In the last post I spoke about how the brain responds to stress. In today’s blog I’ll focus on how the adrenal glands respond to stress and trauma and what you can do to support them.
I’ll make a distinction between stress and trauma by suggesting that stress is a normal impulse to flee, fight, or surrender when facing a threat, while trauma is what happens when those impulses are thwarted and the unresolved experience stays trapped within us.
These trapped, frozen, or buried impulses become a source of chronic strain on the adrenal glands and disrupts the balanced production of adrenal hormones. Cortisol and DHEA levels will eventually become imbalanced and contribute to disturbances with sleep, reproductive hormone levels, tissue regeneration, inflammation, immunity, allergies, thyroid function, weight gain, and more.
Adrenal gland repair is a great focal point for healing when we consider the impact that adrenal function has on one’s health.
Here’a a guide for adrenal healing that will likely greatly outperform the use of adrenal supplements alone (which is usually the common strategy).
- Safety: The adrenal glands are able to rest (and heal) when we’re safe.
- Touch: Gentle, soothing touch in the form of self-massage, or gentle tapping, or touching of acupuncture points conveys a sense of safety to your body, brain and adrenals.
- Breathe: Breathing S-L-O-W-L-Y is a safety signal … as opposed to the quicker and shallow breathing that accompanies threat.
- Feel: When you’re willing to FEEL … to … SENSE … feelings, sensations, and body parts in a gentle and curious way (as opposed to avoiding feelings by living in your head) this also conveys a sense of safety to your system.
- Nurture yourself with appropriate diet (adequate protein and fewer carbs to support balanced blood sugar and more), mild exercise, and adequate rest.
Those are helpful general suggestions to support adrenal healing.
If you’re aware of specific unresolved or lingering stressors or traumas I would suggest addressing those issues specifically to support adrenal function and to potentially resolve health issues that have been resistant to change.
Steven Templin, D.O.M., Dipl. Ac., is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and nationally certified acupuncturist, specializing in Self-Regulation Training (to resolve stress-induced programming), Energy Medicine, Mind-Body Medicine, and Diet and Nutrition to repair the Gut-Immune-Brain Axis. In his Self-Regulation training program he shares the science and most importantly the effective practices for transforming physical health and emotional well-being. These practices will greatly enhance the effectiveness of any other therapeutic interventions. He teaches and consults online, and sees patients at the Natural Medicine Center in Lakeland, Florida. You can learn more about Dr. Templin and his healing program by visiting www.newmedicalmodel.com.
Steve is a retired Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture Physician, and HeartMath Trauma-Sensitive Certified Practitioner with over 35 years of clinical experience in Energy Medicine, Energy Psychology, and Biofeedback.