More and more of us are taking back the responsibility of caring for our loved ones. This could be burnout and exhaustion from preventative care for our families or spending days and weeks in the hospital giving lifesaving supplements and defending our family members from the hospital’s killing protocol. Regardless of the situations surrounding it, the strain on caregivers during times of crisis is real.
Here are a few tips to assist with preventing burnout for caregivers and boosting the adrenals of those who are overly tired. You can use this in times of prolonged stress as well. In the case of an airplane emergency, putting the oxygen mask on the parent before the child is essential, and this analogy is accurate in these situations. If the caregiver goes down, who will help the others in need? Doing some of the tips BEFORE you are in a burnout situation as a preventative is obviously recommended, but if you are already in a crash and burn state, doing these things several times a day is a must.
Our Vagus Nerve controls our fight or flight mechanism. When we are in a place of stress, our bodies tell us there is an emergency and kick off our adrenals to take action. This is why you will hear that a woman can lift a car off her child or do something superhuman in extreme situations. Adrenaline can do crazy things. But, when we are in a state of continued stress, too much adrenaline wrecks havoc on the system. It is a continuous dump of adrenaline and cortisol when they are constantly triggered and do not have the important periods of rest and recovery. You may find you have trouble sleeping. (Imagine your foot is continually on the gas pedal and stuck here.) Or sometimes it’s that you just…can’t…go anymore. Noises and even small stimuli bother you, decision-making abilities are gone, and the smallest molehill feels like a mountain.
Here are four things you can do RIGHT now to assist your body and calm your vegas nerve.
Sometimes as well, these symptoms don’t show up until AFTER the stressor or crisis is gone. Our bodies may keep going while they need to and then crash after the fact when our adrenals realize they can relax. BAM…it’s over.
So nourishing the caregiver is essential. This means of course proper rest and sleep, healthy foods, and sustaining supplements, like a methylated B complex, a quality multivitamin, Vitamin C, and good adrenal glandular support.
Here are 4 things you can do RIGHT now to assist your body and calm your vagus nerve.
4 Ways to Prevent Burnout for Caregivers
- Rock in a rocking chair. No wonder our grandmothers spent so much time in a rocking chair! Ha! Rocking stimulates the peripheral baroreceptors that regulate our blood pressure and activate the nervous system’s relaxation part.
- Humming. Some people naturally sing to themselves. Others need to make themselves gently hum to themselves. Take a few moments to just quietly hum while in the car, taking a shower, or laying down to sleep.
- Tapping is beneficial to calm the body in times of stress. We cannot recommend all the mental imagery that you will find out there associated with tapping. But, just the physical act of tapping can do amazing things to help calm the adrenals.
- Drink this Adrenal Cocktail. This simple recipe is cheap and most likely, you already have the ingredients in your home. This recipe from Aradiently Healthy Life is a major adrenal soother. So drink up!
“Anyone who does not get enough rest and relaxation to enjoy life, who drives him/herself constantly, who is never satisfied or is a perfectionist, who is under constant pressure (especially with few outlets for emotional release), who feels trapped or helpless, who feels overwhelmed by repeated or continuous difficulties, or who has experienced severe or chronic emotional or physical trauma or illness is probably already suffering from some degree of adrenal fatigue.”
― James L. Wilson, Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome
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