Category: how

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Understanding & Working With Your Digestion Intuitively

Digestion in Ayurveda is called Agni or the digestive ‘fire’. Agni is considered of utmost importance. If working well, it gives good health. If digestion malfunctions, it gives rise to ‘ama’ or toxins, which can and do contribute to the cause of ill health, along with unresolved trauma, among other key factors. Critical to good digestion is to know when to eat, how much to eat and how to eat.

The How

How you treat digestion is very important. What you eat is important, but even the best foods are of little value if you cannot digest them. Ayurveda places great emphasis on your awareness of, and attention to, your digestion.

Your Past Conditioning

When you were young you were probably pressurised to eat at a certain time, irrespective of your hunger, and to ‘clean your plate’ and you may have learnt to eat as a reward or eat to be sociable. If so, you may now be out of touch with your body’s needs for food and be eating out of habit, or for emotional reasons.

A New Way ~ learning to tune in to your digestion

The only true reason for eating is physical hunger, though in our modern society we eat a lot for pleasure, enjoyment and social celebrations too.  In order to be more sensitive and aware of your body’s signals however, no matter why you’re eating, the following exercise is very useful, to help avoid unnecessary eating and over-indulgence.

You must first start to feel your stomach. Allow yourself to get hungry by delaying eating. When hungry, put your attention in the area of your stomach and notice what you feel. You may not feel anything or you may be aware of an emptiness, a true hunger in this space. At this point, have a meal. After the meal, place your attention on your stomach again. You should now notice a significant contrast. From these two extreme spaces of contrast, with considered and intuitive practice,  you can learn the difference between an empty stomach (when hungry) and a full stomach (when satiated).

Going Forwards ~ stages of digestion

From now on, make a point of always checking your stomach before and after eating.  As you do this over the coming days and weeks you’ll become aware of your ‘hunger level’.

Your stomach has two functions – to hold food after a meal and to begin digesting. As your stomach digests, it slowly empties. After a meal your stomach should be no more than three-quarters full, leaving room for churning the food and for digestive juices to do their job with optimal function.

Two hours later your stomach may be half full and after another few hours, it will be quarter full. A quarter full is the point at which your stomach has finished digesting the previous meal and is now just emptying. So it’s only now the stomach is truly ready to digest again. It is at this point that it sends us signals of hunger.

Common mistakes

So many of us (myself included at one point) are eating far too much between meals, snacking and grazing, eating little and often, believing it’s a good thing to do.  Whereas in actual fact, it’s just sending confusing signals to the digestive system, because it then doesn’t know what stage it’s at within the whole digestive process. As a result, we then begin to see all kinds of digestive issues showing up in their early stages and if subtle enough and left undetected, they become worse over time, until chronic and more of an issue to undo and heal.

Tuning In ~ fulfilled or filled full…?

However, if you continue to check your stomach, by putting your attention in that area of the body, you become more aware. You begin to recognise when your stomach is full, three-quarters full, half full, quarter full or empty. As you do so you will become more and more tuned in and even be able to predict your hunger. When you feel half full it will be up to two hours before you will feel hungry. When quarter full, you will shortly feel an appetite.

For good digestion, it is most important to eat when hungry. If you eat before true hunger arises you’re expecting your stomach to finish digesting the previous meal and yet, at the same time, to start digesting a new meal. This upsets digestion. The second most important lesson is to stop eating when three-quarters full. Overeating leaves no room for churning and digestive juices and so digestion is compromised. It is like putting too much coal on the fire. A simple question to remember after the meal is: are you fulfilled or are you filled full? ‘Fulfilled’ feels good. ‘Filled full’ is a heavy discomfort in the stomach and a general feeling of dullness and lethargy.

Final Vignettes

If you truly tune in and listen to your stomach you will over time develop better-eating habits. Gradually you will tend to eat at the right time, when hungry, and eat the right amount. At this point, you will learn from listening to your stomach the amount you should eat for breakfast which satisfies but leaves you hungry for lunch, which should be the main meal of the day, eaten around 12pm to 1 pm because this is when digestion is at its strongest. Then you will eat appropriately at lunch to leave you with a hunger for your lighter evening meal, ideally eaten by 7 pm. Only if hungry should you snack between meals.

Another important consideration for digestion is the way you eat. Ayurveda considers it essential to sit and relax. Only when you relax can your body concentrate on digestion. Therefore do not watch TV, read a newspaper, book or magazine or even scroll through a screen while eating. Also do not eat if you’re having an argument or have become emotional. The best scenario is gentle company enjoying a meal together or else eating quietly on your own.

Lastly, make sure you’re also eating appropriately for your constitution, for you as a unique and individual being. Eating foods which do not suit you and your individual make-up, no matter how healthy they may have been labelled, will not support a healthy digestive system and ultimately feed your mind and body fully if they’re not the right foods for you. So make sure you’ve done your research and are not just following the latest celebrity trend.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Having lived most of my life with food sensitivities and intolerances, I’ve been there, done that and done a lot of research and training…e.g. raw foods are not for most people despite what mass media may say, especially if you already have issues like constipation, insomnia, anxiety or dry skin. Similarly, spicy, hot, acidic foods are not much use to someone with reflux, skeletal aches and pains or skin issues like eczema. Or if you struggle with deep depression, lethargy and obesity, foods like mushrooms are not going to help you. I could write a whole other blog post on this…and perhaps I will soon. For now though, just remember, there is not a one-size-fits-all remedy. We all have to do our own research and find what works for us.

If you would like some extra help and guidance, do get in touch, where we can discuss your specific needs and make an individual plan to suit you.

And if you haven’t already, join me on Instagram for more regular sound bites.

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Trusting Our Symptoms

Probably one of the biggest challenges I originally had before gaining the knowledge I have now, which I often hear from those I work with, is trusting our symptoms and the process our body is naturally going through to help us…the body’s natural healing intelligence.

We’ve been conditioned and programmed into believing something is wrong with us when symptoms show up…that it’s somehow our fault when we are ‘ill’ ‘unwell’ ‘sick’. That we are in some way broken and we need fixing in some way.

The truth is, it has nothing to do with any of that. It’s about biology. Your body is the seat of consciousness. Your body, your biology, your organ tissues are all a reflection of who you are in all your greatness…and your body is also lovingly, intelligently talking to you, giving you messages of where aspects simply require rebalancing, adjusting and realigning, to return you to health once more.

This may include removing blockages with tools like EFT, which no longer support the natural healing process. It may also include adding in aspects such as foods to strengthen you, physical activity to enliven you and also looking at the social environment factors which you engage in e.g. at work, at home, out socially. These will all help to increase vitality in mind, body and spirit when aligned with your true nature.

We already know about auto-regulation and homeostasis in general medicine. However, we’ve perhaps not been clearly shown what that actually looks like in lay terms and how to realistically apply it for ourselves to achieve our health goals.

Our body is striving to achieve this for us naturally though and symptoms are messages relating to where there is an imbalance, which requires our more focused attention. This happens very easily and effortlessly in nature. It’s constantly adapting to maintain balance, even with all the pressure humans put on it. The human body is doing the same. Climate change is a symptom of imbalance on the planet, which many are listening and responding to, to help restore a healthy planet. Symptoms in our body are exactly the same…a call to action, a call to make positive changes.

Therefore, the more we can trust our body, our symptoms and the messages being given to us…as well as understanding what phase in the autonomic nervous system, symptoms are in, coupled with knowing their root causes (see previous posts), which, combined is the natural response from the logic of our biology at its finest…the more we are able to support an easier restoration and rebalancing process within the body system overall.

So I invite and encourage you to begin to see and experience your symptoms from a biological intelligence perspective…and begin the inquiry as to what’s triggered these responses in your body, rather than seeing yourself as broken…because that is simply not true.

Nothing is random. Your body is showing you, telling you, speaking to you. Your biology is incredibly smart…and not just your mechanical biology…there is a direct link between your emotions, thoughts and brain with our social environment. Therefore, notice how beautiful and intelligent your body is and what it’s communicating to you to help restore balance and harmony for you again. What better gift to give yourself in this new year as we ease towards spring and embrace this new decade of 2020 than to listen to what you truly need and be present with yourself.

If you would like to find out more and how the tools I use can help and support you with your health goals, get in touch.

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Why are symptoms chronic and recurring?

Chronic health symptoms, as I mentioned at the end of my last post, are a different ball game…albeit similar. This kind of pattern sees the body-mind-social system cycling back and forth between the sympathetic and parasympathetic i.e. from stress to restoration to stress to restoration to stress etc.

Let’s think about this for a moment…🤔

If we’re experiencing some symptoms and then they disappear or change for a few days, weeks or months and then reappear…why is that? What has happened to create this looping pattern?

Well, it’s the exact same process I’ve described in the last few posts, in the nine points and phases of the biological healing process (as shown in above graphic)…except with chronic recurring symptoms, we’re never fully resolving the original stress trigger (the traumatic event, also known as a UDIN – because it’s usually Unexpected, Dramatic, you feel Isolated and have No strategy) and therefore, in every way, we oscillate between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic, each time that button, that still open unresolved emotional hurt, is re-pushed, is re-wounded, as shown in the graphic below.

There are usually two or more aspects which are contributing to this pattern repeatedly occurring e.g. the original stress trigger (which will be how you emotionally and cognitively responded in that moment of unexpected stress), plus it could be an environmental aspect, such as pollen being present when you were triggered (so you may have recurring hayfever); or it may be a social aspect, such as a specific food was there at the time of the trigger (so you may have a food allergy); or it could be another social-environmental aspect, such as a specific place, like work, where you are always put down by your manager (so you always get lower back pain).

In the past, these recurring cycles were left with the ‘cause unknown’ question mark over them ❓by medics and medical manuals. We didn’t fully realise what was happening in the body-mind-social space. We didn’t really fully acknowledge that these elements were all connected.

We do know now though and I can’t imagine working without this knowledge in my practice…and those I have the privilege to work with express similar sentiments when they understand what’s truly happening within them. It’s empowering and gives you back your power and control over outcomes, rather than feeling helpless and at the mercy of your symptoms. It gives you options.

This is what you will learn when you embrace this knowledge. And embrace it or not, it’s biological science. It’s real. It’s happening in all of us. So we can take it and be informed. Or we can choose to ignore it.

Day one. Or one day. We can all choose when to begin.

You will learn what phase your symptoms are in; which of the six root causes require rebalancing and what steps you can take, which are workable and sustainable for you, towards your health and wellness goals.

We learn to appreciate that our symptoms aren’t random anymore. We can spot cycles and patterns…and with this knowledge, we can utilise appropriate methods to support where we’re at in this time and space and to ultimately help us reach our health and wellness goals, living a life we love and thrive in.

When would now be a good time for you to begin your own journey to health and wellness again?

Get in touch now, if you would like to know more and how you can begin to help yourself.

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So…what’s going on…?

So…if we’ve got these symptoms and we’re not broken…what’s going on?

As I said in my previous post, from the meta (big-picture) perspective, your body is starting to repair. Restoration, repair and regeneration produces a lot of these symptoms, viewed as being sick/unwell/ill.

The first part of this restorative phase will produce different symptoms, depending on the body tissue impacted by the organ-mind-brain connection, which has been triggered in us, based on our perception of the situation. It’s all a very subjective experience. No two people come to have their apparently similar symptoms or the same diagnosis from the same trigger.

What is a common aspect though, is your autonomic nervous system has been activated with parasympathetic activity i.e. your symptoms of exhaustion, sleepiness, tiredness is the body asking to rest and repair…BUT often we don’t give it enough of this restorative time because we push ourselves to continue working, doing, pushing and pushing to keep going going going.

So we end up treating and managing symptoms, trying to counter-balance the symptoms with medications etc.

Don’t get me wrong…there can be a very valid reason to take medication because there is a place for all forms of healing. It’s knowing what to do to fully support ourselves when we are properly informed of what is truly going on within our mind-body system, which makes the difference as to what is the best form of action and treatment to take and follow at any given time, however. This will vary for everyone, even if you do have the same diagnosis. No two people are the same, therefore, it also makes sense that a one-size-fits-all approach to healing also needs to be individually tailored.

Once we are triggered into the restorative, regenerative phase (as described in the last post at step 4), the first part of this restorative phase (5) often sees swelling/oedema, increased inflammation and viral or bacterial or fungal activity (what these will be all depends on which brain relay has been triggered, as well as which organ/organ tissue is involved from that brain relay. This is determined by our subjective view of the world…i.e. our thoughts, values, beliefs and emotions).

Our thoughts and emotions in this rest and digest parasympathetic phase tend to feel more like brain fog/fuzzy thinking because we feel so tired and fatigued.

The emotions from the sympathetic stress phase (e.g. anger or ruminating thinking) are almost not there or are at least lessened in some way, shape or form.

These initial restorative phase symptoms may typically last approximately 3-7 days (though this varies depending on the length of the stress/sympathetic phase). What then occurs is described as a healing peak (6) i.e. it’s a short burst of sympathetic nervous system activity, which mostly goes unnoticed, the exceptions being when more serious health challenges are present and then the healing peak will be evident e.g seizures, strong palpitations.

Following the healing peak, however, in a normal biological cycle and process, we move into the second phase of the restorative (parasympathetic) phase (7) and our body begins to normalise again…moving towards homeostasis (balance and harmony within mind and body) once more.

Our appetite usually returns and we feel a little better too. Our body will be excreting a lot of toxins now as well, or tissue it no longer requires from the repair phase, so we detox quite heavily in this part of the biological process, as our body shifts more into normalisation again e.g. increased urination may also be a detox symptom.

Subsequently, after a few days of this detoxing, where we’ll feel increasingly better, in most general cases, we’ll reach that auto-regulation phase (8) and feel normal once more…”I’ve recovered”.

Most of us have experienced this general biological cycle and process, where we then carry on with the regular day-night cycle of general health and sympathetic-parasympathetic autonomic nervous system functioning.

In most cases (excluding long term/chronic symptoms) we feel as good as before, sometimes stronger than before. Chronic health issues are a whole other subject, which I’ll come to in another post.

If you have any questions about how this applies to you, do get in touch. And if you would like to know how a meta-health analysis could help and support your health and wellbeing, please do find out more about how I work and what I can do to support your aspirations and goals.

Only you can steer the ship of your health and wellness. When would be a good time to take back your power and own your path to wellbeing again?

Day one? Or one day? You choose.

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You are not Broken

Previously, we looked at the six root causes of symptoms and the specific connection between organ tissue and specific stressors. This knowledge is backed up by science e.g.  Bruce Lipton; Kelly Brogan, MD; Rupert Sheldrake; Gabor Maté, MD; Candace Pert; Dr Hamer; Bessel van der Kolk, MD to name but a few. Symptoms are not random.

The next principles to understand are the points and phases of this biological process because symptoms are a natural response to stressors (emotions, beliefs, lifestyle, environment etc). When we can acknowledge, appreciate and fully understand this, we’re in a more empowered position to support ourselves (as opposed to feeling powerless by a symptom and/or diagnosis). We can decipher where we are in the healing process and establish more accurately what will support our passage to balanced health and wellness again.

Awareness is the key to unlock your inner sense of power and management over what’s happening within your body (rather than “I’m sick & weak”). Your body is going through a natural biological process and response to stress (or stresses)…you’re not broken. Your body is doing its best to support you to resolve the stress and return your whole self to health, balance and vitality again.

It’s believed there are nine main points/phases of the natural biological process. We’ll look at the first four here.

Tuning into your own symptoms, whatever, wherever they may be (because this applies to EVERY symptom experienced)…let’s work out where you are in the process…

Contrary to what is commonly believed, most, or at least many symptoms appear in the regenerative (restorative, parasympathetic) phase of the process e.g. inflammation, feeling hot and sick, bacterial infections and apparent viral infections. How can this be?

Usually (point 1), we have the normal day-night activity (work during the day; rest and repair at night). This is the normal sympathetic (day) & parasympathetic (night) sequence of the autonomic nervous system. It’s the natural cycle of being human.

However, a part of being human is we experience things which trigger us into a stress response (point 2).

No one is excluded from this. However, we all respond to stress triggers according to our own subjective view and perspective, our beliefs and values basically and how we’re conditioned in the world we live in. This is why and how we all have different symptoms (e.g. some get cancer, some arthritis, some heart issues, some diabetes, others skin challenges, or digestive issues etc). To get really specific, we’d need to look at your individual circumstances. I’ll give you the basic principles here though.

So consider yourself…

Prior to your symptoms, something happened. It may have been a conversation or someone said something or you saw something. Whatever it was… suddenly…BOOM!!!… we feel extraordinarily stressed… And we are pushed into a heightened state of arousal in our sympathetic nervous system i.e. increased stress (point 3).

We physically feel more stressed and a specific organ tissue will have been activated in correlation to your perception of the stress trigger e.g. high blood pressure or loss of vision if it’s your retina or loss of hearing if it’s your ears or your digestive tract could be triggered, so you then have constipation or if in your stomach there could be ulceration and thus sensitivity.

Our mind will show emotions such as anger, upset, sadness, anxiety. Our thoughts will race and repeat over and over. And if you were to look at brain CT scans this stress will show up in the brain too. Mind-Body-Social-Brain…it’s all connected.

The stress phase can last for minutes or days, weeks, months or longer. we are triggered into the regenerative (restorative, parasympathetic activity) phase eventually though. We somehow (again depending on us as individuals) switch into this part of the biological process and the shift is usually felt quite obviously e.g. we go from feeling amped with stress to then feeling utter exhaustion and a sense of “coming down with something…I’m getting sick”. You feel hot, swollen, inflamed, tired, fuzzy thinking, to name just a few signs.

The interesting paradigm we’ve been thinking up until now is that we believe this is when we’re getting sick because we have all these obvious symptoms, oftentimes rather severe. However, from the big-picture (meta) perspective, this is actually the body starting to repair, restore and regenerate… which produces a lot of the symptoms we’ve been conditioned into believing is us getting sick, going downhill, breaking up.

Not so…YOU ARE NOT BROKEN.

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The Six Key Areas Where Symptoms Are Triggered

Research has shown there are six key areas where symptoms stem from.

Meta-Health looks at the big picture perspective…meta meaning big picture.

Many folks work in physiotherapy or the organ/biochemistry/physical level. Some work within the field of lifestyle approaches, looking at nutrition, diet, exercise etc. Further still, some folks focus in on the emotional aspects of health.

The reality is…we need to look at the whole person-big picture perspective when managing and healing symptoms…and there are 6 key areas, which all contribute to and affect the symptoms we experience. These key areas influence our health and the balance/imbalance of this, with the onset of symptoms, be they acute or chronic.


1. Organ tissue – obvious contributors…accidents, environmental toxins, food and drink over-indulgences. But what about those who eat well, exercise and are supposedly healthy? What are the other areas?

Science has proven that stress (2), our emotions (3) and our beliefs (4) also play a significant part in our overall health. Plus our social (5) relationships and the environment we’re in, also play a contributing role (at home, at work and out socially).

And of course, by no means least, our lifestyle (6) also plays a major role in our health. What we eat, drink and consume (including how much and how balanced); what physical activity we do; and our sleep patterns all have an impact, if they’re not regularly balanced. Furthermore, the personal care and household products we also use regularly, can and will also have an impact on your health and wellbeing, if they’re full of chemicals and ingredients, which are known disruptors of our natural biological system.

It’s difficult to argue with these factors any more…because they’re proven contributors to us feeling healthy and vital or not. So what’s my point…?

Well, there is more to this…another deeper layer which is only beginning to be properly talked about. So I’ll share this in my next post and get even more specific.

If you would like to know more and discuss your own health and wellbeing, then do get in touch now.

Day one, or one day…? You choose.

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Why? How?

As explained in the last post, we do understand there’s more to our symptoms than just a physical-mental manifestation. We know there are other connections associated with the symptoms.

But how does this work? How does it all fit together? How did each of us come to our symptoms and the experience we’re having in our body and mind?

The two big questions to ask with this are…Why is this happening this way? And…How has it manifested like this? What has been going on in your history to create this biological response in your body?

Why are some symptoms chronic? They appear and disappear, sometimes coming back and seeming to get worse over time? What is that underlying biological process which is happening? Why is that cycle happening over and over again? Why is it happening in this system in my body?

E.G. man, aged 42, lower back pain on right side, chronic every four weeks for last three years. No accident or physical blow to the area. Eats well and lives healthily. He does some pilates and physio, which gives some relief, but nothing is resolving it totally.

In a meta-analysis, we look at all aspects of what’s going on in a person’s life (the meta/ big picture view) i.e. organ tissue (conflict theme); stress triggers (trauma); emotions (unresolved energy); beliefs (limiting thoughts); social (relationships, environment); lifestyle (vitality, diet, fitness).

So for this lower back pain case, the organ tissue is bones; the stress is a fight with their partner; emotion is anger; belief is I am not strong enough to deal with this situation; socially his perception is there’s too much pressure in the personal relationship; lifestyle is lack of exercise and inflammatory foods.

We then create a plan for his healing journey, including dietary changes and an exercise plan with a local physical trainer; plus using tools like EFT and Matrix Reimprinting to help release emotions and beliefs which aren’t serving him.

Within less than two weeks, symptoms have gone and never return, because we got to the root cause of the symptoms across all areas of the individual’s life, according to their perceptions of what’s happened to them.

If you would like to know more, do get in touch, where I would be happy to discuss your needs and see how what I offer can help and support you and your journey.

If you would like to know more about EFT practitioner training click here. Or if you would like to complete the Meta Health Foundation Workshop, click here.