A hormonal imbalance can throw your whole life and sleep schedule out of whack. Add these self-care practices to your routine to help balance your hormones.
Are you tired of dealing with your hormonal imbalance and all its symptoms? You’re not alone.
The physical and emotional symptoms of unbalanced hormones affect millions of people worldwide, leaving some at a loss for what to do to fix them. You’ve seen doctor after doctor, but still no change.
If you’re ready to finally address your hormone health and resolve your imbalance once and for all, you are in the right place. This article will teach you three ways to naturally fix your imbalance through self-care.
Keep reading if you’re ready to learn how.
Common Symptoms of Hormonal Imbalance
There are common and consistent symptoms most people endure when they have a hormonal imbalance. They are:
- Fatigue
- Acne (especially along jawline)
- Digestive issues
- Weight gain
- Mood swings, sometimes with anxiety and depression
If you are experiencing multiple symptoms from that list, it’s time to address this imbalance once and for all. No one should have to suffer from these effects; you deserve to find a solution.
Here are the 3 best practices in self-care that will fix your hormonal imbalance.
1. Decrease Stress
Stress is the most common roadblock to healing your body. It takes all of your body’s energy and resources so other issues aren’t focused on.
When you’re stressed, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode; cortisol levels rise which leads to inflammation and other health concerns. Address your stress so your body can focus on balancing.
There are lots of awesome ways to practice destressing self-care. Here are some examples:
- Exercising
- Journaling
- Therapy
- Meditation
- Practicing mindfulness
If your stress is work-related, consider how you can delegate tasks so you aren’t under as much pressure. You should also consider taking up a creative hobby that allows your to decompress after a long workday.
Alleviating stress in your life is imperative to decreasing cortisol levels and allowing your body to heal.
2. Essential Oils
As mentioned above, stress is a huge factor in your hormonal imbalance. Essential oils are a great tool in alleviating stress as well as helping the hormone-producing systems to regulate themselves.
Here are some oils that you should consider adding to your self-care routine:
Clary Sage
This oil can be used for aromatherapy, direct inhalation, and as a massage oil.
Clary sage can reduce cortisol levels from stress as well an improve your thyroid hormone levels. Simply open the bottle and inhale 1-2 a day.
Hormones are directly related to women’s reproductive systems, so it’s no wonder you can feel cramping and bloating in that area when your hormones are off. Use clary sage as a massage oil on your lower abdomen to help your reproductive organs relax.
Stress often increases during the menstrual cycle so during that time of the month it’s especially beneficial to use clary sage to reduce it.
Thyme
This oil can be used for aromatherapy to address multiple symptoms of hormonal balances at once.
Since thyme can lower your progesterone levels, you could see an improvement in your mood swings, hot flashes, weight gain, and insomnia.
It has also been known to increase estrogen levels, so if you already have high estrogen levels, it’s not recommended to use thyme oil.
Bergamot
This oil is beneficial when used for aromatherapy to allow your body to heal from stress.
It’s known to reduce blood pressure and heart rate which allows your body to feel calmer and be able to focus on healing the damages from your stress.
Bergamot can help lower cortisol so that your body has time to balance and regulate its systems that were affected.
3. Eat Clean
Your diet is intensely linked to your endocrine system where hormones are produced. So much of processed food and food from mass-producing farms contain hormones that don’t belong in our bodies. Livestock is sometimes fed hormone-enriched feed which then ends up on our plates.
Here are some tips to follow that will make your diet cleaner:
Go Organic
Mass-produced fruits and vegetables are often sprayed with pesticides and the soil is treated with fertilizers to ensure pests stay away and the company can sell everything it grows.
These pesticides have growth hormones in them to promote the unnatural growth of the plant. They also mess with your hormones when you consume those fruits and veggies.
To avoid ingesting these hormones, choose to buy organic produce.
Support Gut Health
The bacteria in our stomachs break down the metabolized hormones in our body. This process is incredibly important to ensure we don’t have too many hormones in our system.
To promote healthy bacteria in your stomach, eat 1-2 tablespoons of fermented food each day. Some options are sauerkraut or kimchi.
Reduce Caffeine
Caffeine can increase cortisol levels, stress, and even estrogen levels.
Try to limit your coffee intake or replace it with less caffeinated beverages like matcha green tea or half-decaf-half-caffeinated coffee.
What About Hormone Replacement Therapy?
In some cases, self-care practices and holistic approaches may not be enough to balance your hormones.
Many sufferers opt to try hormone replacement therapy. If you choose to go with this option, consider using bioidentical hormones because they will be absorbed more naturally in the body than synthetic ones.
The success some patients achieve can far outweigh the bioidentical hormones cost. Always do your research and speak to a health practitioner before starting any new treatment.
Interested in Learning More?
Self-care practices can seriously impact your hormonal imbalance, you just have to find the method that works best for you.
For some, that will be meditating and getting regular exercise. For others, it could be changing their diet or implanting essential oils into their routine. Some will try every option available.
Whichever route you choose to go in your healing, remember that healing is half physical and half emotional. You must address wounds in both sections to fully heal.
To learn more about health issues and how your body can be affected, check out our Health Archives.
