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Welcome back to Chasing Eden, the podcast where we explore
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real ways to restore health, reclaim joy, and reconnect to
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a more natural and balanced life. I'm your host, Carolyn Thompson,
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and today we're diving into something that most of us
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feel but rarely address at its root. Fatigue and exhaustion.
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Not the kind you shake off after one night of
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bad sleep. I'm talking about that deeper kind of weariness,
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the kind that sits in your bones. Today we're going
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to talk about where it's coming from, how it's affecting
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you more than you think, and how to combat it
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naturally without relying on caffeine stimulants or crash and burn hacks.
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So why are we so tired? Well, there are some
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hidden causes to modern exhaustion. Fatigue is oftentimes brushed off.
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But if you're constantly tired physically, emotionally, mentally, it's not
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laziness and it's not just life being busy. Something deeper
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is at work. So let's explore the core causes of
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modern exhaustion, sleep deprivation and sleep disruption. Our bodies need consistent,
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high quality sleep, yet many of us suffer from what
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they call blue light exposure. Inconsistent bedtimee time, or elevated
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nighttime cortisol levels due to stress. According to the CDC,
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more than one third of adults in the US don't
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get enough sleep regularly. Over stimulation and media fatigue. We
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live in a constant flood of noise, notifications, headlines, scrolling comparison.
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Our nervous system never gets a break. The brain was
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never designed to process this much information in real time,
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and the fatigue it's showing. Poor nutrition. Heavily processed foods, sugar, alcohol,
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and caffeine all disrupt our energy systems. They create energy
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spikes and crashes. What your cells eat is how your
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body feels. Fatigue often starts in the gut and mitochondria,
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the powerhouses of your cells. Emotional burnout. It's not just
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physical tiredness, emotional fatigue, stress, uncertainty, social disconnection. They can
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all drain our mental energy faster than any physical task.
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You may wake up tired even after eight hours of
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sleep because your emotional reserves are dry. Chronic inflammation, low
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grade chronic inflammation triggered by stress, processed food, or environmental toxins,
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can suppress your energy and immune system. Inflammation forces your
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body into protective mode. This leaves you with less energy
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for living. So here are some natural ways to restore
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your energy at root level healing. Now that we know
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why we're tired, how do we restore natural energy. Let's
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go deeper than energy drinks and your morning coffee. Here
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are natural research back ways to fight fatigue and nurture
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vitality and energy. First of all, you need to prioritize
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restorative sleep. What does this mean, Well, you need to
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make a sleep ritual. It might seem hard, but you
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need to commit yourself to going to bed at the
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same time every night. More importantly, you need to start
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cutting screen time at least one hour or more before bed.
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One thing that's really helped our family our magnesium supplements
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or tart cherry juice. This is natural melatonin support. Magnesium
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citrate is usually the magnesium we take, but magnesium glyconate
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is another one that works great as well. Perhaps do
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a deep dive into the different types of magnesiums and
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find the one that best you connect best with or
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relates best to the symptoms that you're having. One really
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important overlooked aspect of getting really good sleep is cooling
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the room to sixty five degrees fahrenheit for optimal sleep. This,
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you believe it or not, has a really profound effect
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on you staying asleep. So if your body gets warmed up,
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it can disrupt your sleep rhythm and you could wake
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up tired, and it could just be something as simple
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as just being too hot at night. Sleep isn't lazy,
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so get rid of the guilt oftentimes. I know for
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me personally, I don't like to take a nap during
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the day because I feel like I'm not being very productive.
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I have a lot of guilt associated with that, and
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the thought of it makes me feel anxious, and so
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you need to try to figure out how do you
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get over it. So if you're having some type of
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mental problem with getting enough sleep, just remember you're not
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being lazy by letting yourself get sleep. It really is
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foundational to the core of your health. The body does
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a lot of things while you sleep that are important.
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Breathe and set your nervous system. So breathing is, I know,
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really important. It's one of those things that I have
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to work on myself to stop and make time because
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I've heard so many testimonials about breathing and how important
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it is to help combat overstimulation. One of the methods
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that people use it's called box breathing, and it goes
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like this. You inhale for four seconds, you hold for
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four seconds, you exhale for four seconds, and you hold
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for four seconds. So that is called box breathing. Another
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thing that you can do is daily silence five to
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ten minutes of no music and no headphones. Just practice
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some daily silence to calm your nervous system. Another really important,
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big one, and you're probably seeing this a lot on
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social media, and it's for a reason because it really
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does work, is nature immersion. Take a walk. I know
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they say go barefoot in the grass, but they've actually
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used the meters that they use for checking whether you're
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how you're grounding or not, and you could actually just
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walk outside and touch a tree trunk and instantaneously you're
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off putting some of that energy, that nervous energy. So
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grounding barefoot is great in the grass. If you can't
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make that happen, find a tree and touch it literally,
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you know, hug it. If you want watching a sunset.
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That's another really big one. That one is it's a
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whole rabbit hole because if you start looking into how
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awesome it is to watch a sunset, and what it
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does for your circadian rhythms, what it does for your moods,
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what it does for your hormones, what it does for happiness,
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how it helps you sleep better at night. That is
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just a whole other podcast that would be very very
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cool to do, and I la doing in the future.
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When your nervous system is calm, this is important. When
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your nervous system is calm, your energy returns. So that's
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something you might want to think about, is calming yourself down,
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helping to deal with the stress that you have in
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your life and letting that energy return naturally and not
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the adrenaline, not the nervous energy, not the fight or flight,
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but the real raw energy that you have naturally. So
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another really important way to support energy in the body
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is to fuel your mitochondria. Your body needs clean fuel,
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so you need to support your cells with whole foods,
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healthy fats and vegetables, animal protein. Whole foods like greens,
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wild salmon, avocados, sweet potatoes, healthy fats like coconut oil,
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olive oil, and ghee. B vitamins super important. They're found
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in eggs, beef, liver, and thegomes as well some other things.
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Hydrate yourself. Don't take that one for granted. I just
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had somebody close to me a few weeks ago pass
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out from not being hydrated properly. This could have been
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very disastrous. Fatigue is often dehydration in disguise. Keep that
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in mind. If you're tired, it could be something as
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simple as hydrating yourself with a glass of water or
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some electrolytes. So try this. Drink a full glass of
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mineralized water for sting in the morning, Add a pinch
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of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon. Sunlight and
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movement super important. Morning sunlight set your circadian rhythm. Watch
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the sunrise movement, especially walking or exercises like lotties. It
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circulates your lymph, oxygenates your blood, and it releases endorphins.
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Super important. Exercise isn't necessarily about weight loss, Okay, it's
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a natural anti fatigue medicine. Limit your caffeine and alcohol.
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I know this is really hard, but both of these
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things can rob you of real energy, your authentic energy.
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Caffeine disrupts sleep cycles and it taxes your adrenaline glands.
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Alcohol prevents deep, RESTful sleep. Even if you fall asleep faster.
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Try a week without both and then keep notes. Observe
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how your body responds to this. Remember, rest is productive,
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So start shifting your mindset. Let's talk about something cultural.
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We've been conditioned to believe that rest is weak, that
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if we're not producing, we're falling behind. But that belief
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is killing our vitality. Fatigue is not a sign that
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you're lazy. It's a sign that your life may be
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out of alignment. Emily Ballastero's from Time magazine says, rest
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isn't the absence of productivity, it's what makes productivity possible.
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So let's begin to honor rest as a pillar of health.
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So we can start with scheduled rest ten minute breaks
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every ninety minutes or what we call sabbath hours, a
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block of screen free time every week, saying no. Learn
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how to say no and set boundaries. Reclaim your energy
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from what does not serve you. When you stop glorifying busyness,
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you start reclaiming eden. So how do you reclaim your
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energy this week? So let's put this practical plan together.
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Here's a simple five day plan to begin reset your energy.
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Day one, go to bed and wake up at the
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same time, no screens for sixty minutes before bed. Day two,
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drink eighty ounces of filtered or spring water and add electrolytes.
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Day three, take a thirty minute walk of nature with
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no headphones. On day four, prepare a whole food meal
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with protein, greens and healthy fats. And on day five,
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delete three apps that drain your mental energy. Replace one
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with a book or some type of meditation. Repeat as needed.
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So here are some closing reflections. Your energy is sacred.
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It's not meant to be burned up by algorithms, noise,
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or constant striving. If you're feeling tired, depleted, or emotionally
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worn and down, know this. It's not all in your head.
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It's in your nervous system, it's in your mitochondria, and
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it can be healed. Healing doesn't mean quitting your life.
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It means learning how to live it better. Thanks for
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joining me today on Chasing Eden. If this episode spoke
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to you, share it with someone who might need a
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reminder that rest is holy, energy is renewable, and fatigue
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is a messenger, not a flaw. Next week, we'll explore
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how gut health affects your mood and vitality. Until then,
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take a deep breath, take one small step, and keep
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chasing Eden