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 was definitely a part of the story.

Symptoms developed after prolonged and unusually stressful periods or overwhelming personal 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.

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

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

While strong and powerful, the horse needs direction and guidance from the rider. The body is an animal, just like that horse. Waiting for direction and guidance from our mind.

A personal story

Recently I got a powerful lesson about this. It was an odd lesson also but worth sharing. It was a direct personal experience and those are the best teachers. This really happened to me recently.

The other night, I was taking a walk with my husband. I walk often and without pain. My knees are sensitive but 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, you will be fine.”

I followed the impulse with confidence. I walked like I was perfectly fine, expecting no pain. And there was none. From excruciating to zero pain.

Again, I was shocked. What had happened with my knee was a mystery to me. But I made it go away with a confident thought. That I was fine. And I needed to move forward as if I was fine.

This is not my usual way of operating in the world.

I freak out. I focus in on the problem and try to solve it, with all my energy and intensity. That has been my life strategy. If I can’t anticipate the problem I react by trying to solve and control it.

In this instance I just let it go. And it went.

The spark of pain grew with my panic and then disappeared with my confidence that it was gone.

Instead of fanning the fire, I doused it.

Your thoughts and self perceptions matter more than you think

No big deal, but I think I may have accidentally stumbled upon a big secret of the universe, that the ancients wrote proverbs about.

The mind is truly the rider of our body. What it believes, our body does.

And of course this is not the case in all diseases, ones that have progressed beyond the power of the mind to fix it.

But, sensitive folks (like us) have a closer mind body connection than less sensitive people, and thus have a power to influence the body.

Many of us feel what we think. 

It is possible to bloat from a stressful thought.

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

So instead of running to Google for the answer, taking an anti-inflammatory pill, changing your stride, wearing a compression band, you can simply identify as someone who doesn’t have that problem.

It’s worth a try. It’s free. And it works when you actually believe it. You try on that new identify with confidence.

My experience may have been a message from the universe, or my subconscious mind. It was a reminder that I had more control than I imagine.

What you focus on grows bigger. You can focus on the pain or you can focus on the lack of pain.

Try it with something trivial. Play around with it. This lesson was for all of us because I felt compelled to share it.

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

Your problem is not just in your head

What’s in your head is in your body. But we can dial it up or down.

This explains why some of my friends, who take far worse care of themselves have fewer issues with their body.

They don’t worry about their body, believing whatever symptoms pop up will heal themselves. And they do.

I thought it was just luck but the lack of stress and not micromanaging their body can play a big role.

I know it’s not easy to change the way you do life, but it is worth pondering how much control you actually have and how to use your mind like a healing Jedi.