[00:00:00] Hi everyone, my name's Dex Randall, and this is the Burnout to Leadership podcast, where I teach professional men to recover from burnout and get back to passion and reward at work.

[00:00:22] Hello my friends, this is Dex and today I am going to take you on a little journey into your body because I think it's becoming more and more important these days to understand and listen to what your body is trying to tell you. Because it's trying to help you feel better, especially if you're highly stressed, exhausted, approaching or in burnout.

[00:00:47] So let's talk about what your body is trying to tell you and why you're probably not listening. And I'm talking about this because many people don't speak the language of the body terribly well or they're not very connected with it. And many of my clients, somewhat as a consequence of this, have chronic ill health that they're not dealing with, as well as the mental and emotional stress associated with burnout.

[00:01:14] And often all of this can be alleviated in burnout recovery with a broad based reduction in stress and more attentiveness to their very real human needs. They mostly can't hear or understand their body's messages. Perhaps this is you? And those messages, you can think of them as cries for help. If you don't listen to them and you're not making the required changes you need to heal and to thrive, then maybe listen on in this episode and I'll help you.

[00:01:48] So I can really be a little bit of a translator if you like in the messages of the body. And in a moment, I'm going to share some examples of what some specific signals in the body might be, such as disease or pain or tension, what they might be saying to you. Because you can regain some control over your life experience simply by heeding your body and giving it what it's asking for.

[00:02:15] Especially if you're at the same time tackling your stress, overwhelm and exhaustion of burnout. Because I promise you, a much better life experience is available to you. Of course, some people are hearing the body's messages already, but due to their chronic high levels of stress and anxiety, they're ignoring those messages and continuing to treat their bodies in ways that are actually harmful and compromise health and healing.

[00:02:49] And of course, in today's environment, with our stress inducing workplaces, overfilled diaries, and excessive list of obligations, plus the demands of parenting and so on, none of what I've just said is any kind of surprise. Who, these days, has time to let their body slow them down? And a simple example of ignoring the body's messages is a diabetic person who continues to eat sugar.

[00:03:20] This is not a judgment. After all, sugar is more addictive than cocaine. It's simply a recognition of how easy it can be to ignore even the clearest of warning signs that all is not well in our body. And the same goes for our minds and our spirits, our emotional and social health. They're not separate things.

[00:03:42] Of course as well, it has become normalized in our society to take medication or seek surgical procedures to eliminate symptoms of illness rather than addressing the underlying fundamental imbalances in our minds and bodies. And the medical approach, whilst it's indispensable in many regards, might be costing you more than you think.

[00:04:05] Because your body is constantly bombarded by 70, 000 environmental chemicals that deplete health, but most importantly, compromise your gut microbiome, the fuel supply for your entire human organism. Your gut is likely full of over processed food, sugars, added chemicals, glyphosate, GMO products, and antibiotics, and stripped of vital micronutrients.

[00:04:40] And your brain, it's 1 percent microplastics. The time when we can ignore this, I think it's long gone, as science links more and more chronic disease, often preventable disease to the toxic chemical cocktail we hold inside of us. Western medicine, sadly, has been unable to adapt fast enough to help with many of the ensuing diseases and conditions.

[00:05:05] But you can take steps to help yourself. And that's what we'll talk about today. Your body actually will try to tell you what's wrong, and what it needs to be healthy, if you're able to listen. And of course you can also consult specialists in healthcare, in functional medicine practice, in gut health and nutrition, to begin, if you can't hear your body's own signals.

[00:05:29] And if you want to hear a little bit more about gut and brain health, something I'm very fanatical about, have a look at the Science of Prevention link in the show notes for this episode. But on top of all those external factors and toxins, we do in these days add to our burden of ill health with chronic stress, ineffective self care and also detrimental habits.

[00:05:53] For example, there's a really broad spectrum of avoidant choices we make to suppress inconvenient emotions. We call those choices addictions and they are cumulatively harmful to the human organism. Each one will impact our health. And when I'm talking about health here, I mean the optimal function that supports life- physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social.

[00:06:23] So whatever you do for a respite from stress or to calm your mind, even if it's not a particularly healthy choice, it's completely understandable. Because you're probably in damage control, you probably have chronic stress and you're just doing whatever you can to keep going. So I don't blame you. In burnout, I did exactly the same.

[00:06:45] It's okay if that's your start point. It's just that when you're stress coping strategies are in the red zone, shall we say when you're fighting emotional fires all day every day, they usually don't work very well to protect you. Because really you're using a band aid fix to tackle a chronic problem, which in the end is subject to the law of diminishing returns and it really takes a heavy toll on you mind body and soul. Because the body will always try to return to homeostasis, and homeostasis is the natural balance of the body that allows it to function optimally.

[00:07:27] It is, in every moment, oriented to healing any imbalances that exist, to prevent illness and injury and to return you to full health. Which, in practice these days, is not an easy job for a depleted body under constant stress and toxic load. And also we do compromise the body's efforts to heal further,

[00:07:55] with any coping strategies we have that go against our health. Things like smoking, overeating, over drinking, consuming highly processed foods, staying up late every night, doom scrolling all day, et cetera. Even overworking, overexercising or oversexing, if they're used to escape our feelings, are actually worsening the problem long term.

[00:08:23] So the body tries to help us all the time. But it can be overwhelmed. And if you're in burnout, it's probably overwhelmed all the time. And the biggest problem, really then, is stress itself. Our stress response was designed to keep us alive when we were under temporary, usually physical, threat. It wasn't designed to be always on, triggered every day,

[00:08:48] by emotional threats that don't clear. Chronic anxiety, worry and fear. And as a result of that, another difficulty you might have in burnout is actually dissociation. It's a quick way to escape the stress of what's happening in the present moment. Just take your attention outside your body, drift off, lose yourself.

[00:09:11] If you don't know what disassociation is, it's where you feel switched off, absent, blank, numb. You're just not quite here. And of course it's also a state that's associated with post traumatic stress disorder, where dissociation can become a regular tactic in everyday stressful situations, not just situations that remind the sufferer of the original trauma.

[00:09:41] So dissociation can become chronic. Dissociation, because it takes you outside your body, will prevent you being aware of the body's messages. You will stop feeling, or relating to, whatever's happening in your body. That's the whole point of dissociation. So it might sound like a win, and in the moment, you could feel a bit of relief.

[00:10:04] And of course, in PTSD, it has a very valid purpose in preventing emotional overwhelm. But if you do dissociate frequently, you're walking away from your human experience. It means you won't be able to correct any of the original problems that are occurring. By the way, I'm speaking as a person who used to dissociate a lot, but what I discovered is it disconnected me, not just from my unwelcome emotions, but from my good emotions too and disconnected me from myself and from other people.

[00:10:43] I basically had no power. So, over the years, I've trained myself to be much more attuned to my inner machinations, so that I can live a richer, more expansive, more present life. And I've done that as part of my own burnout recovery. And it is work that I quite often do with my clients. It's just to bring them back home to their bodies, which is where they've abandoned not only the difficult things, but also all the good things that they love about themselves and about their lives.

[00:11:16] So let's talk for a minute about how you might start listening to and understanding the messages of your body in a way that can help you take corrective action and stop the cycle, which allows your body to return to more healthful balance. 

[00:11:30] I'm going to give you three tools here. Tool number one, no great surprise, a really great place to begin is Vipassana or mindfulness meditation, specifically to become attentive to your bodily experience,

[00:11:46] start listening to its cues. And yoga can perform the same function or Tai Chi and some other physical practices. But get to know yourself better, you're going to find willingness to let your body express itself. And you're going to find the capacity to respond to that with kindness and compassion instead of dissociation or shutting it down.

[00:12:13] So this is very grounding, especially in burnout recovery. Because you can't keep running away from your body forever and expect to be happy. So that's tool number one, mindfulness meditation.

[00:12:25] Tool number two, of course, is burnout recovery coaching, because the program that I've perfected over the years will very gently, return you to optimal function.

[00:12:39] It addresses the many problems of burnout. For example, stress, anxiety, overwork, overwhelm, exhaustion, frustration, hopelessness, imposter syndrome, self doubt, loss of motivation, futility, reduced performance. A foggy brain. A rampaging inner critic. Interpersonal conflict. People pleasing. Low mood. And of course, loss of enjoyment.

[00:13:08] That and many more. It's a many tentacled beast . Basically, if you coach with me, we will essentially take your negative experience of work and life and turn it into a positive step by step. And this is going to set you up for better health, more success, stronger leadership, and better career prospects.

[00:13:32] And it will also positively impact your life and relationships outside of work. It really does this by promoting a greater sense of well being and belonging, so you can get back to enthusiasm and fulfillment at work. It sounds like a big promise, doesn't it? And based on your work experience to date, it probably is.

[00:13:58] But we can and will achieve it, simply because you're not using all your power effectively right now in burnout and chronic stress. I will teach you exactly how to get your mojo back, step by step. I don't think there's a better or faster way to recover from burnout. So, if any of this material that I've talked about so far is hitting home with you, come and talk to me about your burnout and let's make a plan for your recovery.

[00:14:26] Because when you're out of burnout, your mind will calm down for sure, but your body will calm down too. So that's tool number two, Burnout Recovery Coaching. 

[00:14:37] Tool number three, another really valuable tool for me has been in reconnecting with my body's signals using a fitness tracker. And I use Whoop because it shows me, in numbers, the rhythms of my body.

[00:14:54] My pulse, temperature, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, muscular and cardio effort, sleep duration and quality, and most importantly, heart rate variability, which reveals my emotional stress levels and my ability to recover. And in burnout, Whoop uses these body stats to calculate my overnight recovery. In other words, how well my body bounced back from whatever I did and felt yesterday. For example, mine might tell me I had eight hours sleep last night, but only a 38 percent recovery.

[00:15:34] Well, we know that a nervous system in burnout, in fight or flight, in anxiety or stress. will turn off recovery functions. So if I sleep well, but have low recovery, my parasympathetic nervous system hasn't kicked in enough. I haven't had enough rest and repair time. And Whoop suggests to me, very politely, that I do some yoga or gentle stretches today.

[00:16:03] So if you're overstressed or under sleeping, I think a tracker can be a proxy for listening to your body. It can show you, in numbers, where to give yourself more support. And I found out that even though I'm deliberately in touch with my body's signals, my guess about my current kind of stress or stress hangover is often inaccurate and Whoop really helps me know what's going on.

[00:16:32] And if you've not listened in the past to your own body's pleas for help, maybe it needs movement or mental rest, sleep replenishment, then a tracker really spells out what you need. So I think if you use a tracker alongside burnout recovery coaching, it can really boost your body's ability to recover and your mind supports your body and your body supports your mind. So for example, both coaching and the tracker can help you improve your sleep.

[00:17:05] So together they're likely to have a very beneficial effect. 

[00:17:09] So there's three tools that you might consider to begin your journey. 

[00:17:15] Let's now assume then that you want to tune into your body and find out how you can help it. And yes, as I've said, mindfulness meditation is a wonderful way to get to know your body and to start listening to it.

[00:17:29] And yes, a fitness tracker helps in a statistical way. But personally, I've also studied many energetic and alternative health practices, both out of curiosity, out of a desire to read my own body's signals, and also a wish to help other people. Because after all, during the evolution of our species, the human organism has become an almost limitlessly complex and well adjusted system for life.

[00:17:58] Yet much illness remains idiopathic, which means having no known cause. 

[00:18:04] So I've variously studied a bit of traditional Chinese medicine principles, acupuncture, Kinesiology, Emotional Freedom Technique, Hypnotherapy, NLP, Reiki, Therapeutic Massage, Aromatherapy, EMDR, Trauma Recovery, PTSD, Vagal nerve and Somatic Therapies, Internal Family Systems, and many more.

[00:18:33] But the point really is, It doesn't actually matter how you listen to your body, just start listening if you can. Of course you may need help understanding what you hear. And Google may, or may not, assist in this matter. Because it has certain biases that haven't really allowed me always to uncover the information I needed.

[00:18:55] And by the way, for anybody who has, or suspects they may have, trauma, I read a thoroughly engrossing book called The Heart of Trauma, I'll put it in the show notes. It's by Bonnie Badenoch. Bonnie is, or rather was, she's retired now, a Master of Interpersonal Neurobiology, and if you ask me an all round good egg, who describes in scientific detail the imprints of trauma on the body and physical processes.

[00:19:23] And I first learned from her, for example, the one millimeter stapedius muscle, which lives in our inner ear, influences whether incoming sound transmits safety or fear to our ANS, our autonomic nervous system. The book's full of these little snippets like that. It will help you understand symptoms you may be having that could be related to trauma.

[00:19:48] So if you're very highly sensitive, take note. That whole book is a total gem of wisdom. And I did learn from Chinese medicine how to interpret many of the body's imbalances, if you like, and signals. For example, they propose that at a basic level, the organs are connected to the emotions. The liver represents anger, the kidney fear, the heart love, lungs grief, stomach anxiety.

[00:20:19] And each organ has its own system of connections in the body. So the lung system includes skin and large intestine. Kidney system includes ears and bladder. And that alone can start giving us a clue where to look if we suffer- along the acupuncture meridians. We might see that chemical imbalances, pain, tension, illness and injury are all ascribed in this system with an emotional root cause of disease.

[00:20:49] This may resonate with you, maybe you can associate symptoms in your mind and body with emotional or traumatic events, the stressors in your life. Then of course we've got yin and yang, the complementary forces of female earth darkness and male light activity. Whatever we might make of, the principles of the Chinese system, it has been used as a healing system for the last 2, 000 years.

[00:21:14] And since it's based on gently unblocking and harmonizing the body's energy flow, I consider it to be both holistic and non harming.

[00:21:26] I actually see the body the same way as I see the universe, which is weird, isn't it? I see it as essentially wondrous and ungraspably complex. And I doubt anybody would disagree with me about the body as being a very complex thing that is largely still not well understood. And by the way, when I've studied all these energy practices, I'm also empathic, intuitive and somewhat psychic.

[00:21:54] And all of that, I believe, helps me in my coaching work. When I support clients to start listening to their bodies, to start finding the bodily sensation associated with their emotional angst, in order to release the block, to release a memory of hurt from the past, which surfaces when they start focusing on the body.

[00:22:18] And it will often present itself to a client via sensations, via visual imagery or memory, as the story of the affliction they have emerges to them. And really it presents itself for healing. Most clients are able to connect with this, even if they've never done it before, under my guidance. And it really supports them to release the energy block, the memory block, the pain, the tension, the emotion, and the negative thought that surrounds it that's been held in the body.

[00:22:50] And I have seen many clients release and heal from stress related mental and physical ills in their bodies this way. So if you want to start debugging your body, start by learning to listen to it. Listen to your emotions. Listen to your painful beliefs about yourself. Listen to your illness. So you can help it gently resolve the systems,

[00:23:17] from the root cause and help your mind and body let go of your pain. And if that sounds a little bit woo-woo to you, well, it is! But here's the thing. I come from a background of software development, deeply logical, analytical, true or false territory. And when I opened my mind to all of this work, it was rather startling for me too.

[00:23:42] But the more I've worked with it, the more it's worked with me. Witnessing my own healing and that of countless other people has simply persuaded me to let go of what I think I know and become curious and open to learning from people who know much more useful stuff than I do, that I can also prove to myself actually works.

[00:24:05] It's up to you.

[00:24:06] Another really good source of information for me has been Gabor Mate, who has worked all his life as a doctor, variously in obstetrics, aged care, addiction, trauma, ADHD. And his book, The Myth of Normal, also in the show notes, is subtitled Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture.

[00:24:31] So it's really on topic for this episode today. It's really about understanding and taking charge of whatever ails you. The whole book really blew my mind. And for anybody experiencing autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue, gut imbalances, hypersensitivities, addiction, ADHD, Mental health challenges,

[00:24:53] you might find that book interesting.

[00:24:54] Controversially, he, amongst others, also suggests that there are cancer character traits. That really rocked me, but he does back it up with scientific studies.

[00:25:05] And speaking, by the way, of gut imbalances, I'd like to observe that chronic diarrhea and constipation, at the very least, suggest that your gut needs help.

[00:25:16] They're not a normal state. Please don't take them for granted. You might want, at some point, to review the type and quality of food that you put into your body. Get help with nutrition and gut health. And assess the accumulated stress that you're under. Because it's hard to thrive if your guts aren't working properly.

[00:25:37] And likewise with insomnia and anxiety. And if you have leaky gut, which compromises the function of your entire body, you probably also have leaky brain, which compromises the function of your brain. Could explain a lot for some people. Dementia is not a normal condition of aging. If you have creeping brain fog or memory loss or poor concentration, what do you think's going on there?

[00:26:05] A couple of other signals that I'm going to mention in a minute, different conditions. This is not medical advice, I will stress. I'm just suggesting ways you might interpret signals from your body and pointers to start personally attending to your body's needs. Tune into your own body, ask it what it's trying to tell you, check for yourself and then seek expert help with what you find out.

[00:26:31] Please make stress reduction and self care a priority in your plan.

[00:26:37] So let's start with insomnia. Insomnia, what's that telling you? You can't give yourself rest. So work first in your mind, on your inner critic, your anxiety, self doubt, and self belief. Attend to, in a practical sense, sleep hygiene, nutrition, especially meal times and contents, and also meditation, exercise, alcohol or drugs, and late night doom scrolling or Netflix.

[00:27:07] Loss of circulation. A lot of people have that these days. You're not pumping enough energy around your body. Again, attend to your self belief and your inner critic. How much do you love yourself and your one precious life? Attend to your heart health and social connection.

[00:27:29] Also, of course, circulation can be related to blood sugar, insulin, inflammation, potentially diabetes.

[00:27:36] Muscle wasting. You're not feeding your muscles. It's recommended to try regular resistance training three times a week to build muscle, but also attend to your nutrition, reduce sugar and therefore inflammation.

[00:27:53] Make sure you're getting enough protein. Muscles need protein to build. And also, as a side benefit, resistance training stimulates your metabolism, so it's going to help other areas of your body.

[00:28:05] Dementia. You're not connected with your mind. Attend to appreciation of your mental faculties. I'm serious, look at what is working and how to enhance that.

[00:28:17] Then again, review your gut health, sugar intake, nutrition, exercise. Meditate and ensure that you stimulate your mind. Use it, don't defer its functions to other people, don't defer decision making to others. Reduce stress, dissociation and mind numbing activities. Be creative. Dementia is an inflammatory disease and can be linked with diabetes, Mental health problems, depression, heart disease, things like that.

[00:28:48] Addiction. You can't bear to face your feelings. You may need support to release addictive behaviours and come home to the emotions that you've pushed away. This is the way that I support my clients to stop running. And sometimes you will need help with it.

[00:29:03] Migraine. Another very common in burnout. In traditional Chinese medicine, migraine can be caused by nine patterns of disharmony. Things like heat and blood stagnation, phlegm, spleen deficiency. I'm going to put a link about this in the show notes if you want to check out those nine. But it's fair to say that I've personally seen my clients recover from many chronic health conditions during their coaching with me as a result of shifts that they've made.

[00:29:35] And take note, migraine is one. Also, things like insomnia, TMJ, addiction, panic attacks, gut problems. Because all of these have a stress component. 

[00:29:46] As well, we have heart disease. Trying to send a message to you of an overburdened system. Because high blood pressure is not a normal state. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, depression, dementia, and even some cancers,

[00:30:05] are now known to be inflammatory diseases and there is much you can do to reduce your risk of these diseases by managing nutrition, inflammation and stress, with better, deeper self care.

[00:30:20] And you're going to have to change your priorities a little bit to allow for that. But I do see it as incredibly helpful to know that there are vectors of disease management that are within our own personal control.

[00:30:33] And it's the same with burnout. If you're waiting for an external saviour to fix your burnout, wait no more. Whether your organisation, job or boss improve conditions for you or not, You're fully capable of recovering from burnout yourself. You can generate the resourcefulness, resilience, calm and self protective emotional care for yourself to the point where your energy, vitality and enthusiasm return and you lose the perpetual angst of burnout.

[00:31:09] You can give yourself that gift. Whether you stay in your job or quit, will not be the controlling factor. And this is really because a big part of burnout is in fact internal. Because how pleasant do you find it listening to the voice in your head 24 7? Is it gentle and encouraging? Or is it brutal and unforgiving?

[00:31:33] Does it chip away at you all day, telling you that you're not good enough, not careful enough, not talented enough, not diligent enough? I'm going to teach you with coaching, how to be your own savior in burnout because you have the power. Granted, it is latent power right now, but it's there. And the good thing is when you learn how to use it, your inner resources are always available.

[00:31:59] Whereas external saviors, not so much. 

[00:32:03] The bottom line is you possess the power to save yourself and I can help you embrace that power with burnout recovery coaching. 

[00:32:12] Thank you so much for listening today. That's what I've got for you. I hope some of it was useful to you, in the minimum as a prompt to take some action, because do not leave chronic bodily or mental dis-ease untended.

[00:32:26] Please, I beg you don't. I really hate to think of anyone suffering helplessly, when healing is possible. 

[00:32:34] And if you're in burnout, it's curable. I invite you to come and talk to me for free and let's make a plan for you to recover quickly and sustainably and get back to your best performance, leadership, success, and most of all enjoyment inside working out.

[00:32:51] You can book an appointment at DexRandall. com. If you enjoyed this episode I would also appreciate you sharing the podcast with your friends, Or rating and reviewing the podcast. And if you would like to send me your thoughts about this podcast episode, you can do that via the SMS link in the show notes.