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Is Thyroid Balance Overrated? Destination vs. Process
When you receive back from your doctor a TSH that’s, say 2.6, how do you feel? Honestly, that TSH makes me feel like I got a C+.
I retrace my steps for the past 6 weeks, searching for the culprit. Did I eat soy? Too many damn brussel sprouts? Eat breakfast too soon after taking my Armour? Am I not on my game with selenium, zinc and copper? I’m guilty somehow and somewhere, and I just need to identify it, weed it out of my life.
Enough. It’s bloody exhausting. It’s making me un-balanced to think about how I got un-balanced. If the labs are only half the story, and how I feel is just as important, how ‘bout paradigm shift?
Today, my lovelies, we’re taking a page from the Danielle Laporte Lesson Plan. She considers balance banal and deadening.
Balance. The term makes me feel bloated and late for my own party. Balance. Stressful. Low-fat cheese. Walking shoes. Small Talk. – Danielle Laporte
I have no interest in living a balanced life. I want a life of adventure. - Chris Guillebeau
Thyroid adventure. I like the sound of that. I think that invites jagged peaks and valleys, and rarely is perpetual smooth sailing.
Danielle Laporte considers balance as helpful as the concept of original sin – you can never get it right.
Maybe what’s more important is to bounce through the times of imbalance, which is… what, 99% of the time? Perhaps use those times to learn, gather data, recalibrate toward what works for you, but rather than grasping, crazed-eyes-on-the-prize – the elusive place of perfect TSH and perfect free T3 and reverse T3 – let’s linger and savor the learnings from the imbalance. Enjoy the process rather than obsess over the destination.
Here’s Danielle again:
If you want to do great things, striving for balance is a losing game. I don’t think remarkable artists, scientists, activists, entrepreneurs, or generous souls set out on their journeys with the aim to be measured and harmonious. Meeting your potential is inherently full of tension. Trying to be balanced about it is onerous and futile. Fuhget about it. Put balance on pause. – Danielle Laporte
So why do we stress about the out-of-whackness of our thyroid? Is it some moral compass for whom we are as people? I’d say you’re so much more than your thyroid numbers. Let’s try to distill out the meaningless things that aren’t helping the journey to euthyroidness, and enjoy the ride more fully.
In the end, the quest for balance is bogus. Love your burdens. Love them hard. And when your loves knock you down or your weak ankles trip you up, stop worrying about balancing – ‘cuz you’re not – and bounce. - Kelly Diels
If you want to work at nourishing your thyroid nutritionally, join our next Gottfried Hormone-Balancing Cleanse virtually on March 24, 2011, via webinar live at noon PST. Webcasts will be available for download if you miss the live version. Go here for more info: http://bit.ly/GetYourCleanseOn
The way the thyroid operates is a very complex biochemical system, and I often oversimplify much of it to make it more accessible. If you have questions, please post them in the comment section. Thank you!
Written by: Dr. Sara Gottfried
Tags: dr sara gottfried thyroid patient OB/GYN, enjoying the journey towards thyroid health, finding our way through thyroid levels versus how we feel, is thyroid balance overrated, recalibrating euthyroid expectations, thyroid articles by dr sara gottfried, thyroid destination versus process, thyroid patient discussions
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8 Responses to “Is Thyroid Balance Overrated? Destination vs. Process”
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Thank you thank you thank you……
I have been waiting for someone like you to say this!
I have believed this for awhile.
I compare it (balance) to the perfect day.
The sun is shining just right, the temperture is 70, smooth sailing~
Now how many “perfect” weather days do we get? And are we only happy enjoying life on these rare days?
The whole picture of all the ingredients of this and that makes a cat.
Perfect? forget about it. The finest crystal is not perfect. Hand blown it varies from glass to glass. So why do you want to be a Libby glass? Pressed from a mold so the prefect is done.
We will feel things, relative to all things. Don’t focus on the little variances that likely happen.
Enough of this focus!
focus on the “realness” of you!
my humble slightly off self, Linny
Dr. G, thanks for another magnificent post. Ah, you always make me think, and I LOVE you for that.
I have a question for you, because thyroid diseases can be so dangerous, is there a specific point in one’s treatment that you’re referring to?
Thanks, toots!
Katie
I would like to share my person discovery of this conclusion.
While I was under the total care of Holipactic treatments I experienced a blood check that revealed a ridiculously frightening “number”!
This Dr. suggesting I stop my replacement thyroid drug and trust “his” form of balance.
To his fright too I found my results in the 40’s, yes thats right 40’s! I was still functioning and not dead.
Now I will never go without taking my thyroid medication again but I did however find I would not fall off the edge of the world going where no`one should go.
This “balance” for me is now less frightening. I do my best to keep a watch and mostly trust the way I “feel”.
I now believe as this Dr. suggests to relax about the number game.
Linny
please note I meant Holistic Medicine ~I had my thyroid radiation in 2002 I was told I have Graves.
thanks for your terrific responses. linny, your analogy to a perfect weather day is spot on. slightly “off” is so much more interesting to me than “perfect.”
katie, so glad you asked for this clarification. yes, i’m referring to “maintenance,” not to the scary time of crazy levels such as a TSH in the 40s. yikers. my intent it to focus on the empowerment of how you feel, and what best supports feeling that way, and less emphasis on the near-impossibility of a perpetually perfect numbers.
thanks so much for you engagement with the topics i’m wranlin’!
sara
that was wranglin’
Love, love, love that, Sara! To me, it solidifies the point that we are so much more than the sum of our numbers. Instead of obsessing about the numbers, focus on what feels good and the journey. I FEEL YOU, SISTAH!
you rock
I for one can say that I am Hashi/euthyroid and I can tell you I still don’t feel right. I’m not on medication. I am however being treated by a Naturopath and I’m hopeful, but I can tell you that the arbitrary numbers for what is considered to be balanced is hog wash at least for me. My body tells me so. I don’t worry about my numbers, but I know how I feel and most of the time it isn’t good, but I’m still trying to enjoy my life regardless. Balance Schmalance.