Adrenal Exercise
Let’s face it, life isn’t easy sometimes. Perhaps you are stressed or worried, or you have lived your whole life feeling as if you are walking on eggshells. Or maybe you have suffered a big shock – a car accident perhaps, a loved one dying, or the sudden loss of a relationship or a job. Such stress creates a toll on our bodies, particularly on our kidneys. Sitting on top of each kidney, looking like little pyramids are our adrenal glands. These are intended to create adrenaline rushes – hormones pumped into our bloodstream – in times of crisis. Our bodies continue to operate on rather an old model, they are still looking out for dinosaurs and Sabre-toothed tigers. The rush of adrenaline into our blood gives us the energy to quickly run away to the safety of our ‘caves’, or to fight the baddie who is threatening to attack us. But our ‘fight or flight’ response was always meant to be for a short period of time, just enough for us to get to safety. In no way were we ever meant to live on adrenaline! But many people do.
Our stress response is often triggered as children, and I have seen many clients who have lived on adrenaline for decades. This has a devastating effect on our lives and particularly, on our health. We remain wired, constantly looking for danger. We can see this easily in PTSD suffered by military personnel. But we don’t need to be in the military to live on adrenaline. It is important to remember that adrenal energy is finite, the kidneys can produce only so much of it. Then the body starts to pull from the thyroid, or we suffer from total exhaustion, – adrenal fatigue or even kidney damage. The problem is that no one ever tells the adrenals that the danger is over because we are so cut off from ourselves, we assume our brain will inform the body, but it doesn’t. Additionally, the heart and the kidneys tend to set each other off, trigger each other. It is important to bring stress hormones levels down by breaking the link between the heart and the adrenals and calming them both down. The exercise below is perfect for this. It is normally reserved for my clients, but I am sharing it here with you now because I recognise that with everything happening in the world right now, many of us are struggling. Even if you have had a stressful day at work, or the kids have driven you crazy today and you are feeling frazzled, this exercise is wonderful for calming you down. There is a video to help you plus it is written out for you below. Take your time with it, you are worth the time. I have done this exercise for many years now and when I feel a little stressed, even if I am walking around, I talk to my kidneys and my heart in my head and reassure them and things shift immediately, and I feel calmer. We are separated from our bodies more than ever before. Think of your body as a frightened little puppy, wondering what on earth is going on… talk to it kindly, reassure it, calm it and it will repay you in ways you never dreamed possible.
ADRENAL DECOUPLING EXERCISE
To be done before sleep and also preferably before getting out of bed in the morning.
This exercise is best done while lying in bed.
Lying on your back, take some time to relax your body, starting at the head working down to the feet, softening it and allowing it to become heavy – as we do in our sessions.
Quietly and slowly regulate your breathing, short breath in, long slow breath out. Really allow the body to relax and become heavy. Connect with (or feel) your heartbeat; see how fast it is going. If you can’t connect to the heart you can put your hand on your heart to feel the beat.
In your head, in a soft singsong voice, speak directly to your heart like it is a child. “There, there, everything is ok, you are safe, you can relax now, everything is ok, shhhh, shhhh, “ over and over until you feel your heart rate slow down.
Then, as if you are carrying a cord from your heart, sink your attention through the bed, the house, into the earth, past all the tree roots, the rocks, the stones, deeper into the earth, deeper, deeper and faster, past all the different layers of minerals, ….to where the earth becomes warm as you reach the core and connect that cord to the core of the earth.
Hear the slow, strong steady heartbeat of Mother Earth, your true Mother, Ba Booom, Ba Booom, Ba Booom…. And bring that heartbeat back up the cord, all the way through the earth, higher and higher, faster and faster, through all the different layers of minerals…higher still, past the rocks and the stones, the tree roots, bring it through the house, the bed, and connect the heartbeat of the earth to your heart, and allow them to synchronise.
Now, drop your attention down in your body, to your lower back, to your adrenal glands, which sit on the top of your kidneys like little pyramids. Get a sense of how stressed they are, how fast they are working.
In your head, in a soft singsong voice, speak directly to your adrenals like you would a child. “There, there, everything is ok, you are safe, you’ve worked so hard but you can relax now, everything is ok, shhhh, shhhh,“ over and over until you feel the activity levels in your adrenals slow down.
Then, as if you are carrying a cord from your adrenals, sink your attention through the bed, the house, into the earth, past all the tree roots, the rocks, the stones, deeper into the earth, deeper, deeper and faster, past all the different layers of minerals, ….to where the earth becomes warm as you reach the core and connect that cord to the core of the earth.
Hear the slow, strong steady heartbeat of Mother Earth, your true Mother, Ba Booom, Ba Booom, Ba Booom…. And bring that heartbeat back up the cord, all the way through the earth, higher and higher, faster and faster, through all the different layers of minerals…higher still, past the rocks and the stones, the tree roots, bring it through the house, the bed, and connect the heartbeat of the earth to your adrenals, and allow the pulses to synchronise.
Then allow the heartbeat of the earth to synchronise between your heart and your adrenals.
Now see that your heart is connected to the earth, your adrenals are connected to the earth, but there no connection now in the body between the adrenals and the heart, they are only connected by the heartbeat of the earth.
Breath and relax. And sleep well, held by the heartbeat of the earth.