Friday, June 7, 2013

Health Mishaps

So I am lying in my bed on a Friday evening, blogging.  My new favorite activity?  Yes, partially.  However, I will blame it on the infamous misapplication of health tools.......

Every other day or week or so, I become obsessed with brilliant new health concepts and I want to apply them to my life immediately.  I remembered a citrus fusion aromatherapy patch that I had bought in 2011 for travel to Cape Town, South Africa.  I also remembered how I encountered zero, zilch, not a moment of jet leg......now this was an amazing feat because Cape Town is 7 hours ahead of Minneapolis.  It is 11:10pm now and in Cape Town, it is 6:10am.  The first time I went to Cape Town, I lived there for about 7 months.  I had jet leg for about 3 weeks!  The second time that I went, I went for 3 weeks.  I had jet leg for 0 seconds.  Incredible.  I was a believer in my aromatherapy patches because I was full of energy and ready to go!

This week, I felt less than enthusiastic about the day to day wake up process and I remembered, my aromatherapy patches!  I need to find them and see if they work not only for jet leg, but also for energy!  Thus, I searched until I found a place in the Twin Cities that carried the patches.  I drove and applied the patch promptly at 5:00pm.  Perfect!  Now I have my patch-o-energy running through my veins and I am ready to go!

It is 11:14pm and the orange, lavender, citrus fusion is still pumping through my veins full force.  This might be a long night.  It reminds me of days in college when I would pound a caffeinated beverage at 4pm and expect to be sound asleep at midnight.  Well at least instead of caffeine it is a citrus essential oils patch.  I have made progress.

Sometimes, progress is all that it is about.  We all have a process and a path that we are on to grow and learn.  I wish that we would land and find that sweet spot where everything is settled and complete.  We are whole and happy, full of enlightenment and perfection with every piece in its place.  I wish it were that way.  I wish we even knew the landing date, like it was linked to the specific amount of time on the planet, such as 35 years old.  When you are 35 years old, you will have it all together, you will know what you are doing in every area of life and have mastered all that you need to master and now you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor and enjoy being perfect!

Sometimes we have the right tools, the right people in our lives, and the right opportunities and we just miss a minor detail like the timing of utilizing that specific tool.  Today it may be the aromatherapy patch, tomorrow it may be the wrong combination of food like wheat grass shots with apples, bananas, and cherries.  The cherries decide to fight with the apples and you have a bad combo....not the right food combining, you make a mental note and move onto the next health mishap.....learning and progressing with every mistake and every moment of success!

This reminds me of another health mishap that occurred in my life in 2010.  I had just arrived home from my favorite place in the world:  Cape Town.  After experiencing jet leg on the way there, I was expecting an easy landing.  However, I received quite the opposite when I arrived home.  I pretty much fell apart health wise for a while and developed a serious case of adrenal fatigue.

Learning about adrenal fatigue, I put myself on a plan to heal and reverse the effects.....and I found an awesome adrenal supplement.  Thus, I started the journey of healing my adrenal glands.  If you don't know what your adrenals are, they are small pea sized organs that sit on your kidneys.  Your adrenals are your stress-handling gland or back-up sugar handling gland.  Your adrenals give your body hormones that regulate and manage stress and sugar.

Your adrenals release adrenaline and noradrenaline in a fight or flight situation such as a major fight with a friend/spouse, a traumatic situation, a performance, an injury, etc....

In 2010 I was signed up for a Lindy Hop swing dancing performance with my friend Dan who choreographed a super fun dance for our group.......Since I was adrenally fatigued, I didn't know if my adrenals would kick in and help me give the extra boost I would need during a performance.  I decided to double up on my adrenal supplement right before the dance performance.

Needless to say, this was a major health misapplication because my adrenals were able to function and release the hormones necessary in order to perform and because I had supplemented adrenal support, my body responded in an over exaggerated, spastic, intense way....I was literally jumping and bouncing all over the stage.  I thought that I was going to fly off the stage if my partner accidentally let go of my hands during the dance.  I was off the wall hyper and uncontrollable.

We all have interesting life experiences and interesting moments of learning and growth.  We need to learn to embrace the learning curve of life, embrace our imperfections, and not stop growing and learning.  If we continue on the path, we will find what we need at the right moments.