Support Your Nervous System to Heal Your Gut
Healing your gut goes beyond just changing your diet. Your nervous system is intricately connected to your gut health (and your overall health!) You can change your diet and still have poor gut health if you aren’t digesting your food well enough. What could be driving this? Possibly, the state of your nervous system.
Our bodies rely on both sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems for optimal function. Danger is coming? You’re surely going to want the quick reaction of your sympathetic nervous system and cortisol to power you to safety. The real question is this: Does your body feel constantly under threat, keeping you from reaching a state of rest? If we’ve been living this way for a while, it’s often difficult to discern that restful state. Our minds, memories and muscles can create that feeling of insecurity and lack of safety even when we are perfectly safe. Your body remembers the past and is trying to protect you!
In our modern world, we are constantly bombarded by messages, information and artificial lights that can have a serious effect on our nervous systems. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in this world! We need to take a step back and help our bodies recalibrate to our natural rhythm. Daily meditation and breathwork practices can offer a reprieve, creating space between our thoughts and actions, signaling to our bodies that it’s safe to rest. We need mental rest just as we need physical rest throughout the day. Think of how you might feel if you had to stand all day, without getting much time to sit and relax. Often our minds are put to that same test if we do not stop and take the time for mental rest. Additionally, respecting our natural circadian rhythms by keeping lights low after sunset and limiting blue light exposure can help our bodies reset that always-on stress response.
When your stress response is activated and cortisol is high, your hunger cues may be suppressed. You may have experienced this if you’ve ever had a big presentation or test when eating seems impossible and unappealing. So, you can imagine that if you’re leading a busy lifestyle, it’s possible that your gut and nervous system are taking the fall for it.
An easy way to start to change this pattern is by creating mindful meal times. Many of us are rushing off to work, watching TV or working while we eat. Meal times need the rest and digest system activated so that we can fully digest our meals. So, take a few deep breaths before your meals and limit distractions so you can fully enjoy your meal and digest your food properly. The first steps you take toward better health don’t have to be complicated, they just require a commitment to start. Start with mindfulness and nervous system awareness, and you’ll begin your journey forward!
