Latest / Health with Hashimoto’s - Thyroid or Immune Education for Autoimmune Thyroid Disease / 193 // Feeling Overwhelmed by Hashimoto's? Where to Start When More Info Isn't Helping
Transcript
- 0:00There is no lack of information these days.
- 0:04We do not have an information problem. You probably have an overwhelm problem.
- 0:10And overwhelm is one of the most unrecognized barriers to getting better with Hashimoto's.
- 0:15Welcome to the Health with Hashimoto's podcast. This is where you will find
- 0:18clarity and simple, sustainable strategies to feel better.
- 0:22I wanna help you figure out your root causes.
- 0:25My name is Esther Yunkin. I am a registered nurse. I know how exhausting it
- 0:30is to live with fatigue, brain fog, and the ups and downs of Hashimoto's. And that is why I'm here.
- 0:36I'm here to cut through the confusion and to give you practical steps that support
- 0:41your body, calm your immune system, so that you can regain your energy and feel like yourself again.
- 0:46If you have Hashimoto's, or if you're here listening because somebody you love
- 0:50has Hashimoto's, you probably know what it feels like to try everything.
- 0:55You've tried the gluten-free diet. you've tried various supplements,
- 0:58you've tried different protocols that you probably found, you know, at 11 p.m. on Pinterest.
- 1:03The thing is, you're not lazy and you're not undisciplined, but you're just
- 1:08exhausted from doing too much of the wrong things all at the same time.
- 1:13And maybe those things are actually the right things.
- 1:17You're just trying to do them all at the same time. So you become overwhelmed
- 1:22and increase that stress.
- 1:23And of course, as a regular listener of the Health with Hashimoto's podcast,
- 1:27you know that stress is one of
- 1:29the biggest root causes of Hashimoto's and autoimmune problems in general.
- 1:36Stress is huge. And when we learn, learn, learn, implement, implement,
- 1:40implement, it can lead to overwhelm and stress. And that is the trap that nobody talks about.
- 1:47The search for answers itself can become its own barrier.
- 1:51Because every new piece of information that you learn adds another decision.
- 1:57Every new protocol that you see and that you want to try adds another layer of stress.
- 2:02And stress is one of the biggest root cause triggers for Hashimoto's.
- 2:06So the plan itself can become part of the problem.
- 2:11So today, in today's episode, we're not adding anything. We're just settling
- 2:15in, resetting, because the answer to Hashimoto's overwhelm is not more information.
- 2:21The answer is structure. As I have said over and over, the answer is simple
- 2:28and sustainable, finding simple things to do in a sustainable fashion.
- 2:33In case we haven't met yet, I am Esther. I am a registered nurse.
- 2:37I spent about 17 years in the ER, and got sick and tired of putting band-aids
- 2:43on chronic things because chronic things are not an emergency, right?
- 2:47They might come up with some emergent situations, but most chronic things are
- 2:53not emergencies. And we just saw so much of it that in the ER, they still do.
- 2:57I'm so happy to be out of that environment because it's stressful, so stressful.
- 3:03So I went back to school for holistic health education. And then later on,
- 3:07I realized that I have Hashimoto's and I did the same thing that I've been talking about.
- 3:13I went on this search for answers and I consumed so much information because
- 3:20at the time, there wasn't a simple thing to do. I had to put it all together.
- 3:26This was, I don't know, four or five years ago.
- 3:28And really, the information has come a long way, I feel like, in that time.
- 3:34I didn't have the Health with Hashimoto's podcast at that time to listen to.
- 3:38I didn't have somebody to say, here are the root causes.
- 3:41Here is what to focus on. I had to put all of that together for myself.
- 3:45And I did have, you know, I did have people saying, here are root causes,
- 3:49but I didn't have like one framework to look at.
- 3:52I had to read books and listen to podcasts and watch webinars to get that framework,
- 4:00which I have put together for you.
- 4:02If you're not in our school community, it's Health with Hashimoto's.
- 4:06It's the community and the platform is not Facebook. It is school, S-K-O-O-L.
- 4:11Go over there. And in our classroom tab, I have your root causes revealed in one hour.
- 4:18It is literally like less than one hour of your time.
- 4:22I have a PDF that you can print to keep yourself on track. And then you have
- 4:26your notes to know exactly what your root causes are.
- 4:30Now, obviously, in one hour, you're not going to do any testing.
- 4:33So when I talk about vitamin D, you're going to be able to say,
- 4:36oh, I grew up in, you know, the northern hemisphere, far away from the equator.
- 4:40I spend a lot of time indoors. I probably have low vitamin D,
- 4:45but you're not going to know that for sure.
- 4:47This one hour root cause revealed is common sense based.
- 4:52So at the end, you're going to leave with your worksheet filled out and you're
- 4:55going to know exactly what to focus on.
- 4:57I did not have that back when I was diagnosed.
- 5:01And over the years, I have watched women do everything right on paper and they're
- 5:05still not moving forward. because for a lot of them, they're accumulating instead of strategizing.
- 5:12They're accumulating more and more things.
- 5:14And sure, they're trying different things, but maybe they try it for a short
- 5:18time until the next shiny object comes across their Instagram feed.
- 5:23And then, oh, you know, I haven't tried that. I should try that.
- 5:27And then they ditch what they were doing because they don't have the bandwidth
- 5:31to add one more thing without dropping something.
- 5:33So they drop this other thing that they had been trying to add to this new thing.
- 5:39But meanwhile, that thing that they just dropped, if they would have given it
- 5:43another month or two, they would have seen results from that.
- 5:47And now they're like, oh, well, yeah, that didn't work. Well,
- 5:50no, it didn't, because you only tried it for a very short amount of time,
- 5:54and that one needed a bit more time. And please hear me very loud and clear. This is not shaming you.
- 6:00Not at all. No shame, no guilt.
- 6:03We are all doing the best we can at the current time with the information we have.
- 6:08It's just we only have so many hands and we're going to drop some balls.
- 6:12So overwhelm and all of this information, it is a detriment to our progress with Hashimoto's.
- 6:21Overwhelm is not a personality flaw. Overwhelm is a predictable response to
- 6:26a broken information environment.
- 6:28An environment where things are coming at us so frequently that we get overwhelmed.
- 6:34It is not you. It is the system.
- 6:37The information environment that we are navigating is not designed to help us.
- 6:42It is designed to sell us on things.
- 6:45Every search returns a new opinion or a protocol or a new fear.
- 6:51The algorithm rewards engagement, not resolution.
- 6:55The algorithm on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook, it wants to keep you there.
- 7:02It doesn't want to say, here is a simple thing.
- 7:05Try this for a couple months and then let's look at something else.
- 7:09No, the algorithm says, let me keep telling you more and more and more and more
- 7:13because I know you're going to look at that.
- 7:16This is not a you problem. This is a systems problem.
- 7:19But that means that accumulation is the enemy of progress with Hashimoto's.
- 7:25That our natural response to not getting better is to add more.
- 7:29Well, if I'm not feeling better, if I'm not seeing my solutions or my symptoms resolve,
- 7:34if I'm not having the brain fog go down, if I'm not seeing my weight drop off,
- 7:38if I'm not seeing an increase in energy, if my hair is not coming back,
- 7:43if my skin and my nails are not looking better,
- 7:46then clearly I need to add more.
- 7:48Have you ever fallen into that trap? The trap of wanting and feeling like you
- 7:52need to add more supplements or more restrictions or more tracking or more protocols.
- 7:57And every addition feels like progress, but it increases your psychological and your mental load.
- 8:05And then, of course, that increases your stress, which is one of the most significant
- 8:10root cause triggers for Hashimoto's.
- 8:12And so we just go in this circle.
- 8:15An overwhelming health plan, adding more and more and more, is a source of stress.
- 8:21The plan itself, that plan to keep learning and adding, it can become part of the problem.
- 8:28Adding more is not a strategy. More is just more.
- 8:31And this was partially just teeny tiny inspired by a client who made one Hashimoto's
- 8:40Health Session appointment with me.
- 8:42And we talked, she's doing fantastic.
- 8:45She is learning so much and she's implementing. She is doing a phenomenal job.
- 8:51And she's seeing huge results, like ginormous. Her labs have gotten so much better.
- 8:58Her health has gotten so much better. Her hair is improving.
- 9:01Her weight is improving. Her energy is improving. Her pain is improving.
- 9:05She's seen fantastic results.
- 9:08And she wanted to talk about the holistic root cause reset.
- 9:12And I told her something that probably I haven't even honestly told my business
- 9:18people because they would yell at me.
- 9:20I told her, don't hire me for this yet.
- 9:23Settle in. I don't want to add more. And honestly, in the Hashimoto's root cause
- 9:29reset, we're not adding a ton, but we are doing work.
- 9:33Every two weeks, we're getting together or, you know, whatever works for your calendar.
- 9:36We're getting together to look at the whole picture.
- 9:41You know, how are you doing? What did you just implement?
- 9:43What simple and sustainable thing can you do next? But this particular person has done so much.
- 9:51My instructions for her is just to settle in and let all of that get to be a routine.
- 9:58And then let's chat. Let's chat. Let's do the Hashimoto's root cause reset together.
- 10:03But let's wait a month or two.
- 10:05Just settle into the changes that you've made.
- 10:09Because overwhelm and the accumulation of more and more things that you're trying, it is a stressor.
- 10:17Even if you don't feel stressed, even if you feel like things are working,
- 10:21which they are, we still want to keep overwhelmed to a minimum.
- 10:25So for that particular person who is, like I said, doing phenomenal.
- 10:30I just want her to settle in for just a couple of months.
- 10:33And then we will work together on the Hashimoto's Rokas Reset.
- 10:38Work together, you know, every other week-ish for about six times to really
- 10:43get into the nitty gritty. Like, what can we do next?
- 10:47The thing is, when you are feeling overwhelmed, when you are seeing all of these
- 10:52different strategies, our solution is structure.
- 10:56And that word for some people are like, you know, I don't want structure.
- 11:00I don't want walls. I don't want rules.
- 11:04I don't want somebody to tell me what to do. But at the same time,
- 11:07if you are adding tons and tons and tons of things, that might be exactly what you need.
- 11:13Somebody to work with you and say, let's not add another thing.
- 11:17Let's figure out a framework that helps you identify what actually applies to you.
- 11:23I read a book a while back. It's called The Common Rule.
- 11:26And at first I was like, rule, I don't know.
- 11:30But the picture on the front is just beautiful. It is a beautiful image of what that book is about.
- 11:36It is a calendar, like just the grid of a calendar turned into like a rose trellis.
- 11:44And he says in the introduction that a rule of life, like things you do every
- 11:49day, things that rules that you have created to help guide your habits.
- 11:55They help your life grow and bloom like a rose.
- 11:59Instead of going all crazy and being scattered and tangled and not knowing,
- 12:04you know, where the next bud is going to go, if you grow on a trellis, you're healthier.
- 12:10And the whole plant, you know, gets more air, gets more light. It is structured.
- 12:17So when I say the word structure, like I don't want to hear,
- 12:20I don't want you to hear like restriction and, you know, shame or guilt.
- 12:25It's not that type of rules that I'm talking about.
- 12:29I'm talking about things that help guide our decisions so that we can have healthier
- 12:35everything and less stress.
- 12:37The solution is not to just keep adding more and more things.
- 12:42The solution is to develop a framework that helps you identify what actually
- 12:48applies to you. Because root cause work is very personal.
- 12:52Root causes, while there are some universals, you know, genetic factor,
- 12:59gut factor, one or more triggers, those are universal.
- 13:02But your triggers and your specific genetics, your specific gut health, that's all personal.
- 13:09That is individual to you. so what you see on Facebook and Instagram and TikTok
- 13:15what the algorithm is feeding you for ads and for just to keep you engaged on
- 13:20their platform that is not necessarily for your good it is for the algorithm's good.
- 13:28One sustainable layer at a time based on what you actually need on your identified root causes,
- 13:37that one sustainable layer at a time far beats 10 unsustainable changes all at once.
- 13:45The changes that you implement need to be sustainable. They need to be simple
- 13:49enough that you can sustain them, and then they need to be sustainable so that
- 13:52they have time to work. So structure reduces decision fatigue.
- 13:57Structure lowers your stress load.
- 14:00Structure creates forward momentum.
- 14:03And this is what the Hashimoto's root cause reset is built to do.
- 14:08I don't ever want you lost in overwhelm. I don't want you paralyzed. What is it?
- 14:14Analysis paralysis? I have totally been there.
- 14:18Analysis paralysis is an easy place to drop into because there's so many things.
- 14:23Overwhelm leads to that. And both the mini course that's in the Health with
- 14:29Hashimoto's community and the Hashimoto's root cause reset, they're both designed to help you,
- 14:36to help you figure out simple and sustainable strategies going forward so that
- 14:42you're not overwhelmed, you're not increasing your stress,
- 14:45you're actually making progress.
- 14:48Because overwhelm is not the starting point. Overwhelm is the barrier.
- 14:53Structure is the way through. So the Hashimoto's root cause reset,
- 14:57I love to invite you in there if you're ready to stop accumulating more and
- 15:01more and more strategies that may or may not work, that may be just fed to you
- 15:06by an algorithm, or, you know,
- 15:08it might be something that even maybe something that you heard on this podcast.
- 15:13What I want you to do is figure out what is going to actually work for you.
- 15:19You, as an individual person. What is going to work for you?
- 15:23What is going to be simple? What is going to be sustainable?
- 15:26How can you move forward?
- 15:28That is the goal. The goal is so that you can feel like yourself again,
- 15:32so that you can recognize yourself in the mirror, so you have more good days,
- 15:35so that you have more consistent, sustainable energy throughout the day,
- 15:38better mood stability, less digestive discomfort and bloating.
- 15:43Like all of these things, reduced joint and muscle pain, improved sleep quality,
- 15:47healthier skin, fewer flare-ups.
- 15:50All of these are things that you want for you, I want for you,
- 15:53and in the Hashimoto's Rikaz Reset, we are going to work to get you there.
- 15:59All right, the link of course is down in the show notes so that you can schedule
- 16:03your Hashimoto's Rikaz Reset right now.
- 16:07And after you book that, would you do me a favor and would you leave a podcast
- 16:12review in whatever platform you use?
- 16:14Spotify, Apple, Audible, whatever you use, they all value ratings and reviews.
- 16:21So some of them just allow for stars. Some of them allow for a written thing.
- 16:25Whatever you have time and bandwidth for today, would you take a couple seconds
- 16:29and rate and review? It really does help this show get pushed out to more people.
- 16:34And of course, I want you to feel like yourself again.
- 16:38And I also want this message to reach more and more and more people because
- 16:42there are millions with Hashimoto's and they all need this message of hope.
- 16:47You can feel like yourself again.
- 16:49And there is a non-overwhelming way to do that.
- 16:52This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.
- 16:56Please discuss any changes with your trusted healthcare provider.
- 16:59To take your next step, join our school community and explore the courses available there.
- 17:04You do not have to figure your health out alone.
- 17:07So that is school, S-K-O-O-L dot com, and it is the Health with Hashimoto's community.
- 17:13I'll see you next time on the Health with Hashimoto's.