What Really Lies Beneath Today’s Stress and Adrenal Fatigue Epidemic?

Charles Eisenstein is a yogi, author, speaker, and spiritual intuitive. His background includes a degree in mathematics and philosophy from Yale University, six years as an English-Chinese translator, and four years on the faculty of Penn State. He is the author and speaker of the powerful audio CD, Reconnecting to the Life Force for Adrenal Fatigue and Stress, which comes with a top-recommendation by Donna Gates of Body Ecology. He is also the author of The Yoga of Eating and the just-released The Ascent of Humanity , describing “The Age of Separation, the Age of Reunion, and the Convergence of Crises that is birthing the transition.”

You have probably met amazing people who are blessed with a seemingly endless supply of energy. Are they just lucky? Are you cursed, by chance, with a bad body or unlucky circumstances, weak adrenals or overwhelming responsibilities? No.

On some level you realize you are not a victim of your body or your life. You are its creator. A limitless supply of energy lies within you. What might be blocking it?

To discover the hidden message behind stress and adrenal fatigue, let’s start by pondering what the adrenal gland is actually for.

In the simplest terms, the job of the adrenal glands is to put us into action. The hormones they produce activate the body and focus the mind, readying us to act, to create, to express, to engage. When the adrenal glands are quiet, such as in relaxation, laughter, or play, then we are in a different state of being. We might describe it as receptive, passive, open, or going with the flow.

These two states include many other body systems as well, most notably the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the central nervous system. Both exist in the body, and we must recognize both as tools for the body to express its wisdom and enact a sacred purpose.

We are here on earth both to go with the flow and to actively create and mold reality to our design. We embody a yin and a yang, and in health, the relaxed yin state balances the adrenal yang state.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the adrenal glands are part of the kidney system. Interestingly, TCM identifies the Kidney as the repository of the jing, our life force, our aliveness, our creative power, our essence. The jing is what drives us to express our being in this material world. It is spirit materialized.

Now, imagine what happens if some important part of your life is not a true expression of your being. It could be your occupation, your relationship, or any area that you are trying to make work. Trying is the key word here. Trying to make it work. Trying to carry on when you don’t really want to. Trying hard to pull that life energy out of your Kidney.

The adrenal glands, being wise, are not going to want to respond. They are going to be reluctant to offer up their essence of life. They know, “This is not what it’s for.” You say, “Why is it so hard to get up in the morning?” and the adrenals say, “We don’t want to get up for that!”

Thinking mechanistically, we suppose that we can’t get up because our adrenal glands are tired. Actually the reverse it true. Our adrenals are tired because we don’t want to get up.

Are you protesting, “No, I do want to get up! I have so much to do. I want to get up, but I can’t”? The body never lies. Deep unconscious desires are rising to the surface.

Usually we don’t take no for an answer when our adrenal glands rebel. If they are reluctant to offer their energy, well, we’ll force them to. We can force them chemically, for example with coffee. We can also use mental force to stimulate our adrenals. We set up a system of internal rewards and punishments, and use it to whip our adrenals into action. In other words, we create stress. Gotta do this, gotta do that. I’d better, I have to, I shouldn’t, I should. A constant cloud of threat hangs over life.

We can never rest at peace.

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The “Reconnecting to the Life Force” CD by Charles Eisenstein – author of this column and renowned yogi, author and speaker — gets to the bottom of the issues that underlie today’s epidemic of adrenal fatigue and stress.
It presents a powerful and inspiring alternative to the strategy of managing and coping, plus two dynamic guided meditations that make the ideas come to life.
Where does life energy ultimately come from? How can we connect with it powerfully?
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If threat is the negative component of stress, then the positive component is desire. It is desire which is meant to mobilize the life force contained in the adrenals. In the rush and press of modern life, rarely do we do something purely for the love of doing it. So we create incentives to “get motivated”. We subject ourselves to a relentless barrage of threats and incentives to make ourselves do things we would otherwise not do.

Eventually, when we continue to jerk the life force out of the reluctant adrenals, they become exhausted. Because even though we can artificially stimulate them to produce, their internal resources are limited. The adrenal glands don’t produce life energy from nothing. They are transformational conduits for a flow of creative life energy through us.

On one level, they require minerals and other chemical precursors to make hormones. On an energetic level they need to be plugged in to the source of creative life energy. Even if you take all the right minerals and glandular extracts, they won’t work if the connection to the source of life energy is blocked. You’ll try one promising solution after another, and you’ll only get marginal, temporary improvements.

Why is adrenal fatigue epidemic in our time? It reflects the evolution of human consciousness. What was once an acceptable life is no longer acceptable. The kinds of jobs and relationships that were once considered normal are incompatible with who we are becoming. Good enough is no longer good enough. We are literallytired of the old way of being.

Exhaustion is not just about your adrenals. Your adrenal glands are refusing to comply with life as it has been. Whether you agree or not, they are launching you into a new stage of life. An incredible journey is ahead of you.