HOLISTIC SELF-CARE SUGGESTIONS FOR DELIGHTING YOUR DIGESTION

HOLISTIC SELF-CARE SUGGESTIONS FOR DELIGHTING YOUR DIGESTION

·      Sit down to eat, because you need to be relaxed in order to properly digest your food. Eat slowly, chew your food before you swallow it, and stop when your stomach is full. Aim to stay fully present as you eat; listen to yourself; Does your body say yes to this food, or is it just your taste buds that are greedy for it? Are you eating for comfort?

·      Emotional eating. Our needs for food are often entangled with our need for love and understanding. If you have ever eaten a sugary desert even though you were actually full, or if you reach for the ice-cream or chocolate when you feel down or stressed, then you have experienced emotional eating. Comfort eating may bring short term gains, but is detrimental to our emotional well-being as well as our physical health. It interferes with processing of our feelings, which is the only way to really remove them. Most of us are hooked in some way. Our relationship with food is not quite right-not healthy. Perhaps we have addictions, we can’t tell when we are full, we are eating for comfort, or out of boredom, to push down or avoid uncomfortable feelings, to reward ourselves for something, rather than because we are hungry.

·      Go on a diet of self-acceptance and love. Look for other kind of emotional satisfaction; connecting with friends who makes you feel better, singing, dancing, taking a walk, learning to rest deeply, expanding your interests by reading or learning new activity

·      Practice eating with awareness. Apply the principles of mindfulness to the business of eating. Mindful eating begins before you cook- by paying attention as you think about what you want to eat, and cook with an attitude of caring for yourself and anyone else who will be eating this food. Take a moment to breathe and give thanks for the meal before eating. Deep breaths will relax you and this, along with the sight and odor of the food, will stimulate your digestion. Pay attention as you eat, chew each mouthful of food while you savor taste, feel the food entering your stomach, feel how your stomach is full. If you burp, it usually means your stomach if full. Notice what happens to you emotionally when you do this. Make a list of the kinds of situations that pull you to eat when you are not hungry. Notice how you feel at those times.

·      Find out if you have food intolerances. Eating foods your gut doesn’t like hurts your digestion. You can uncover food intolerances via an elimination diet.

·      Reduce stress as much as possible in your life. The digestive system shuts down when fight-flight freeze part of our nervous system is on. This means that chronic stress leads to permanently reduced digestive function and poor absorption of nutrients.

·      Don’t drink as you eat. Drinking cold water with meals puts our digestive fire and dilutes your enzymes. Drink an hour before or two hours after meals.

More tips coming up next, stay tuned

reference

Deeply Holistic

PiP Waller