Endometriosis can seriously affect every aspect of our lives. I know how dreadful it can be. I know because for years I shoved what I was feeling under the carpet because I didn’t know how to deal with it.
10 steps you can take right now to finally get some control of your Endometriosis:
Step 1: Decide to take action and responsibility for your health
It is easy to put things off. It is easy to blame situations or circumstances for how things are and to stay in that place. I did this for over 15 years. It was only when I decided to take real responsibility for my health and what I was doing for my body that I truly changed my diet and lifestyle. I had to decide to take action and follow through. That is the first step…. decide that you are going to do things differently this year and take on the responsibility for your health.
Step 2: Set goals that you know you can achieve
When I first read the recommendations for how to eat healthy when it came to Endometriosis, I felt completely overwhelmed and defeated before I even started! Set yourself one goal to achieve each week or day and make it something simple but within your reach right now.
Some great ideas:
- Drink your full 8 glasses of water per day
- Replace lunches with salads instead of leftovers or sandwiches
Step 3: Pick one big goal to achieve within the next month and go for it 100%
When it comes to changing our diets, I know from personal experience that it is easy to allow “just a little bit” of something and eventually it isn’t so little anymore. The biggest goal I would recommend you take on, to really shift things in a big way is to cut out gluten. Cutting it out will transform how you feel within a month! So, set this big goal of no gluten for one month and go for it 100%.
* Important: record how you feel, before and after!
Step 4: Learn to love yourself more
I noticed an interesting thing within myself last year. Whenever life got too hard or I felt stressed, suddenly chocolate and sugar snuck back into my life. I used it as a way to “treat myself” and it would leave me feeling lousy for days afterwards. Find ways to love and treasure yourself in new and interesting ways. I now treat myself each week to home-made facials and positive messages which sit on my desk. If I am having a low moment, I simply read those.
Step 5: Look at food in a different way
Everything we eat is either adding to our healing powers or taking away from them. When we change how we view food, from one of “I can’t have that” or “how much is it?” or “will it fill me up?” to Will this nourish my body in the best way possible?…. big things start to happen. We shift our thinking and we shift our eating. Food becomes about nourishment and providing for our bodies, rather than just something we do to fill a gap!
Suddenly, eating health is easy and fun!
Step 6: Find ways to de-stress
I get it. Endometriosis is a stressful condition. There are heaps of unknowns and somehow no real answers, unless you dig a little deeper! Stress unfortunately doesn’t help you in any way. It will influence your digestive health, which will influence your ability to absorb the good food you are eating. It will affect your hormones and it will certainly add to the pain levels you are experiencing.
So, find things that de-stress you. Here are some ideas:
- Nostril breathing (5 minutes and super easy to do anywhere). Here is a YouTube video to show you how.
- Try Yoga or Callanetics practices
Step 7: Shift your thinking and fill your day with joy
Find things in your life that you enjoy doing and do more of them. Remember those things that you used to do as a kid and don’t do anymore? Painting, drawing or playing a musical instrument. Dance or run around being silly. Just let things go for a little while. Find things that make you laugh and give you hours of enjoyment. This could be as simple as filling your home with flowers or finding a silly movie to watch which makes you laugh. Fill your life with joy and laughter and that is what it will be.
Shifting from a small, closed in and “nothing is possible” headspace, will restrict any chance of moving forward or getting better. When we laugh, when we are free again like children, we can open ourselves up to other potentials.
Step 8: Get some real help
So by now perhaps you have tried the medical approach to feeling better. Perhaps you have tried pain-killers, hormone treatments and surgeries. Is it working for you?
If you are still struggling, then perhaps it is time to seek a different approach, rather than hitting your head against the same brick wall. Shift gears and move into the holistic approach with a guided program to get you through this, that is well researched and proven to work.
Step 9: Surround yourself with people who can support you properly
When we say we want to try a natural approach for Endometriosis, it is inevitable that others are going to look at us like we are mad. There will be questions from most people who you come across. This might make you doubt things for yourself. So, surround yourself with women who have done this natural thing and are doing it. Surround yourself with Endo Sisters who are getting results and can guide you through all the nay sayers!
Step 10: Learn what holistic really means
I never got it. Not for years. I ate well and took a bunch of supplements and that is pretty much what I did. I didn’t realise there was more to this.
So, I encourage you to find out what it truly means to approach your body holistically – all in and nothing left unturned. Discover how to approach your body holistically and really support it fully – beyond just diets and supplements.
When we take steps towards wellness, each step takes us closer to achieving the management of Endometriosis and allowing us to thereby live a normal life. I encourage you to take just one step a day and before you know it, you have traveled a wonderful journey to wellness.
Got questions? Want to know more? Feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below…
Melissa
I did change my diet and exercised but nothing changed for me. I think it could change because my is in an advance stages it is all outside I have no uterine pain any more and hormones work for me. I am not on pain killer and refuse to be on them. I understand that endo is different for everyone and stages and symptoms for me were not typical for others. I never showed signs as a teen. My symptoms got worse after my pregnancy.