For 12 years, I’ve helped people solve their digestive issues. I became a digestive health coach because 20 years ago I was diagnosed with IBS.
I couldn’t get good help from doctors, felt alone and confused. I still managed to completely healed my gut even though I was told there was no cure for what I had.
They say there’s no cure because IBS is a made up diagnosis. It’s what doctors say when they can’t find the root cause (and often don’t try that hard). Gut health is still a medical mystery but that doesn’t mean there’s no hope.
Getting so sick and healing at a young age changed the trajectory of my life and what I believed was possible around healing. It was an empowering experience but also a very lonely and traumatic one.
My attempts at healing failed multiple times. But I finally found a solution that lasted 20 years and counting.
Healing required diet and lifestyle change, and remineralizing my body. But in reflection getting past my own resistance to do hard or unfamiliar things is what made the difference.
In my work as a health coach I’ve observed that ability to navigate resistance is THE thing that makes the difference between getting well and staying sick.
Healing the gut is mix of physical, mental, emotional, subconscious and energetic work. Habit change (diet, lifestyle, thought patterns), building self awareness and subconscious reprogramming are part of the process for most people. Doctors and many naturopaths/functional docs only work with the physical and it’s often not enough.
That’s the path most people pursue because i’ts familiar and familiarity poses the least resistance.
Healing means taking a different path
The gut is not just about how we digest food but also how we digest life. Our gut health is highly influenced by our thoughts and emotions, which regulate the release of cortisol, and modulate inflammation.
Feeling lost, confused, alone, forsaken (by the medical system or your own support system) can cause the gut to flare and for faith and hope to plummet. The most out of control we feel, the more contracted and stressed we get. It’s not a great internal healing environment.
Healing is helping people come back to their faith, power and inner knowing. The more I work with people with gut issues the more I realize that close contact with a holistic coach can serve them better than seeing dozens of doctors, naturopaths or functional practitioners that peddle solutions in pill forms.
There is a place and time for protocols. But most people are not ready for it yet, they need to spend time calming and supporting their systems.
There is a theory that digestive issues are caused by stress and trauma. I know first hand that digestive issues are themselves a source of stress and trauma. And when you are feeling this vulnerable, you can’t get the support you need. This makes it worse.
It is time for me to speak my truth about what really works in gut healing. That the gut healing process has few quick fixes, it is a slow and bumpy road inward that has long lasting success and results.
If you are truly committed to healing your gut I want you to know that everything you have learned about gut health matters, but you have to prepare the soil first.
That means you have to get the body in healing shape so it can start healing.
People race ahead to the protocols and medicine before they are ready.
If you set up the body for healing that protocol will work beautifully. If you speed ahead, it can be hit or miss. And that causes a lot of stress and doubt and a fight, flight or freeze response.
Going slowly to dial in the basics and give the body what it needs can make things go faster.
It is easy to get discouraged when you dive into the health space because many people use fear to sell. They tell you that their solution is right. They promise that they can heal you.
The only one who can heal you is you.
You have everything you need inside. An immune system, intuition, instinct, will, desire. You may feel like you are fumbling in the dark, but you just need someone to light the way.
Few people can do this alone. I didn’t.
We all need a torchbearer to walk with you, illuminating the steps ahead. You just need to know where to step next.
People tend to struggle for a long time with gut issues because their own resistance, fear and doubt casts a foggy shadow over their journey.
What makes it tougher is that often that resistance is subconscious.
Your resistance is there to protect you.
In early childhood you learned what was safe and filed that away in the subconscious. And you have been living from those ideas since then. A lot changes as we grow but our subconscious doesn’t change until we make it conscious and actively change it. Otherwise our subconscious drives our life but we call it fate.
The subconscious will resist change. It’s threatening. But luckily you have a conscious mind that can decide to override the programming. It just takes awareness and attention.
Awareness of our patterns, fears, stuckness, programming, allows us to change them. I will talk about how in future posts.
Where you don’t see you are stuck
When people can’t get unstuck it’s because they can’t see they are stuck or perhaps they see it but refuse to address it.
This looks like projecting the problem to be outside of yourself. You blame your providers for not fixing you. Refusing to look or even venture into the dark, feel uncomfortable emotions.
I have been using subconscious rewiring with my clients to access their deep knowing. Most people know what they need, and just need a little help, support, reminding and accountability getting there.
As a health coach, working with people’s unseen resistance can be exhausting, but when I put up the mirror and let them see it themselves that is when things start to change.
If you can become aware of your blocks to healing and get help overcoming them the road is smoother, calmer and more sure.
One of the biggest examples of this I can give you is that I attract a lot of type A, perfectionist clients.
If they got where they are by pushing themselves or doing too much, then how could the same approach get them out. They want to know all the things and how to do everything perfectly in a fool proof way. They panic or jump ship when things don’t go as planned or expected.
If going too fast in life has slowed you down with health issues, then trying to heal quickly is missing the point.
You can’t solve a problem with the approach that got you there.
Relaxing that intensity may not feel safe. It won’t be easy. That’s when help, coaching and guidance come in.
We often cling to old strategies like it will save our life, but instead it is ruining it. When you see that. Truly see that you can finally do better.
That’s why a do it yourself healing strategy often fails. It’s not more information you need to heal, it’s not the perfect protocol, it is seeing your own resistance to letting go of what got you there. Then you can finally start to heal.
Don’t let Dr. Google take you for a joy ride. Self diagnosing and trial and error will only get you there is you get very, very lucky. You are probably reading this because that didn’t work out for you.
You are the one who heals yourself but most likely you have too much stress, confusion, blind spots and resistance to do it.
Getting unstuck requires good help. Someone to shine the light so you can really see what’s going on in the dark. Someone to stand with us when we confront the scary places and heal them.
Your subconscious is happy to stay the same and keep you sick. It is up to you to change it.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease, but a cry for help from a gut out of balance. When the body AND mind are complaining, it’s an opportunity to examine what’s not working and change it. After solving her own IBS mystery almost two decades ago, Angela became as a health coach to help others. Angela uses root cause medicine protocols personalized to the individual to solve each IBS mystery. Her tools are lab testing, dietary changes, supplementation, subconscious mind work and nervous system rebalancing . Learn more here.