Rushing Mum? The Hidden Perils In *Only* Doing Body Healing Work

Hey Mama! Are you registered for our LIVE “Juggling Working Mum: How To End Your Body Burnout” webinar? It kicks off TOMORROW (Tue 20 Sept, 7pm AEST). We’re holding this as a free event, as part of the Festival of Learning, and I’d love to have you along! If you can’t make it live, no worries - just register via our website, and you will receive a recording after the event :)

I often share about my own personal healing story. Like many mums juggling all the things, my body systems really burned-out, to the point where I had a lot of pain: exhaustion, low-immunity, chronic back aches, skin & hormonal issues, and anxiety…I was a real proper Dragon Mum!

Common Body System Imbalances I see In Juggling Mums

Now, as a functional medicine practitioner, it’s crazy the same patterns that keep coming up in functional lab tests, for mums that are overwhelmed and burned-out. Common body system imbalances include:

• Adrenal stress hormone issues, aka adrenal fatigue. This is incredibly common for mums who have two or more kids - even when the kids are older, in their teens & 20’!
• Female hormone imbalances, especially low progesterone - stress drags that lovely hormone down, leaving you feeling PMS, moody, emotional, and painful periods.
• Neurotransmitter depletion - brain chemicals like dopamine, adrenaline and serotonin often get pummelled in high-achieving mums juggling all the things, especially in mums running businesses who are wearing many hats! When you neurotransmitters are depleted it often shows up as anxiety, depression, fatigue, emotional eating, brain fog, and insomnia.
• Gut issues - when a mum has been burning the candle at both ends, this will eventually show up in the gut. It might look like pathogen overgrowth, SIBO, leaky gut, a depleted microbiome or hiatal hernia. Often this will show up as bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, food sensitivities. But inflammation in the gut can absolutely sap energy, cause mental ill health, and make you feel plain yuck.
• Detox issues - once the gut has broken down, you can start developing detox issues. One of the major ways you get rid of toxins is via your gut (and out your, ah, butt). If you’ve got a lot going on in your gut, you can struggle to clear toxins from your gut. Instead, the toxins reabsorb back into your system, putting even more pressure on your liver and detox pathways. The more toxic your body becomes, the more ALL the other body systems burnout, exacerbating your body burnout symptoms.

I’ll be talking all about these key body systems that burnout during The Juggling Mum webinar. If you haven’t claimed your spot - do it now here!

The Rushing Woman’s Syndrome

The thing is, healing my body systems wasn’t all smooth sailing. I remember the first few months into healing my stressed out adrenal glands, I was starting to see some improvements. I was diligently taking my nutraceutical supplements, I was eating all the foods to support my adrenals, I cut back on high intensity exercise, I was doing my breathing exercises, and I was going to bed on time.

The problem was…I still had “Rushing Woman’s Syndrome”. I was still running around like a chook without it’s head, doing waaaaay too much. I was doing-doing-doing, from the moment I woke up, to the moment I went to bed. I even became a bit obsessed and regimented with my eating, taking supplements and bed time. I got angry when others didn’t ‘obey’ what I was doing.

The Moment Things Changed To Holistic Root-Cause Healing

It wasn’t until my young daughter said to me: “Mummy, why are you always so angry all the time? Why don’t you ever smile?”

I was shocked that she had said this, because I *thought* I had made some progress mentally and physically. I thought I was a bit less anxious, and a bit happier.

It was then that I realised that I could be so much better…IF I worked on the big things (the deeper root causes!) that were causing me to feel ‘sick’ in the first place. 

It was really hard to change - to even want to change - my in-grained type-A, perfectionist, ‘do-er’ personality. Doing meant I got lots done. Doing meant I could earn more money. Doing meant I was successful. Doing meant my successes would validate that I was worthy and good enough. Doing also meant I could suppress the real issues of my dysfunctional subconscious programming that actually believed I was weak and incapable. Doing meant I could hide. Why would I want to give up the addictive doing, when deep down it was an act of protection.

I almost got to the point where I almost gave up even continuing with my healing work. But the need to feel calmness again, to feel true happiness, to have a connected family - pulled me out of my stubborn (or more truthfully, frightened) mindset.

I started looking at what I could ‘let go.’ What was I doing that was unnecessary? How could I change my schedule so I wasn’t Rushing all the time? How could I change the inner part of me that was scared to be “slow”? How could I create the belief within myself that it is safe to “clock off”, to be more present with my family, to actually give myself permission to self-care - out of loving permission, and not force or fear.

If you’re someone who has tried seeing doctors or naturopaths or nutritionists or functional medicine practitioners and the supplements and diets and lifestyle “recommendations” didn’t work for you, the reason WHY they didn’t work for you is because it wasn’t “safe” to be well. It was “safe” to change the way you are programmed at the deepest level. We have created a unique holistic approach to ending body burnout - we don’t just do surface-level “body healing” work, we go deep into the way you are programmed, so that you can fully calm your nervous system down and allow physiological healing to happen. 

I’ll be talking a lot more about this in our webinar tomorrow too. Book in at this link! 

When My Daughter Melted My Heart

Luckily I kept up my healing work, and made the changes that I needed to. My testimony that I had healed came a year or so later when I was down at the beach with my two little girls. My oldest came up to me and gave me a hug and said: 

“Mummy, you’re so kind now. You used to not be a very nice Mummy, but now you’re so kind.”

HEART EXPLOSION!!! Doing the hard-work. Making the changes. Was so worth it, even for that little comment from my daughter.

The system I used to heal, is now the system we share with our clients. It has literally changed my life (and many other lives too!)... both physically and emotionally!

If you want to discover the exact steps to take to end your own body burnout holistically, and to become the type of mum, business or career woman, and human being that you want to be, come along to The Working Mum: How To End Your Body Burnout webinar!

Filipa Bellette is Co-Founder of Chris & Filly Functional Medicine. She is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist & Functional Medicine Practitioner. She is also a Ph.D. thought-leader, award-winning writer, and regularly published as a guest blogger & in the media. Together with her husband Chris Bellette, Filipa has worked with over 2,000+ busy, burnout clients in the last 10+ years, and specialises in producing healthy, balanced, and happy Mums & Dads...or as she calls it, a Power Parent! Filipa’s own passion for producing high-performance Power Parents came from her own personal experience of Mummy Burnout, after having babies and juggling the demands of business, family, and her failing health.