How to heal your gut with your mind

Years ago, I was told IBS was in my head.

I rejected that IBS had a mental component because I solved my issue completely with diet and mineral balancing. 

But after working as a digestive health coach for more than a decade and hearing many people’s health and life stories, I realized that the mind is definitely a part of the story.

Symptoms tend to develop after prolonged and/or unusually stressful periods of overwhelming life events.

Then, the symptoms themselves become the stressor, especially when they don’t subside or respond to standard interventions. Unpredictable flares add to the stress bucket.  

The mind body connection is not woo, it’s widely studied. We know that the state of our mind, emotions and thoughts affects the body. But we still act like they are separate.

Working with the body mind or mind body is often the missing link in the toughest cases. We think that a pill or doctor can save us but the medicine often lies in our own heart and mind.

Understanding your own power

Opening up to the idea that thoughts, beliefs, perceptions, fears and projections manifest physically is the first step.

Your body looks to your mind to know what to do. How to act and feel.

An ancient proverb says ” the body is the horse and the mind is the rider.”

While strong and powerful, the horse needs direction and guidance. The body is an animal waiting for direction and guidance from our mind. It has its own innate intelligence but still looks to the mind for help.

A personal story

Recently I got a powerful but odd lesson about this that’s worth sharing. Direct personal experience is the best teacher. And you can’t argue with reality or what happened…

The other night, I was taking a walk with my husband. I walk often and without any pain. My knees can sensitive but are healthy and problem free.

Out of the blue, I started feeling a pain in my right knee.

As I continued walking the pain grew worse with each step.

I went from surprised, to concerned, to alarmed as the pain progressed in intensity until I could barely walk.

I panicked, wondering how I was going to walk home. Maybe we needed to call a cab? We were a 10 minutes walk from home but every step on my right leg was excruciating.

As I was figuring out what to do,  a thought came to me as suddenly as the pain had. The voice in my head said “walk like there’s no pain.”

I immediately followed the impulse without much thought. I took a step like I was perfectly fine, and there was no pain. I went from excruciating pain to zero pain in a split second.

I was a bit shocked.

Why my knee started hurting was a mystery to me. But I made it go away with a single thought. The thought and belief that I was fine.

I moved forward as if I was fine. And I was.

What’s odd is that I followed my impulse to walk, as if there was no pain, without question. This is not how I usually operate. I obsess, worry, overthink. I freak out.

Focusing in on the problem with all my energy and intensity seems to make it worse.

But this has been my life strategy. Reacting with intensity and fear and trying to control and improve the problem.

It made sense to do it this way. Except it made it much harder.

In this moment though, I just let it go. And moved with ease.

There are many ways to solve a problem, and I had always done it the hard way, driving myself crazy and tiring myself out.

The spark of pain I felt in my knee grew with my panic and disappeared with my trust.

Instead of feeding the fire, I doused it.

Your thoughts and self perceptions matter more than you think

This is not the first time I’ve felt relief with a thought. But it was the most dramatic time, with such intense and instant pain that vanished with a thought.

The body does what the mind thinks it should do.

Why would we make ourselves sick with our thoughts? Most of us don’t know we are doing it.

Of course some diseases have progressed beyond the power of the mind to fix it. But you may be able to use your mind to dial down the severity of the pain or symptoms.

Sensitive people have a greater ability to do this. Many of my clients can bloat from a particularly distressing thought.

We feel what we think. Many of our thoughts are subconscious. Programmed in fear responses. But there is more to us than this.

So here’s the good news:

The more sensitive you are, the more power you have over your body.

I could have taken a cab home, asked Google for a remedy, taken anti-inflammatory pills, changed my stride, wore a compression band or more supportive shoes, or I could identify as someone who doesn’t have knee pain.

It’s a bit of a wild story. But if it got you thinking about dialing the dial up and down with your mind it was worth a read. Try it, it’s free.

It works best when you believe in it. So you may have to prove it to yourself so your confidence builds in your own ability to be the master of your body.

Try on a new identify like I did.

That voice that told me to walk with ease may have come from the universe, or my subconscious mind. But it was a reminder of my power.

What you focus on grows bigger.

You can focus on the pain or you can focus on the lack of pain.

It’s not easy. Sometimes we get something out of our pain. Attention, excuses, familiarity, being close to someone we love….

Play around with this with small stuff. This lesson was a lesson for all of us. What’s in your head is in your body.

Move forward from a place of wholeness, not the belief you are broken.

Do other people in your life do this naturally?

Some of my friends take terrible care of themselves but feel fine. Why?

They don’t worry about their body like I do. They believe whatever symptoms or sensations pop up are self correcting. And they are.

The power of believing in your wholeness and not micromanaging your body is huge. And anyone can do it.