This is third in a series of blog posts about Women In Business and Fatigue. I know anytime I ask a woman, how she is, the answer is almost always: "I'm dead tired", or " I'm beat", or "I'm exhausted". Those are the usual responses and I am guilty myself of answering the same way when I have felt totally drained.
Our question today is: "How do I "Conserve" my daily energy?" I can just hear you now…."How can I conserve when I don't have enough to work with in the first place?" Now isn't that a great question?!
Are you ready to take some simple questions and by doing just the opposite you will increase you energy immediately? "….that sounds too easy….what's the catch?" The catch is you are attached deeply to these things and to give them up means you have to give up something – The stress and The fatigue that they cause.
1. Who drains the life right out of you the moment you encounter them?
2. When do I eat a healthy meal when I am hungry?
3. What night(s) during the week do I work late or go to an activity that is not of my choosing?
4. How often do I just "suck it up" and not say something when I am hurt or taken advantage of?
5. How many nights in the past week did I get in bed by 10 pm and get a full 8?
OK, I know you had immediate answers to all 5 questions!
So how can you "CONSERVE" your daily energy?
1. Avoid interaction with this person. You will automatically get a boost of energy.
2. Stop and eat when you are hungry. Have something nutritious with you at all times. These items are already all around you. Toss them in your purse, car or brief case. When you go to do the grocery shopping this week, make a new column and title it "My Energy Foods" and start listing away. This will conserve your daily energy.
3. This one is a clear indication of having "no boundaries". The occasional working late for something is expected, but not every night or every week. Also here, I am including all those mindless after school activities that we parents think our children have to have in order to be "up to speed" with the other kids in order to take full advantage of……?what? You family and your family's schedule is not a democracy. ONE is enough. If you've got a prodigy then let me know and I will give you some great advice otherwise let me tell you what this leads to….Left unchecked this leads to a child who grows up and is always looking to be in a constant state of being on, entertained, busy and does not know how to entertain him/herself, feels restless etc. Freeing up your night time schedule conserves your energy.
4. This is one place where you do need to be in the "Boxing Ring" and stand up for yourself! Open you mouth and speak up. Yes, there may be consequences but you do not need that relationship if that is all you get. If it is a boss or co-worker you may need to go to HR and follow channels, but do not sit in silence and suffer. You will be amazed at how big and tall you feel when you speak up for yourself.
5. Go to bed at 10 pm. No ifs, ands, or buts…….the unfinished wash will still be there, the dishes will still be in the sink, the floor will still need vacuuming, it doesn't matter, you do! You do not need to stay up to listen to the news….it already happened and they will repeat it all over again in the morning and tomorrow night at dinner again, you can get it online. You do not need to know what the weather is going to be anyway….it will happen whether you know what it is or not. When you get up: look out the window and you'll know! It is more important for you to get to sleep and allow your body to repair.
Next time we will explore: How Do I Create Energy In My Life.
Filed under Awareness, Growth, Women In Business by 
Women-In-Business suffer from fatigue and specifically "Adrenal Fatigue" and most do not know what is going on with their bodies. All they know for sure is that they are in overwhelm and totally exhausted and are trapped in the endless cycle of "Fatigue".
Last time we talked about answering some questions. So how did you answer those questions? Your answers are the window into what is going on inside of your body. Let's take a look at those answers in a "general" context and see if you can relate.
1. How do I spend the energy that is available to me each day? When I speak about this topic or when I am coaching a client on the "energy" piece we do a very specific exercise. I have the woman take out the lost few pages of her paper planner (if she is digital, I provide her with the pages) for one week. I place a pack of colored pencils in front of her and we start to color in her life as it truly is. I ask her to color in the hours (out of the 24 she has available to her) that she sleep each night. Remember here that for this "Adrenal Fatigued" woman this will not be a regular sleep pattern. Each night may be different. We take that color and make a "Legend" that let's say "Blue" is "Sleep".
Next we take the next "known"…."Work" and choose another color for work and add it to the "Legend". She is then instructed to color in her work time every day of this week we are looking at.
Next we take the other "knowns" one at a time and choose a color from our box and add each to our "Legend". She is instructed to color in each of those "knowns" every day of this week we are working with.
What happens is that this precious soul visually sees where she spends her available energy each day of any given week.
This is huge for most women. The reason is that they know they are really busy and when you ask them what have they done, they are fuzzy and it is all a big blur. That's "fatigue"!
What are some of the things that are not visible on this "Energy Available" exercise? If I take this a step further and ask this woman: "OK, wow, your week is really full; when do you:
*rest?
*have relaxation?
*take a vacation?
*enjoy your own passionate activities?
*get out into the fresh air?
*have fun?
*become spiritually renewed?
*enjoy friends?
I usually get a blank stare and the trite comment: "….who has time for those?" My comment is that: "…Y-O-U….at this point cannot afford not to build in these moments in your life with your current state of "Fatigue"…!"
Today, I challenge you to do this exercise on your own and use your child's crayons or colored pencils and see what you "Real Life" looks like on paper.
Next time we will look at "Conserving Energy."
Filed under Awareness by
Does this look like you most days? Recently, I got some news from a comprehensive blood test and I wasn't surprised. My doctor told me I have "Adrenal Fatigue". Well, yeah, I have been going at it for some time (well maybe it is more like a couple of decades, but isn't that what I am suppose to do?)
Turns out: "….well, no so much…." So just like you I did some digging, researching and lots of reading and I have educated myself on "Adrenal Fatigue". Here's what I have learned; see if you can identify with any of this.
Stress is addictive. Stress is also cumulative!
Have you experienced any of these items over the past decade:
___death of a loved one
___loss of a job
___loss of your home
___serious illness
___surgery
___bankruptcy
___constant travel across the international date line
___frequent travel across multiple time zones
The items listed above are the big stressors that take lots of time to regain your own internal balance from.
Here is the list of items that are fairly normal occurrences which when piled up over time without the proper balance to normalcy occurring can put you in Adrenal Fatigue: How many of these have you had over the past couple of years?
___abscessed tooth or dental surgery
___flu
___intense physical exertion
___quarrel with a loved one
___pressure in the workplace
___unhappy relationship
___exposure to toxins
These two lists are just a fraction of the items that can lead to Adrenal Fatigue. Fatigue comes from *Small stressors occurring simultaneously and frequently, * when these stressors accumulate over time, & * chronic occurrence.
OK, let's do a little quiz here.
Do you know where your adrenals are in your body?
The adrenals sit just just atop both of your kidneys. There are two adrenal glands. The adrenals are protected by your rib cage and are located in your lower back area.
Do you know what they are for (in other words their function)?
The adrenals help your body deal with stress from injury, disease, work problems, relationship issues and the like. They regulate your hormones. The hormones they regulate are Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, DHEA, Pregnenolone,Progesterone, Estrogeones, Testosterones, Androstenedione, Crotisol, Aldosterone. All big words for sure and each of these in turn has a specific action. If you are really interested in reading up on this I can highly recommend: "Adrenal Fatigue" by James L. Wilson, ND, PhD.
The good news about all of this is that Y-O-U can reverse this fatigue!
Here is some of the most empowering words I have ever read:
You do not have to give our power to someone else in the hope that they know what to do for you!
Here's my take on this:
Recovery comes from Y-O-U taking your life back and Y-O-U making the choices, the decisions. Y- O- U design your own recovery, you implement your recovery, you adjust your recovery and you get the immediate benefits from your choices and actions!
Here are 7 steps to making a recovery plan for yourself. You must know the answers to these 7 questions before you can design a program.
1. How do I spend the energy that is available to me each day?
2. How do I conserve my energy?
3. How do I create my energy?
4. What do I eat?
5. What do I drink?
6. What thoughts feed my mind daily?
7. What beliefs do I base my life on?
Did it every occur to you that what you put in is what you get back? It's that old saying; "garbage in = garbage out" only in this case "Adrenal Fatigue" is what comes out.
Over the next several posts, I want to educate you on this topic and how it reeks havoc in the lives of Women-In-Business!
Filed under Awareness by