Exhausted and wondering why your healthy eating and prioritising sleep haven’t moved the needle on your energy as much as you’d like? Here’s why.

1. Adrenal dysfunction

Long term stress can change the function of your adrenal glands, leading to fatigue as well as brain fog, weight gain, sugar and coffee cravings and poor sleep.

Resting or taking a holiday won’t work, as your adrenals need to be toned and strengthened.

Your adrenal glands are responsible for cortisol production that impacts your energy levels.

This requires specific nutrients, and often herbs, to help bring your adrenal gland’s function back into balance.

2. Absorption antagonists 

When you’re constantly stressed, your body won’t absorb nutrients as well as it could – leading to fatigue.

This is because when the sympathetic nervous system is activated, digestion slows down dramatically.

This means less stomach acid and digestive enzymes are produced, so even if you’re eating a nutrient dense diet, you won’t be getting all the nutrition out of what you’re eating.

Hence nutritional deficiencies can occur, which can further compromise adrenal gland function.

3. PYL Syndrome 

What’s PYL Syndrome?

‘Putting yourself last’ on your to-do list.

Do you nurture and help others before yourself?

Do you feel you’re a failure / not good enough if you say ‘no’ to a request…. or say ‘yes’ because you have something to prove, or feel the other person’s needs are more important than yours?

It’s likely you base your worth on external factors.

Hence, putting yourself first isn’t just about scheduling ‘me time’.

It’s about rewiring beliefs around your worth and treating yourself as your number one asset (because you ARE!).

Think of the person you love the most. Is that person you…?

It should be! Not in a self-loving, narcissistic way – in a caring, nurturing way.

4. Mental and emotional drain

Your brain has a natural negative bias, hence most of your thoughts are negative.

If you allow your thoughts and emotions to govern your life, you’ll feel constantly drained.

Constant negative mental chatter can trigger the fear centre in your brain, keeping you stressed and exhausted.

Yet you can train your brain to be less reactive, and to master your emotions so rather than hold on and feel drained by them, you release and are free from them.

5. You’re out of touch with what you want most in life

Are you living a life that aligns with your deepest values and desires?

If not, you’ll feel a daily sense of conflict, uncertainty and overwhelm, as you aren’t focusing on what truly matters to you.

Consider:

What are your biggest dreams, and are you on track to achieving them?

Are you focusing on what’s important to you – or what’s important to others?

What do you value most in life (for me it’s health, freedom, learning, personal development and love) – and are you experiencing them daily?

Getting clarity on these areas and restructuring your life to prioritise your values and desires will keep you feeling energised rather than depleting.

Start with what works for you first

You needn’t take action on all these areas at once – start with what makes the most sense for you.

Which are do you feel you need to focus on the most?

Start there.