Hello!
Today I’m excited to share a simple but powerful way to visualize your body called the Bucket Theory. It can help you ”see” how all the pieces fit together when it comes to your health. All in all, it just might give you a flash of insight on what’s happening for you, which is why I love it so much.
Your Body = The Bucket
To start, you’ll want to picture a bucket that’s open at the top and filled with water. Any bucket or pail will do, just go with whatever image comes to your mind first. The unique thing about this particular bucket is that it has a faucet on the bottom. As water fills it up, water can be drained out the bottom to prevent it from overflowing.
Now, here’s where you’ll need to take a bit of a mental leap. The bucket visually represents your body and the water filling it is “stressors”. The stressors can be physical, like environmental or food allergens, skipping meals, or environmental toxins like pesticides in your food. Or, they can be emotional ones like moving to a new house, a difficult relationship, or super tight timelines at work.
The faucet on the bottom represents how your body copes with these stressors and prevents your bucket from overflowing.
Is Your Bucket Full?
Your bucket stays in balance by:
1) Opening the faucet to let water out, and
2) Filling the water up slower (or not at all).
If the faucet at the bottom isn’t opened fully, or the water is filling up too fast, your bucket can get FULL and overflow. This is when you start noticing symptoms – they’re your body’s way of telling you things are out of balance and it needs help.
Some clear physical signs that your bucket is full include having seasonal allergy symptoms, any hormonal imbalances, skin issues like acne or eczema, inflammatory or autoimmune conditions. Some examples of emotional symptoms that show up when your bucket is full include any changes in mood before your period, feeling anxious, angry or really stressed out.
How Does a Full Bucket Affect Your Hormones?
In SO many ways! Ultimately, ANY symptom of hormonal imbalance, including abdominal weight gain, exhaustion, hair loss, acne, infertility, irregular or heavy periods and PMS, among so many others, is a clear sign that your bucket is full.
How To EMPTY Your Bucket (and feel GREAT again!)
You can get your bucket (i.e. your body) back in balance in two ways:
1) OPEN the faucet
The faster you can detox from stressors and move them out of your body, the less likely you’ll end up with a full bucket. A few examples of how to “open your faucet” include:
- Eating healthy food in a way that fits your body’s specific needs.
- Doing movement everyday that makes you sweat (and that you love!) – your body gets rid of toxins through sweat.
- Drinking lots of water – keeps your bowels, blood and lymphatic systems moving – these are the routes your cells send garbage out through so it’s important to keep them flowing.
- Resolving constipation – this is a key exit route for toxins, extra hormones and other things your body doesn’t want or need.
- Supporting your liver – this is THE most important organ for getting toxins out of your body.
2) Stop FILLING your bucket
You can slow down how quickly your bucket fills by reducing stressors in your life. Some examples include:
- Avoiding foods that you’re sensitive to or that give you digestive symptoms.
- Changing jobs if you hate yours.
- Avoiding environmental toxins that throw your estrogen and thyroid out of balance.
- Doing things you don’t like because you feel like you “should”.
- Doing a gentle detoxification cleanse twice each year to clean your slate and help your liver stay in top shape.
There are TONS of possibilities for ways to address your full bucket AND prevent it from getting there ever again. Because you’re completely unique, you’ll need a one-of-a kind approach for understanding not only what’s filling your bucket, but how you can empty it.
Take Action Now:
Take a few minutes now and answer these 3 questions to get you started:
- What’s filling your bucket? Consider physical AND emotional stressors.
- What do you love to do that helps you feel amazing and/or really relaxed?
This is a good start. But to really know what’s happening with your body, you’ll want an in-depth assessment of your different organs and hormones, how they’re working and which ones in particular are under stress. This is where I start with each of my clients when we begin our work together. From there, we build specific nutritional, herbal and lifestyle support to treat the root cause and empty their bucket.
Curious to Learn More?
If you’re curious to find out what’s filling YOUR bucket, learn specific strategies for addressing it, get an individualized step-by-step plan and TONS of support and guidance at your side, I encourage you to reach out to me at info@drvivianlord.com to learn more about how I may help you.
All the best,
Vivian