When I hit rock bottom with my hormonal problems and didn’t know what to do, I visited a homeopath to try and find some help. He is a family friend, and listened to my detailed story for 15 minutes before even talking. For me, I was a desperate clinical case and only a genius could find a solution to my PMS problems. But, as genius as he is, he looked at me and said: “it’s very simple. The body produces cortisol, a hormone that helps us deal with stress. However, if there is not enough cortisol, the body cannot deal with stress accurately and will produce cortisol from your progesterone stock, hence why you’ve been feeling so bad before menstruation”. As he also happens to specialize in burnout treatment, you can imagine that he knew enough about stress to help me. I was probably an easy case for him! After prescribing me with a battery of supplements and vitamins, he recommended that I lowered my stress levels to a minimum, as well as eat a lot of healthy fats to feed my brain properly and help restore my hormones, and primarily my cortisol hormones. You understood it, in my case, stress was one of the main factors.
The thing is, I had no idea how to relax. I thought that watching a movie was relaxing, even though my brain was racing at 500 km/h with thoughts, or even worse, scrolling through social media. It was a big step for me to choose to slow down and say “no” to certain events or opportunities and force myself to take it slow, but I had decided to put my health as a top priority.
Let me ask you something now. When was the last time that you did absolutely nothing, and by absolutely nothing, I mean: no talking, no phone, no background noise, no watching nothing, no cooking, no reading, no moving, no overthinking, NOTHING. Trust me, sit on a bench everyday and let all your thoughts slip from your brain for as long as you can. When I first started, I could not hold it for more than 30 seconds. I would think about something else again. In meditation, they call this “the monkey brain”, and it is normal. If you keep this practice everyday, it will do wonders for your mental and physical health. When I started, I would do it every time I felt stressed or overwhelmed.
If you already practice meditation, that’s even better. It is very important to manage stress levels, because the less stressed you are, the less stressed you will get. On the other hand, the more stressed you are… well the more kookoo banana crazy you will go at the end of the month!
