What do you think? Is that saying, “you are what you eat” true?
No—it actually isn’t true at all. The truth is that we are what we digest. To digest foods the body must concentrate blood flow to the digestive organs, to properly absorb nutrients for energy and cellular regeneration.
Unfortunately, this state of digestion and nutrient absorption only happens when the body is in a state of stillness—under control by the parasympathetic nervous system. Our body does not digest when we are walking, agitated or in a state of stress. During these times our blood is shunted away from our digestive organs and into our extremities, in preparation for “fight or flight”.
But guess what? Though we are rarely conscious of it, we are almost always in “fight or flight mode!” Unfortunately we live in a world that runs on full throttle. A fast-paced society built on over-extending ourselves. Most of us are consistently controlled by our sympathetic nervous system and the result is diarrhea, constipation, alternating diarrhea and constipation, malnourishment, depletion, fatigue and burn-out.
Luckily, it’s easy to pop the switch from being in the sympathetic to parasympathetic. No, I’m serious. Easy. This isn’t some crazy, difficult, involved diet that you probably won’t keep up with. Nope. This is easy. It takes less than 10 seconds per meal to vastly improve your digestive fire. In the video below, I share this 10 second secret to igniting your digestive fire. I promise… EASY!
How about you? What tips do you have for getting into a state of awww… calm so that (ahhhh) you can rest and digest?
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Deep breath, yup. We cannot consciously calm the mid-brain down when stressed, breath is magic – literally. Funny how we have all the tools at our own disposal but simple is not enough for our complexity loving minds 🙂
Robine Yohm recently posted..Medical Intuition and the Self Love Salad
So true Robine! We love to make things complex and difficult. I like that you call breath magic–it’s so true.
Katie Bauer recently posted..Get Your Juices Flowing and Combat Constipation
I noticed that my digestive issues healed during my recent 90 exercise challenge I embarked on. I’m 50 and have not exercised this much in my life as I am now. My parasympathetic I believe has woken up through the intense exercise program.
David recently posted..Bodywork as Metta or Lovingkindness
Great awareness David! I’m not familiar with the 90 exercise challenge, but over-training can actually over-stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. Any time our heart rate is over 130 beats per minute (bpm) our sympathetic nervous system is in control. It is not bad of course to sometimes be in our sympathetic nervous system however over training can exhaust our nervous system. The sweet spot in recovery training is to get the heart rate to stay between 120-130 bpm which kicks in the parsympathetic nervous system and allows recovery while still supporting physical endurance. So while someone may do sprinting and high intensity cardio work some days out of the week, doing yoga or fast walking or low intensity cardio can benefit their nervous system on off days and improve recovery time and muscle building to get the body out of the sympathetic nervous system. Like I said, I don’t know anything about this exercise challenge you are doing, but if it has low cardio days than yes, your parasympathetic is being stimulated and that could be why your digestion has improved. If not, and it is just intense all the time, than there is some other reason that your digestion has improved and your sympathetic nervous system is running the risk of over-stimulation.
Katie Bauer recently posted..Get Your Juices Flowing and Combat Constipation
Ahh… Now that I’ve read your comment on my article “Get Your Juices Flowing and Combat Constipation” I understand that your problem is diarrhea and not constipation. As I posted over there, with intense exercise the body is focusing on muscle building and rebuilding. The heart rate increases to pump more blood to the muscles and oxygenate them. Likewise, our digestion slows down so that all energy output is focused on our muscles. With diarrhea, food can be moving too quickly through our digestive system and too much water is being absorbed. With intense exercise, it makes sense that your digestion is being forced to slow down and fluids are being used to support your muscles instead of being absorbed by your bowel movements. Congrats!
Katie Bauer recently posted..Get Your Juices Flowing and Combat Constipation
Okay, the last thing. I promise. I know that for me, exercise has the effect of reminding me to breathe. When we are doing heavy exercise we are forced to breathe more and we also are reminded to be in our body. I feel like this sometimes translates to outside of exercise time to be reminded to breathe and to be reminded to be in our body and not always in our brain.
Katie Bauer recently posted..The 10 Second Secret to Igniting Your Digestive Fire
Great video and info Katie. When I teach yoga I’m always reminding my students throughout the practice to ‘breathe, breathing isn’t optional’ and how it is so much more beneficial and easy to hold positions when one doesn’t hold one’s breath, but relaxes into the pose. So I can very easily see why the digestion also becomes easier and is more beneficial to the body when we breathe and relax before eating. One more breathing detail I can share with my yoga class! Thanks Katie.
Lynn Moore, Inspirational Goaling recently posted..What Are You FOR?
Yes!!! So true Lynn about breathing being essential to holding poses in yoga and really to doing any exercises or meditative activities. We must oxygenate our muscles, our brain and our organs!
Katie Bauer recently posted..The 10 Second Secret to Igniting Your Digestive Fire
Thanks Katie. Yep, breathing is pretty good to remember to do. Years ago I was pretty serious about pranayama, even taught it to my ‘serious’ yoga students. These days I’m more inclined to do the sort of breathing I can do with less fuss. I find simply being aware of breathing, ‘Mindfulness of breathing’ – a first step to learning meditation for anyone – is great to do, when falling asleep for example; or at any time when you’re not actively engaged in doing.
Caitriona Reed recently posted..It’s not WHAT you believe ..
I like that… Mindfulness of breathing–Yes! So essential to meditation and to just relaxing. We must breathe!
Katie Bauer recently posted..Get Your Juices Flowing and Combat Constipation
Breathing is such an easy awesome fix-it. As a singer I learned years ago to breathe from low down, so the only times I don’t do that automatically are high stress when that chest breathing kicks in and I have to remind myself about the belly breathing. Is that chicken or egg, I wonder? Another breathing technique I learned from singing is deep breathing that also expands my lower ribcage out to the sides. Does that also put me into parasympathetic mode?
Good question and I have no idea what effect expanding the lower ribcage would have on the nervous system. My gut assumption is that it would put us into the parasympathetic because it is the lower not upper ribcage and it seems to me that in order to expand the lower ribcage you would also have to breathe from the diaphragm at the same time, but that is just my assumption. Funny about the chicken-egg question–yeah, I really don’t know. I know that breathing from my chest, as I experienced in the video, puts me into the sympathetic nervous system, but I also know that when we are stressed we tend to breathe extremely shallowly. Hmmm… Thanks Dorine!
Katie Bauer recently posted..You Must Judge a Book By Its Cover: Why Being Judgmental is Critical to Your Health
Hi Katie,
Enjoyed the reminder. Thank you. LYdia
Thanks Lydia! I’m glad it was helpful.
Katie Bauer recently posted..You Must Judge a Book By Its Cover: Why Being Judgmental is Critical to Your Health
Great article Katie! I have to agree that the digestive system does play some important roles in our bodies. Being relaxed and the right combination of diet helps us to better digest the food we eat! Thanks for sharing
Lyn Ashby recently posted..The Food Lovers Diet Menu – What’s it About?
Thanks for stopping by Lyn!
Katie Bauer recently posted..You Must Judge a Book By Its Cover: Why Being Judgmental is Critical to Your Health
Digestion can definitely be difficult to control sometimes and sometimes the foods we really like don’t get digested very well by the body. This tip helps everyone who likes eating but doesn’t want to face the awful problems associated with poor digestion.
Thanks Lyn!
Katie Bauer recently posted..Declare Your Independence Today
hello to each other on Twitter! Anyway I just wanted to say that this is great ifonrmation, especially for my husband! This is one of those things that when you hear it, it makes so much sense. Not sure where we can get those step things in Belgium, but working on alternatives. Thank you!Jovanka
I’m so sorry that I never saw this Vitoria! So glad to hear that it was helpful information to you and your husband! Thanks for coming by and see you on Twitter! 😉
Katie Bauer recently posted..Problems with Overeating? What Kind of Cookware do you Use?