi (candida), parasites, or heavy metals need to be removed from the body as they worsen and create fatigue. This is difficult to know and understand on your own, so we recommend visiting a nutritional therapist or functional medicine doctor for testing. Ask for help! Contact us if you have questions and take care of yourself out there.
