Hi Friend.
I'm coming to you direct from couch central today as in a very unusual event, I have had to reschedule all of my clients because I have a cold that has caused me to lose my voice.
Plus, coughing until my eyes are streaming and my face is red is not the best look for an online therapist.
I'm taking the cold as a sign of healing though as I honestly can't remember the last time I had one because of my crazy, over achieving immune system, so I am hoping that this means that it is finally calming down.
So while I am resting on the couch, I felt inspired to go and get my laptop and write to you about emotional bandwidth and energy and survival mode and how they are all connected and why at times, you just don't have the energy to feel anything.
By the time I get to see most of my clients, they are in functional survival mode.
Functional survival mode is where you are expending all of your energy just trying to make it through the day.
You feel physically exhausted, drained, everything is a massive effort and you don't have the energy to feel anything.
There's no joy, no creativity, no peace and contentment and very little desire to engage with others because that all takes energy that you don't have.
We tend to think about energy as a purely physical thing and forget that the brain is the biggest user of energy in the body.
When energy is in short supply, the brain like the body, uses that energy for the most vital functions.
It simply doesn't have the emotional bandwidth to feel good and all of your thoughts are focussed on the symptoms, the anxiety, the pain and all of the scary "what if" stories that chronic illness brings.
So you can end up feeling flat, depressed, anxious, disengaged and overwhelmed.
Chronic illness directly impacts how your brain feels and functions so if you have been feeling any of theses things I described above Friend I want you to know that it's not your fault.
You simply don't have the energy and emotional bandwidth to feel the way that you used to feel and you are still doing the best that you can.
Breaking out of functional survival mode needs new skills, new strategies and the right mindset because as you know, we are often facing an uphill battle of finding supportive doctors, needing strong self advocacy and needing to put some changes in place to finding ways to reverse symptoms and feel as good as we can.
Which is why it's so important that the little energy that you do have is being used in the best possible ways for you and that doesn't include constantly spinning around in guilt, anxiety, depression and overwhelm.
Not having access to your joy, creativity, motivation and desire is a natural function of the way that chronic illness affects our minds and bodies so if you are struggling to feel those things, please know that you are not alone.
If you are feeling ready to invest in yourself and get the help, support and essential skills that you need to break out of survival mode, then book in your FREE Discovery Session with me now online.
I would love to help you Friend.
Warm wishes,
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