Seeing the Light: Adrenal Burnout & 10 Recalibration Experiments While You Wait
/With more than 20 tabs open on my computer, my mind resembles my computer - scattered, slowed way down, full and needing a reboot!
These days more than ever, I leave most things partially finished, multi-tasking impaired at best. I’m just two weeks from my sabbatical start date.
“Hi, my name is Sara, I’m a sabbatical coach and I’m close to burned out!”
This state of my body and mind is humbling to share.
My body aches and feels incredibly tired. My brain functions best at 3am as it tries to solve all of my world’s problems interrupting my deep, desperately needed REM sleep!
My doctor tells me this is once again a different version of my same story - hormone dysregulation – the stress hormones are shot!
I notice as I talk to my functional medicine doctor that my notes point to June 2023 as the last time we talked. Nearly two years ago was when I was last told I had low functioning adrenal glands and we needed to get on a supplement protocol for what my body was missing. Following the guidance and protocol helped create a baseline of functioning on a moderate and very slowed down scale for almost two years. I don’t know where I would be now without it!
Now, on the horizon, and less than two weeks away, I start a long overdue period of a long pause and reset. In many ways it is a plan set in motion when I met with this doctor nearly 2 years ago and in other ways it is 8 years in the making since living out my dreams of starting this non-profit – including all the highs and lows and stress my body absorbed.
For the first time, and over the last two days, I have just begun to feel the reality coming near.
Invited to continually live it out, I ask, “What do I know/not know that I share with others in the release phase of sabbatical that I have had to put into practice for myself?” This is for my reminder, if no one else.
“Horizon-focused” deep rest requires a recalibrated creative and counter-cultural way of living in the now. Below are a few recalibration practice ideas:
“‘Horizon-focused’ rest requires a recalibrated creative and counter-cultural way of living in the now. ”
1. I first must exercise kindness towards myself. I know that I am human and not a machine and there is no condemnation for adrenal burnout. I know some principles that I too must recognize and put into place that can offset and sustain me in this final push. I am called to authenticity and the invitation to practice what I preach and vulnerably share it with others in the process.
2. I continue to gain knowledge and tools but more than that, I must take the invitation to put these learned tools into practice. As a leadership development organization focused on sustaining leaders, we work with 6 phases of sabbatical, realize being the first phase – admitting that a break is needed. Realizing that something needs to shift, that I am not in control and that my ability to pause from work will result in good, no, actually GREAT holistic transformation!
3. This is normal! In the realize phase, I have the opportunity to begin to craft a plan for a sabbatical with good boundaries and intention for rest. And sadly, the release phase is also where many struggle and get stuck. We call it the off-ramping phase where the need to let go of responsibilities and detach oneself from their identity of work becomes challenging. Who is going to do my work for me? What if ____ doesn’t get done? The plans are set in motion to rest - soon, but not yet, and the final push to put work down is before me. This phase takes fervent effort to stay on course.
4. We encourage people who found themselves like me, aware, in need, and unable to set the plans in motion, to gradually pull back. Can I let go of responsibilities and work smarter not longer and harder? What if you could release your 100% work output, weekly (or monthly) from 100% output to 90% one week, 80% the next, 70% the next, etc. What if you could release your respsibilities and expectations on yourself and even hours in the office cut in half until your start date of sabbatical commencing?
5. Practice self-coaching. When we coach, the question that surfaces is often, “What support do you need right now in the phase you’re in?” I ask myself that regularly. What support do I need right here, right now? I’m trying to listen to my body’s invitation to slow down and allow the bad nights of sleep, body aches and overall exhaustion to have a voice in my daily rhythms of work. The support I often find myself needing is grace to go at a different pace. Other times I need the voices of reason from others who know me well.
6. Incorporate more fun and lightness into work. I’ve experimented with a number of different approaches to keep me on track towards a longer sabbatical break including working a 4-day work week. When I get my work done in 4 days, I play a game called “get to choose what to do with the 5th day”. I might leave it for personal meetings, volunteer work, writing, or a long hike with a friend. This change of pace is a reward for the other 4 days I stayed focused and a simple incentive that somehow works for my motivation.
7. The days I am working, I work a less rigid and pressured schedule incorporating more margin. I block off client days and use the remaining time and days for administrative tasks alternating weeks with creativity. I don’t cram what might need to be an hour meeting into 15 minutes. My brain won’t operate on full speed if I do choose to compress the time, making the meeting altogether useless. I give myself more margin between meetings and note what types of conversations and which types of people drain my limited energy, faster.
Jeff reminded me lately of the benefit of short spurts of work and then a reward at the end. Reward yourself for hard work! I let travel planning escapism and sabbatical planning into my work day as a break every couple of hours to give a break to the mundane tasks and hard decisions.
8. The greatest perk and strength we have in being a young non-profit is flexibility. We tap into this strength to give new life to our weaknesses. I have the flexibility to start my day later or end it earlier. I can take a longer or shorter lunch to work when I’m at my best. I might add exercising during the middle of the day when I’m tired, or take meetings at a coffee shop. And I might even be found taking a nap on a yoga mat on the floor! (Thank you Spanish culture learnings!)
9. Utilize my network. The perspective and support I need are unique in this season. I have to remind myself interdependence is good and I require it now more than ever. I look to my support network for a vantage point different from mine - one that is welcome and needed when my executive functioning is lacking.
10. And lastly, I’ve experimented with my playful/right-brain side, surrounding the intense and often paralyzing, left-brain decisions with engaging my body in a walk break, or a bike commute to/from work. I show up lighter, less cluttered in the brain and overwhelmed. It is a gift I can give myself to be in this playful mindset.
With these variations in my work day, I’m ultimately attempting to trick my brain into thinking of work as novel, fun, creative, playful and not monotonous, cumbersome, stressful, or demanding. I can choose to surround the stress or challenging meetings with the lightness of a different pace and posture. The new and novel, helps reset my brain and allow me to focus on what is working rather than what is not.
Without a plan and the necessary support, we see many people work at a 110% pace and especially during the release phase with the intent of off-loading only to crash into rest. While I’m limping a bit, I’m grateful to not be crashing! What looks like a hard crash takes a longer recovery time. I’m grateful for insight and foresight of those we’ve walked with and am trying to remind myself that the opportunity to say yes to more work will always be there. Instead I replace those thoughts with imagine the creativity that will come alive inside of me if I say a heartfelt yes to this necessary pause.
Over the last two years of waiting and re-writing the plans, I’ve grown deeper in compassion for myself and others. And I’ve learned to navigate delay in what my body speaks (or screams) that is needed. In the work we do, we humbly say, “we’re alongside of you in this journey towards holistic and ongoing health. We, too are invited to live what we know and believe.” What I know currently and have lived is that rest can be accessible, and if not for the moment, on the horizon. If rest is drawing you in, fight the long hard fight! It will truly be worth it.
For Reflection:
Which idea from the list above would you like to incorporate into your life? What feels most challenging to you and others when needing but not getting rest?