Your diet won’t fix your gut problems. At least, not by itself.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying eating high-quality, whole foods isn’t important. In fact, it’s crucial. If you want to be like a sports car, you need to be fueling yourself with Premium.
So many clients just want to know what to eat that’ll work for their guts. It’s understandable. Even after years of giving people ‘gutsy tools’, my first reflex is to blame what I ate when things go south.
The thing is, if your stress bucket is full, you won’t digest anything well.
Now, before you run screaming, there IS a solution. You don’t have to ditch your family and go live in a monastery to get away from your stress.
Often, it seems as though stressors come from outside ourselves. And, if I told you it’s more about the way you handle it, that would stress you out even more. The last thing you want when you’re stressed out is someone coach-splaining you to calm down.
Take it from me, I know how this goes. I used to be one of the most stressed-out people I know.
Back when I was studying music full-time, I was also a workaholic with chronic fatigue. I had almost constant back pain and a host of repetitive strain injuries. Plus, I was emotionally dysregulated much of the time!
I’d been on a restricted diet for several years. It only helped when I stuck to it perfectly. Which sucked because I craved my forbidden foods almost all the time.
A girlfriend invited me to a Friday yoga class, which I loved! We went out for dinner afterwards, and I cheated shamelessly on my diet. I had an awful food hangover the next day, but I was young, so I didn’t care. It was so much fun that it became a standing date.
After a few weeks, I knew I was onto something. I stopped feeling hungover every Saturday. I knew for sure I was healing when I could sleep 10 hours a night and wake up rested, without a headache.
I really loved the way I felt when I did the poses, so I couldn’t NOT do them. My body took me to the mat and I did Yoga almost every night!
When my physiotherapist found out, she said, “Never stop. If you do, your playing career will be over, given everything that’s going on in your body.”
I was sold!
I decided to get a Yoga teacher training under my belt. During my training, I devoured any resources I could find that were good for the arms, neck, shoulders, or back. I got on the mat as faithfully as I picked up the guitar every day. Slowly, I got out of pain.
The stage fright I’d suffered from my whole life melted away. (Believe me, you don’t know stress until you’ve got stage fright with a performance coming up!)
It wasn’t until years later that I put two and two together. Slowly but surely, my gut problems dissolved. I mean, all of them. The last time I had my food sensitivities tested, I didn’t have any left. (I used to have black circles under my eyes from a dairy allergy).
All that Yoga I’d done for my arms, neck, and shoulders? I was calming down my vagus nerve the whole time, before anyone knew that was a Thing.
Here’s an experiment you can do to help you feel how it works, in your own body:
- Put your hand on your upper belly, right where the ribcage divides in two.
- Imagine you just saw something dangerous. Let your eyes bug out, like a Mad magazine character. Maybe even clench your jaw, while you’re at it.
- Notice what happens in your belly. Did you feel it go hard?
- Now, soften your eyes again; put them back into your sockets. Do you feel how your belly also softens?
With this in mind, think about a deer in the wild. When it’s getting ready to flee a dangerous situation, they poop. That’s because digestion doesn’t work when the deer is running from a wolf.
Our nervous system doesn’t automatically let go of stress when the threat is over, not the way an animal’s does. Part of the problem is that in our modern culture, stress is never really over, because it’s chronic.
So now, imagine it’s lunchtime. You’re on a break, so you check your bank balance. It’s $1000 less than you expected, which means your next automatic debit isn’t going to go through. You don’t have time to sort it out. You need to eat your lunch and get back to work, or your boss will fire you.
How well do you think you’ll digest your lunch?
The more residual (unresolved) stress you have, the worse your digestion is likely to be. And, the more reactive you’ll be when new stressors appear.
What can you do?
If you’re eating Twinkies on the go, you need to stop that. I believe there’s a reason I healed so quickly after starting my Yoga practice. And it’s because I was eating so well to begin with. My body was finally able to uptake the nutrients from all that delicious food I was eating!
And, you need to become more aware of how stress is impacting you. If you’re already going to a weekly Yoga class, that’s a great start. And, it’s important to implement some of those tools into your life.
That’s why I’m hosting a free Masterclass, Nervous System Mastery, this month. I’ll be providing a series of Yogic tools you can use anytime, anywhere. You won’t need to change your clothes, make space for your Yoga mat, or call the babysitter.
Meanwhile, the next time you feel like throttling your kids or your boss, take a few deep breaths. It really does help!
Connect with Holly on The Wellness Universe and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
LAUNCHING SOON!
The Wellness Universe Guide to Complete Self-Care, 25 Tools for Transformation
Take My Hand Support Series
Grief is never easy, especially for children. On July 12, join Take My Hand: It’s Ok to Not Be OK for a free, live event focused on helping kids cope with loss and giving caregivers the tools they need to guide the healing process. With expert insights, a loving community, and a mission to uplift, this event offers real support when it’s needed most. Donations benefit Susie Q’s Kids, bringing light and comfort to children facing life’s hardest moments.
Register & Join Live: https://bit.ly/WUTakeMyHandSupportSeries
Check out our library of classes today.
Grab your copy today!
Holly Blazina’s Gutsy Type Method is an alchemy of the Yoga and Ayurveda traditions, Embodied Vision™ Coaching, and her work as an author, flamenco guitarist, composer and recording artist. She helps empaths solve their gut issues, amplifying their personal power in service of their life’s purpose.
What a powerful reminder that true gut healing goes far beyond just what’s on your plate! I love how Holly shows us that calming the nervous system can work wonders for digestion — proof that managing stress is just as nourishing as healthy food.