Mysterious and uncomfortable digestive issues make us feel out of control. And when we feel out of control, stress spikes. When we try to fix our digestive issues and fail we wonder if anyone or anything can help?
I always say healing is in our hands. But actually, it’s in our minds.
When doctors told me IBS was in my head I felt they negated my pain and implied I was making it up. It took me two decades to understand what they were saying.
How your symptoms and your mind are related
Something happened the other day that felt like a “Jedi mind trick”.
I used my mind to stop my gut pain. I would not have believed it possible before. But I did it.
I banished the sudden onset of sharp and intense gut pain and bloating with one thought.
It’s unusual for me to experience sharp gut pain and bloating, but the other day I was very upset and triggered. I’d been ruminating about it for hours.
When it was time to confront the situation, the pain started.
My usual reaction to gut issues is to get worried about what’s wrong with me.
But this time, I paused, took a deep breath and acknowledged the pain and bloat was emotional. After all, I was really upset and stressed.
As soon as I recognized the pain and bloat for what it was it slowly subsided until it was gone. It seemed like magic or a miracle. But it’s just biology.
Using your mind to calm your gut
I’m NOT saying all digestive issues are purely psychological.
There are many different physical root causes and I’ve dedicated my digestive health coaching practice to finding and addressing these root causes for my clients.
But when people don’t respond to protocols, can’t clear the infections despite multiple tries and good compliance, I suspect it may be more than just physical.
Clients who suffer from stress, trauma, anxiety and nervous system dysfunction have to address these issues before they see results. Most people overlook these issues by focusing on the physical root cause only.
I began studying the subconscious mind a year and a half ago to help myself and my clients. I first practiced it on myself before working with clients.
This is why I was able to de-bloat my belly and make the gas pain go away with a thought alone. It was work, not a special gift I had. Anyone can do it. The more sensitive you are the easier it is for you to do. This is good news, as most of my clients (including me) are highly sensitive.
By acknowledging that my pain and bloating came from emotion, I felt safe instead of threatened. This calmed my nervous system. When I wonder what was wrong with me, my body feels threatened, scouts for danger and symptom intensity with increased inflammation (our body’s protective response).
This is biology. This is how we were built and by understanding this, we have so much more control than we ever imagined. Understanding is power.
The more confidence we gain about our ability to influence our body, the less we stress about our health. That is how we create a a calm system that puts us in control. This is life changing stuff/ Even if it’s perceived as woo, I had to share it. It has changed my life.
I recovered from IBS but not from the trauma of having it
Even though I left IBS behind 18 years ago, the trauma around it was never resolved. Because of that, my stress was easily triggered with any hint of gut troubles. No matter how slight.
The name for this is hyper vigilance and it’s a sign of a nervous system on high alert. The cause is fear or trauma.
Over the years, I had occasional, mild symptoms come and go quickly. I never made the connection between symptoms and the emotions that caused them, until recently. Especially since I often repressed emotions that were too unpleasant. I did not realize what I was feeling until it was gone.
In the past, if my gut acted up, I wondered if it was something I ate or a gut infection that returned.
This would trigger stressful thoughts that took symptoms longer to pass. My body has been ok, but my mind was looking for problems.
How do thoughts effect the gut?
When the mind goes into high alert (hyper vigilance) it sends distress and danger signals to the immune system, which inflames as a protective mechanism. Our body is build for protection and safety and prioritizes that above all else. Above feeling good, being happy or thriving. Safety first.
You can see how the inflammation and symptoms can cause more distress in the brain and how this can become a self-fulfilling prophesy or vicious cycle.
The opposite is also true. People can create a virtuous cycle when they start a protocol that gives them hope for recovery. That is why some people feel better for a few weeks or a month into a treatment and then old symptoms return the moment they feel signs of stress, doubt or re-triggered trauma.
The mind can dig people out of trouble or plunge them into it. I have seen it in action with clients and experienced it personally.
You can learn how to get out of panic mode. And notice how it affects the body.
How I did it
Banishing your symptoms with a thought is not a magic trick. It take practice AND belief. I called it a “Jedi mind trick” because you have to train these skills like a Jedi. If you are a highly sensitive person you were born with mind powers you need to learn to use.
I worked on subconscious programming around my health anxiety through hypnosis. I’ve also worked on regulating my nervous system. I’ve been practicing using my mind to ease my symptoms and experiencing little wins to slowly build my confidence. It’s a practice like learning piano.
By the time I banished my bloat and pain with a thought, I had been practicing for months. Instead of giving my symptoms negative attention, I felt a sense of calm and curiosity around them.
And calmly acknowledging what was going on with me was enough to calm my body down and make the discomfort go away.
Many of my clients know intuitively that food is not the culprit but they still try to control what they eat because food is easier to control than our own mind.
It doesn’t have to be this way is you are open to the idea of working with your mind. It is our own biases and doubts that prevent it.
And you don’t need to control your emotions to make pain go away, you just need to acknowledge and relax into them.
With self compassion and a little bit of awareness we can change our bodies and minds.
How to use this info
Most blog posts give concrete or practical action steps to address gut symptoms. This one is a little different because it focuses on learning something about your own mind. Your own Jedi powers.
The brain is the command center of the body.
Even if your IBS symptoms have a physical root cause, working with your mind will increase your success and lower your stress. Just check out how it helped one of my clients.
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.