When you think of meditation, you probably don’t associate it with better digestion and gut health. I know I didn’t, until I learned just how much stress influences our gut health and how powerful meditation is for decreasing stress.
What Evolution Has to Do With Healthy Digestion
Issues like leaky gut often stem from living a high-stress lifestyle. Most of us are under significant stress in today’s world. When you’re feeling anxious or rushed, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode. This is a survival mechanism that has been with us since long before our frontal lobes developed. Back when we had to struggle just to survive, fight-or-flight was useful. Nowadays, we don’t have to fight off predators or run for our lives (at least not often). However, this response to external stress kicks in anytime something triggers our stress response.
When your body is in fight-or-flight mode, it isn’t able to direct much energy towards proper digestion. The food we consume when we’re in a hurry, working, or worried just sits in our guts until we’ve calmed down enough to initiate digestion. But a person’s still gotta eat, and that’s where things get tricky. If you want healthy digestion, more energy, clear skin, and a calm nervous system, meditation is the answer.
How Meditation Helps Our Digestion
Learning and practicing meditation over time helps to decrease stress and turn off the fight-or-flight response that many people are all too familiar with. The nervous system and the gut are inextricably linked. Humans were never designed to be stressed out all the time, and when we learn to calm our nervous system, our health improves dramatically.
When you get used to tuning into your breath and releasing stressful, negative thought patterns, your digestion will improve, you’ll have more energy for fun activities, and life will seem a whole lot less overwhelming.
Easy Ways to Incorporate Meditation Into Your Life
Simply taking even 5-10 minutes a day to sit down in a quiet, comfortable place and focus on your breath is enough to make a difference.
Set aside time each day to do nothing but breathe. Allow any thoughts that arise to drift away without attachment.
Here’s a great list of apps you can use to help you easily make meditation a part of your life: https://www.mindful.org/free-mindfulness-apps-worthy-of-your-attention/.
If you’re seriously interested in getting healthy, restoring your digestion, and boosting your energy, then check out my new comprehensive program, Restore Your Gut Health. In the program, you’ll get a ton of delicious, satisfying recipes, as well as strategies that will help rebuild your health.
To your wellness,
Sandra Smith
