How your emotional baggage is upsetting your thyroid health.

I absolutely loved bringing my ecourse Debunking your Thyroid.  In fact, together we got right into understanding the thyroid on a whole new level.  FYI – Debunking your Thyroid is now available as the e-course joining the rest of the Debunking series.    As part of managing health, especially when it comes to your thyroid, it’s all about the why.  Why is your thyroid in trouble?  Why is it playing games?  Why is your body responding the way it is?  Why did it change? So many questions and so many answers to be found.  During our event in Melbourne, we touched on emotional health – a HUGE piece of the puzzle in hormone balance.

You might be surprised to know that the brain of a person diagnosed with depression looks surprisingly similar to that which is experiencing thyroid issues.  Almost 20% of people with thyroid disorders are also on antidepressant medication according to a study reported in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry in 1996.  The point – your emotional health certainly helps shape the way your body functions, right down to a cellular level.  Chinese Medicine has forever loved to focus on the emotional relationship of the organs and in many illnesses, successful treatment of conditions and ailments lie in the resolution of emotional issues.  It’s one of the reasons I love Chinese Med so much, it’s all encompassing.

I’m no stranger to this and today I’d like to share my story with you.

After the birth of my daughter Olivia, I found myself constantly riddled with an overwhelming feeling of guilt, yet I had absolutely no reason to feel so.  I had a beautiful new baby, a supportive husband and a career well on it’s way.  I was blessed.  As days went on I tried to wrestle with the feelings that were fast becoming bigger than me.  I’d try and talk myself out of it, try and push on yet all the while, the consuming feeling as if a dark cloud stuck over my little mind, left me constantly drained.  Eventually, I had no option but to explore.  Of course, at a time when hormones are heightened, our bodies step it up a level to serve up stronger clues and as I dug into the depths of my emotional wellbeing, I began finding answers.  I set out to do some ‘mind work,’ to get into my subconscious and reveal the reasons of my feelings because in my research, it was in there that all my issues were bubbling.

After spending some time with my health coach, we drilled deep into my mind with specific tools only she knew (I certainly at this point didn’t), as if she were Mary Poppins with her magic bag.  After a series of techniques I landed in a place that my subconscious knew all too well yet my conscious was not privy to and facilitated understanding where I first felt such emotion.  The idea – to get in and change the way my brain was seeing things because somewhere the wiring (aka memories, thoughts and feelings) had taken an odd direction.  If we could work out what that was, we could get to the core of the issue.

As we dug in and I reached an semi-hypnotic state, my coach coaxed be back to the first time I had ever experienced this guilt to get to the root cause.  After what felt like some type of mind trip, she asked “what shoes are you wearing?” I replied, “patent leather shoes.”  “What are you doing?” She went on to ask.  I was at my uncles wedding, everybody was happy, dancing, laughing and SO in the moment.  But sitting on my shoulder, that black cloud emerged, was the background feeling of sadness.  My grandma was sick and she was slowly dying.  It was in this moment it seems, as an 11 year old girl, I had decided that it was up to me, to keep my family happy and excited as they were in this beautiful moment, because of course, as an 11 year old girl, that seemed actually possible.

Days went by and my Grandma eventually left this earth and the grief that the family suffered was palpable, like any other in the same position.  Years obviously followed and I eventually let those feelings somewhat dissolve, unaware that these very feelings and thoughts I had once created as an 11 year old, could be carried in my subconscious forever or at least until I dealt with them later in life.  It was these very thoughts and feelings that I was unaware of, that were playing out my life in the background, shaping how I saw the world.  I didn’t know they were there, even though I had experienced them myself and chosen to carry them on.  It took my hormones doing crazy things alerting me to the fact that something, just wasn’t right.  My emotional health was suffering.  I needed to change my story.  I needed to ‘rewire’ my thoughts.  And with my health coach I did just that.

Your subconscious is a very strange place.  It’s part of you and every now and again you get a snippet in.  But for the most part, you’re unaware even though it’s driving your thoughts and feelings.  The more I learn about emotional health, the more fascinated I get about the intricate inner workings of our bodies.

Emotional wellbeing can certainly be the icing on the cake but certainly darn well hard to get perspective and control on when your hormones aren’t playing happy.  I want to encourage you to explore your own why; why you might be struggling to make progress with your own thyroid or other corners of your hormone health.  During the Debunking your Thyroid event, I map out the why.  Where your thyroid went wrong – what was the trigger.  It’s such an important part in piecing it all together but certainly very possible.  I look forward to peeling back another layer in your health quest, it’s all about more information and informed choice as a way forward to maximised health.

Emotional health isn’t my arena but I know of many health coaches that can support you.  You might like to check out the following since I know some of you will be keen to explore.

I’ve been referring a lot of patients recently to Maximum You – a mother and daughter duo who have an amazing gift to repair your own relationship with yourself.

I’ve also worked with Lara Wilson at the The Greatness Academy as well as Vera West – both amazing.

The beautiful Tara Bliss and her book ‘High.’

I’ve also utilised Brandon Bay’s course The Journey – her book is a wonderful start.

Claire Baker and her website This is Lifeblood.

 

 

It’s important to find somebody that resonates with you to do the work.

 

For more info to Debunking your Thyroid, head here.

I’d love to hear if you’ve done similar work to dig into your mind.  It’s a fascinating place indeed!

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