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.