How to Put Your Own Health First to Avoid Burnout

“Stillness is one of the most important ways you can listen to your body and prioritize your health.” — Maria Menounos

In a world laden with conflicting health information, we all need to be our own health advocate these days. This becomes even more important during huge life changes, such as having kids where the endless demands of parenthood can quickly lead to depleted resources and burnout.

Looking out for one’s own health only gets more difficult and complicated when we’ve taken on the responsibility of caring for someone else. All parents can identify with this story. After having my daughter, the need to magically produce non-stop energy quickly quickly claimed a newfound permanence in my own life. All of the sudden, I was being called to go far beyond basic human functioning to a level of physical, emotional and spiritual feats I would have never deemed possible prior to having kids. In this light, we all transform into superheroes to some degree after having kids.

All too often however, when we’re out in the trenches (such as waking up at 3am yet again to a screaming infant) it can become easy to write off fatigue, foggy brain, and indigestion simply as battle wounds of parenthood — or a successful career — or a stressful period in our lives — and never give them a second thought. Now humor me, if you will, and let’s take another look because it turns out that many of these symptoms are actually signs the microbes in our gut are trying to tell us something.

Our Gut’s Neural Connection to Our Brain

There is an entire nervous system within our gut, called the enteric nervous system — composed of 500 million neurons — with their own feelings and messages they are sending us all day long. These little factory workers tirelessly build neurotransmitters and hormones for our emotional and physical well-being. Arguably, the health of our gut and enteric nervous system — determined by the diversity of beneficial microbes — will largely determine our own resilience and emotional fortitude in times of stress.

The composition of microbiota in our gut also directly communicate with our brain. They do this in two ways. One is by building up to 90% of the neurotransmitters GABA and Serotonin for our entire body, which help relieve or avoid depression and anxiety. Second, they then send 90% of the messages (how we feel internally) from our physical body through our vagus nerve to our brain, the primary line of communication from our body to our brain.

Recent research suggests that chronic stress is largely linked to an imbalance of neurons and microbes within our gut.

Stress and Our Microbiome

Our perceived stress directly affects the health of our microbiome through the “gut-brain axis,” by changing the pH of our gut microbiome thereby making it more or less habitable for healthy, or unhealthy flora, to grow unencumbered.

When pathogenic flora starts to grow, this can lead to symptoms like foggy brain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, blood sugar swings, and junk food cravings — ultimately weakening our immune system and could contribute to the development of autoimmune disease. Recent research shows that when unhealthy, or pathogenic flora, starts to grow, this can lead to “leaky gut” which causes an inflammatory autoimmune response to the foods we are eating and result in food sensitivities, joint pain, skin conditions, and other inflammatory conditions, autoimmune disease, and even cancer.

A meta-analysis published in 2016 found that psychotherapy can dramatically improve the health of someone’s “gut-brain axis.” We know from thousands of mind-body studies that reducing stress through mindfulness and meditation improves our psychological and physical well-being. This means taking the time to practice mindfulness can improve the health of our gut and by extension our overall health. Taking just a few minutes to tune in to our enteric nervous system through mindfulness and meditation can help us understand where many of our cravings are really coming from.

Using Mindfulness to Interpret Stress and Cravings

Our body releases the hormone leptin in two situations: both when we feel safe and when we have had enough to eat. It’s no wonder eating in times of stress is in fact, comforting.

These three tips for triggering your leptin levels and managing stress, will curb your junk food cravings in any situation. Take a moment to do these exercises by yourself, away from other people and distractions. Even if you have to lock yourself in the bathroom for 3–5 minutes, trust me, it’ll be worth it.

Find a comfortable seated position. It can help to do a few stretches, like rolling your neck in slow, wide circle from left to right, and the right to left a few times prior to beginning the meditation.

1. Place one hand on your heart and repeat the mantra, “I am listening,” 50 times. You can use your fingers to count by five, a bead necklace, or set a timer for 3–5 minutes.
2. Now place your hand on your belly and say, “I am safe,” 50 more times.
3. Drink a large glass of water spiked with prebiotics (I like Green Vibrance green drink)

After sitting in mindfulness, ask your body what it needs most in this moment. Maybe you needed a few minutes to yourself? Maybe your beneficial gut microbes were just trying to tell you they needed plant fiber or prebiotics to do their job of breaking down our food, absorbing nutrients, and harvesting neurotransmitters to protect against depression and anxiety, among other important tasks.

Notice if your cravings have changed or diminished in any way after the meditation. What is your body craving now? Instead of junk foods are you craving hydration or a healthy snack? Maybe a few minutes ago you thought you needed sweets to keep you going, but what your body really needs is to take five minutes to rest and reconnect.

Be Your Own Health Advocate and Trust Your “Gut”

“We have to love ourselves enough to listen to our bodies. I live my life now putting my health first: my physical, emotional and spiritual health.” — Maria Menounos

But life is busy, you say. Who can afford to take time to check in with their gut neurons and microbes to ask what it is they might need? I would argue, we can’t afford to not take time each day to check in with their bodies and microbes.

I recently heard Maria Menounos’s inspirational story of her and her mother’s dual battle with brain cancer at a conference in New York City. After the standard treatments of chemo and radiation weren’t working to rid her mother’s body of the aggressive form of cancer that had produced a large tumor in her brain, her time was running out. Maria had to turn to her own gut feeling and sought second opinions from holistically minded practitioners beyond the western medical sphere. She took her mother to naturopaths, herbalists, therapists and even a shaman to try and address her mother’s condition from all sides. Her story resonated with me deeply as an example of the perseverance required to navigate the medical world, especially when you are faced with such a tragic diagnosis. After going through the standard route of care, her mother included treatments based in diet and plant-based medicine, meditation, mindfulness, and therapy.

“You need to be your own health advocate. You can’t lay your faith and trust in your doctor solely. Ultimately, you need to go with your gut.” — Maria Menounos

Maria then had to be her own health advocate when, not long after her mother’s recovery, she was faced with the same terrifying diagnosis. Miraculously, both Maria and her mother made a full recovery from an often deadly form of cancer. Her and her mother’s recovery is a example of what is possible when illness is addressed from all sides. Not only did both Maria and her mother both survive, but they are now thriving and living life from a whole new perspective where they now take measures to prioritize their own health and wellbeing, above all else.

There are many natural, plant-based ways to bolster the health of our gut microbiome which we can turn to in order to strengthen our immune system and bolster our internal reserves when combatting stress or illness. Most strains of unhealthy bacteria overgrowth (which can also lead to SIBO) love refined carbohydrates which quickly and easily convert to glucose, a.k.a sugar, in our digestive tract. Whereas the majority of the healthy species within our gut live off excess fiber from plant-foods in our diet and foods rich in probiotics and prebiotics like fermented foods (sauerkraut, miso, kombucha) and powdered green drinks.

We can all advocate for our best physical, emotional, and spiritual health and get to the bottom of what our gut is truly trying to tell us. All we need to do is believe in ourselves, and listen to and feed our gut the foods and practices it needs to stay nourished and healthy.

This article is inspired by my book A Gut Feeling: Conquer Your Sweet Tooth by Tuning Into Your Microbiome.

Follow me on Instagram @HeatherAnneWiseand learn more at HeatherAnneWise.com.