The 5 Best Ways To Solve Digestive Problems

So, you’ve figured it out. You feel tired often after eating with lots of wind coming from both ends, gurgles, discomfort and perhaps tummy pain. You feel bloated and have funny bowel movements from time to time. Maybe you get indigestion. Your skin may not be as radiant as it once was and your mind is a little foggy with the act of thinking being somewhat difficult or at best, slow to get started. You’ve got a food intolerance or a food sensitivity. You’ve got a digestive issue.

In this, our third and final chapter on food allergies, intolerances and digestive stuff, we’ll take a look at the “how to” with my 5 greatest tips gleaned from personal experience and working with clients clinically over the last 14 years. I very firmly believe that we can heal our bodies of almost anything and chronic food issues are no exception. Even with extreme food allergies, there are many modalities (homeopathy and kinesiology come to mind) that are known for being able to cure and reverse the immune system response!

The tips below are in no particular order of importance and you don’t have to do every step, just pick one or two that are easiest for you to implement right now. One small step each day goes a long way toward bringing your digestive system back into health so you can live a life of balance and moderation without necessarily avoiding food you love all the time.

1.  Love your body and love yourself
Cultivate the attitude of acceptance, surrender and self-love, no matter what your body is currently doing. Trust that where you are now is perfect and that no matter what, your body is doing everything it can to give you balance and health. Acknowledge the good.

2.  Educate yourself
You’re doing it right now. As much or as little as you like. Find out what else is possible the realms of health and healing for you. Ask questions. Find others with similar experiences and see what works for them. Be a life-long student of you and your body (you’ll never get tired of this!).

3.  Improve your digestion

This internal solution address your body’s ability to mechanically break down food, absorb nutrients from the food and eliminate all the remaining waste products. Done properly, this process leaves our tummies, livers, pancreas’ and small and large intestines clean, happy with our entire body, mind and spirit nourished and energised. Done properly. For the rest of us however, there a gaZILLION ways you can improve your digestion so use the list below to kick-start the process and give some structure around what you already may be doing:

• try an elimination diet to identify further the offending food or foods? – popular places to start are dairy, wheat, gluten and sugar
• have half a lemon in warm water first thing every morning
• look into food combining – you may find that simply a combination of certain foods is aggravating your belly and creating discomfort
• do a short internal cleanse or fast to wipe the slate clean and transform your energy and focus
• improve the quality of the food you eat every day
• eat whole food direct from nature as much as possible

4.  Address stress
What’s eating away at you? What do you keep chewing over? Is there a thorn in your side? Do you worry or obsess about things? Are you holding on to life and not letting it go? Our digestive system responds every moment to a delicate balance of hormones and blood flow and chronic stress affects our ability to digest and assimilate food. We even have neurotransmitters throughout our digestive system! Find a way to be more at ease within your self and your body. Yoga, meditation, tai chi and many other practices are excellent at healing the effects of chronic stress on the body and mind.

5.  See a health practitioner
By health practitioner, I mean someone who’s deeply passionate about helping others to their utmost human potential (most doctors unfortunately, know an extraordinary amount about pharmaceuticals and disease but extraordinarily little about how to create vibrant health and wellbeing). Most health practitioners are also “wounded healers” meaning they have come to practice their art and share their wisdom because of their own journey healing themselves of disease, pain and chronic conditions. When you see someone like an health coach, acupuncturist, herbalist, naturopath, homeopath, remedial therapist, nutritionist and many others, you are getting the benefit of their years of self-education and experience proven by reams of past clients and anecdotal evidence. You are getting their knowledge of how to create states of ever expanding health, vitality and energy. Why reinvent the wheel? Health practitioners are also extraordinarily well researched (and well, let’s face it, somewhat fanatical at times). You don’t need to take things to this level to work with your food issues but you do need to seek out proven results from the abundance of health and wellness professionals around you. A health practitioner can support you with understanding of your body and practical tools for any dietary change; tools that will make it easy for you to start feeling better right away (with NO side effects!).

The journey from food issues, chronic digestive disturbances, allergies, intolerances and sensitivities is exactly that – a meandering path from where you are right now to relaxation and wellbeing for life. This journey has much to teach us and joy and inspiration can be found along it’s edges, forks, tangents, loops and apparent back tracks. When we stumble on a rock in our way and look up to catch a brief glimpse of a beautiful daisy growing beside the road, we have found perfect health in that moment.

For me, the most important aspect of health and healing is in acknowledging my own magnificent body. I have an abundance of moments every day to choose from – every time I cough, swallow, lick my lips, go to sleep, wake up, go to the toilet, watch a scab heal,  feel an emotion, feel hunger, smell something, see something, touch something, say something or use my hands to do anything, I know that I am complete. I am healthy. I am perfect.

What do you think is the single most important thing in addressing food issues, intolerances, sensitivities and general digestive stuff?
What single thing has made the biggest difference in your health and wellbeing?