How My Exhaustion & Lack of Energy was Linked to My Finances

by mandyygthomas, posted in Ending Anxiety Around Money, Money Mindset

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How My Exhaustion & Lack of Energy was Linked to My Finances


Exhaustion and lack of energy because of financial stress

 

The Doctors Kept Saying There Was Nothing Wrong With Me

A few years ago my health was suffering, I was exhausted every single day and I kept going from doctor to doctor. I wasn’t receiving any answers and I was frustrated. The doctors kept telling me “I was healthy,” but I knew that couldn’t have been any further from the truth.

I started seeking other opinions and started going down the holistic route as I started working with naturopath doctors and alternative health care practitioners. We took a deep dive into my health and not surprising to me at all, I had a whole slew of problems that were causing my health to suffer and my energy to suck.

I ended up finding out that I had stage 3 adrenal fatigue, which basically just means that my body had hit burnout. My body was stressed for so long, of having my cortisol so high from extreme stress, that it now went to the other end and my cortisol levels were actually too low, which was definitely contributing to my fatigue.

I Just Wanted Someone to “Fix Me”

At first when I began my journey, I didn’t have the awareness that I do not. So, I really was more in a victim mode, thinking that all of these things were happening “to me.” At this point, I was trying to figure out which “superfoods,” which supplements, which magic pill was going to fix me. Man was I naïve and so out of touch with my body, my mind and what I was actually going through.

I was struggling at work because my energy was so drained. I dove off in meetings and I had a very hard time not head bobbing. My co-workers thought it was quite funny, but to me, I was so embarrassed and worried at the same time. I knew that it wasn’t just from not getting a good night sleep, I knew it was because my health was suffering greatly. I felt like I needed to sleep for about a week, it didn’t really seem to matter what I did, I just couldn’t get my energy back.

My energy was suffering because of my finances

I started on many different protocols from my naturopathic doctor, I took a lot of different supplements, hoping to find the one that would swoop in and save the day. I was searching for the “one missing link,” the little thing that was wrong with my body, that was causing my energy to be non-existent.

I didn’t have the awareness that I now do, at the time, I thought it was just one thing that was missing. Just one thing that was wrong. I was so out of touch, I had no idea how everything in our life is connected and how our stress can affect our energy levels. Of course I knew that stress wasn’t good for you, but I had no clue, just how much our stress impacts our energy.

I Grew up in a Household Where Money Was Scarce

For me, I grew up in a household where money was scarce. I didn’t know that I had anxiety about money, ever since I was a kid, but looking back now I can recognize it. I was so worried to ask my parents when I needed money for a school function. I knew it was going to cause them stress, so I would walk around my room for hours, practicing, how I was going to bring it up to my parents. I thought if I just used the “right words,” that I would be able to make it less of a burden for my parents.

Fast forward to my adult life, I had a six-figure career, I was managing my money very well and I didn’t have any debt. But holy, was the feelings of stress around money, real. To me, I felt as if finances were completely crumbling beneath me, I felt like I was going to lose everything. I brought the scarcity mindset from my childhood into my adult life and I put that story on repeat. That is the story that I affirmed to myself over and over again, so naturally, my body was stressed to the max. How could I have felt calm and in control, when I was literally freaking out every single day, in mind, about money. I was living in fear and scarcity and it was taking a toll on my body.

 

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How My Financial Stress, Weakened My Body

Our bodies are wired to protect us, to keep us safe. Our brains are complex and operate from a place of safety, self-preservation, survival being the utmost importance. They are not hard-wired for quality of life, they are wired for survival.

Our bodies perceive different kinds of stress in the same way. It can’t distinguish between internal or mental stress from physical stress. When we have a stressor in our life, our internal body experiences the same reactions to this stress. Our body can’t tell if we are stressed because a predator is chasing us and we are truly in a physical, life or death situation versus us being totally freaked out that we aren’t going to have enough money to pay our bills. Our body recognizes the mental stress, the same way that it does the mental stress, and this is very problematic for us.

When our body has adrenaline pumping through it, when our body goes into fight or flight, our body processes are VERY different than when we are feeling calm, secure and content. We have hormones that are rushing through our bodies that are trying to help us to combat this stress that it sees we are facing. It is not concerned about maintenance in your body and optimal health. Why would it? Think about it this way. If you are being chased by a predator, you want your body to go into fight or flight mode and get you the heck out of that situation or you aren’t going to survive. So, no it’s not going to place things like digestion, proper hormone function and other very important functions for optimal health, as the priority. It needs to focus its energy on saving your life.

How Your Anxiety is Affected by Your Money

Back in the day when humans were worried about predators and their physical safety, our bodies would be pumping adrenaline, stress hormones and everything it could, to get us out of that situation by ramping everything up on hyperdrive. Which hello, the human race thanks you for, otherwise our ancestors wouldn’t be here and neither would we.

Then they would get out of harm’s way, and their body functions would return back to normal because the stressor was no longer there (the predator). Unfortunately, the stressor that we now face on a daily basis, don’t really go away, they are consistently there in our lives. Our mental stressors such as feeling scarce about money, worrying about bills, worrying about why we can’t seem to save and not being able to do more of the things we want, etc. So there is no signal, to tell our brain and body, that we are in fact safe, that it doesn’t need to be preparing for battle and to make our normal bodily functions, a priority.

Our constant stress, physically changes how our body is functioning not just when we “think” we are stressed, but on a daily basis. Our body is so smart and it can tell when we are stressed, even when we say we aren’t or don’t think that we are.

My Cortisol Levels Were Much Too High, For Too Long

So for me, this constant stress I was experiencing, had my cortisol levels (the stress hormone) raised and pumping constantly, when they didn’t need to be. I do want to make it clear that I am not saying that cortisol is bad, cortisol very much plays an important role in our bodies, we do in fact need cortisol in our bodies. BUT, there is definitely a balance and it needs to be producing it for the right reasons at the right times. For me, my body was constantly producing cortisol because it truly did think that my body was in danger. It sensed my constant worrying about my finances as a threat to my survival.

So with my cortisol levels way higher than they should be, it made it really difficult to sleep. Your cortisol is supposed to be highest in the morning to help signal to your body to wake up, but in the evening it is supposed to taper off and be lowest at around 2 am. You want it lower before you go to sleep, so it can help signal to the other hormones in your body, that you need to fall asleep and rejuvenate. Well, my cortisol levels were literally telling my body, not to go to sleep! Besides the fact that I was also worried about my finances as I was laying in bed, it definitely didn’t help my body out one bit.

This is a very simplified and shortened version of how your cortisol levels can be affecting you, a great book that goes much more into detail that I loved, was The Cortisol Connection.

This went on for a few years and not having restful sleep at night, is literally a recipe for disaster right there.

 

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template! 

My Adrenal Glands Were So Overworked

My adrenal glands, (which are really tiny glands, they sit on top of your kidneys), were completely overused by this point. Your adrenal glands are what helps your body cope with stress, so they serve a very important function in your body. My adrenal glands were doing their absolute best to support me, but a body part can only keep up for so long when you are pushing it to the extreme max of its abilities.

When your adrenals become exhausted because they’ve been working overtime for years, you can really start to notice the effects on your body.

This is also a very simplified explanation of your adrenal glands and talking lightly about my adrenal fatigue. An amazing book that dives much deeper into this topic is Adrenal Fatigue – the 21st Century Stress Syndrome.

I am just sharing my personal experience, but how my body reacted was that my blood pressure became a lot lower and this is something that was to my surprise, something that can actually affect your energy levels.

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When you are constantly stressed and worried about your finances, your immune system takes a hit as well. For me, I am a person who typically doesn’t catch colds or the flu very easily. But within a two-month period, I was sick three times. Then later on, I was sick again for about 8 weeks and it kind of seemed change symptoms, I would get over the symptoms I was experiencing, but then new ones would hit me. My body was so run down, that immune system just couldn’t keep up.

Between not being able to sleep very well, taking forever to fall asleep and waking up multiple times throughout the night, combined with my daily thoughts of financial scarcity, my energy levels, just weren’t there. I would experience a slight improvement in my health with the health protocols that I was on, but they weren’t enough to really help me get my energy back.

Your Ability to Get Your Energy Back is Within You Already

And the reason that was, was because I was trying to find something externally to “fix” me. I kept giving my power away and I was desperate to basically do anything to improve my health. At the time, I didn’t understand the mind-body connection. I had no idea that I had to heal myself, from the mindset issues that I was experiencing. To be honest, I was so out of touch with my own body, that if someone would have told me at the time, that I needed to take a deep dive into the uncomfortable and deal with my internal experiences and traumas, I probably wouldn’t have listened, I would have likely brushed them off thinking that no, “you don’t get it, my body is broken and it just needs to be fixed.”

So this began the journey of me finally facing the things that scared me the most, that I know I was fearing, but I hadn’t said out loud to anyone.

I Kept My Feelings in About My Finances for Too Long

I had been bottling up how I felt so scarce about money for so long, that it was literally eating me away from the inside out.

I felt like I couldn’t open up about money because it was such a “taboo” topic. Which is exactly the reason why I am sharing so many personal details with you, because I want to end that stigma right now! Too many people are stuck and suffering because they are afraid to talk about how their financial situation or their money mindset, is truly affecting them. And it absolutely breaks my heart.

The thoughts and feelings that you have inside of you, they can weigh you down or lift you up. At this time in my life, my thoughts and how I was feeling inside but not honoring myself and saying them out loud, were weighing me down big time. They were sucking the little energy that I did have, right out of me.

 

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template! 

Get the Anvil Off Your Chest

So I encourage you, to open up. Open up about how you are feeling about your finances. The money story that you are telling yourself over and over again, that is what you are going to experience with your money, because you are literally manifesting it. It is so common that we think, that our situation determines our thoughts, which I now know and so fully believe to be true, is that our thoughts determine our reality. Start by opening up and getting this anvil off of your chest that you have been carrying around for years. Then consciously choose to use different words when you speak out loud and different thoughts that you think. You’ve been using low vibe and low energy thoughts and words for so long, it’s time that you think and feel empowered.

You are not a victim, you are the one who holds the key to your health and your energy.

When I shifted out of victim mode and took control over my thoughts, that is when I stepped into healing. Believe it or not, you’re not broken like you think you are, but if you keep telling yourself this, you will be.

You Need to Open Up

When I opened up to someone about my stress and finally talked about how I was feeling about my perceived finances from my poor money mindset, that is when my health dramatically improved. I made a full recovery of the many health problems that I was experiencing including my incredible lack of energy. I now, don’t fall asleep when I am in a meeting, I can sleep throughout the night and wake up feeling rested. I am so glad that I chose to be active in my healing process, by being honest and addressing my biggest stressor that was stealing my health, my financial mindset. This is why I so highly recommend, receiving financial coaching, it can be the biggest catalyst that completely changes your life, not just your finances.

This is why I am so incredibly passionate about helping individuals and couples with their finances. It goes so much deeper than just the numbers, it’s all about how you feel on the inside, how you feel energetically, how your physical and mental health feels.

I became a Certified Financial Education Instructor and I began Mandyy Thomas Coaching. I help women to reduce their stress & anxiety about money, to feel confident how there are handling their everyday money and improve their mental health by attending to their biggest stressor, their finances. I am not a financial advisor and I don’t help with investing, retirement or insurances, I help with managing your everyday money.

Please reach out to me, because I know exactly what you’re experiencing. I want to be able to help completely transform your life, by improving your finances and reducing your financial stress. You can find out more here about how I help women to transform their finances and their lives.

 

Do you want to finally feel confident in how you are managing your everyday finances?

Click here to download my Realistic Budget template! 

I am very active on Instagram, follow me here for more financial tips & tricks: http://instagram.com/mandyythomas (@mandyythomas)

 

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Do you have any questions or anything to add? Leave me a comment in the comments below and I will respond back to you!

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