Digesting the Year. And Your Physical and Emotional State.
How energy work can heal and balance physical and emotional issues and improve gut health.
Did you know there are around 200 types of bacteria, viruses, and fungi in your digestive track? Some are helpful, some are harmful, but all have links to how we feel in some way. That’s why the ancient Indian tradition of Ayurveda is hyper focused on digestion.
Digestion is physical and emotional
Ayurveda wisdom states that a weak Agni, the energy behind our digestion, will make us unable to extract nutrients from food, nor fully eliminate toxins produced by the digestive process. In addition, an overburdened Agni will inhibit our ability to digest emotional experiences, which dampens our mental state as well. This can leave us with a feeling of total malaise.
Physical and emotional digestion tactics
Luckily, there are many things you can do to improve your digestion. But because an individual’s energies and needs are unique to them, there may be certain strategies that benefit you more than others. Approaches to consider include:
- Seeking talk, writing, or massage therapy
- Getting enough sleep and exercise
- Avoiding nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, and smoking
- Eating healthier foods
- Conducting yoga, breathwork, or meditation rituals
- Exploring energy healing
Vibrational energy healing
When attempting to heal and balance physical and emotional digestive issues, what can benefit almost everyone is energy work. Vibrational energy healing in particular, can impact our sense of wellbeing in positive ways. That’s because as a human being, you generate vibrational energy all the time. Why not use it to optimize your health?
Whether electromagnetic, sound, or light, vibrations of many kinds can encourage healing. For instance, when you vibrate your vocal cords, you can help activate the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body that stems from your brain to your large intestine.
The vagus nerve and your health
The reach of the vagus nerve partly explains why having a strong vagal tone is critical for digestive—and overall—health. Its strength signals less inflammation as well as a robust immune system. Vagus nerve damage, however, can lead to everything from blockage in your intestines to feelings of faintness.
If the vagus nerve isn’t healthy, the body isn’t healthy. For example, serotonin, a feel-good neurotransmitter and hormone in the body, is made and stored in the small intestine. If it can’t travel, the body won’t be happy.
Energy exercises to strengthen vagal tone and aid digestion
For digestive love and gratitude that celebrates the small and large intestines, liver, spleen, and beyond, the Digestion Meditation will ground you and bring energy from the earth up through your body. Breath work here involves longer exhales than inhales to allow you to get in touch with your vagus nerve. Because energy follows thought, Digestion Meditation also involves visualization.
Another exercise, the Peacemaker, also taps into the vagus nerve, which can help you with digestion and many other issues.
Finally, to make space in the digestive region of your body, these exercises aid your microbiome and digestive processes and strengthen your immune system. There are more bad bacteria than good in our bodies, so it’s critical to tap into the good bacteria. This exercise helps you do that. While stretching your digestive region, you’ll relax and release stress and tap into the energy of the vagus nerve, encouraging improved health and wellbeing in the process.
Daily energy exercises to aid physical and emotional health
In addition to the activities above, there are three key daily exercises that can help you with digestion issues. These exercises focus on the colon and your valves, therefore elevating your everyday health. The exercises include the Belt Flow, Ileocecal, and Diaphragm Breath.
The Belt Flow: This exercise breaks up congestion in the midsection of body that’s impeding energy from flowing from head to toe. It helps keep the area open, so everything flows in the correct direction.
The Ileocecal: The Ileocecal valve is a sphincter muscle at the junction of the ileum and the colon. It connects the small intestine to large intestine. Doing this exercise helps this valve open and close properly, which is important for gastrointestinal and overall health because all other valves in body are synced with this valve.
The Diaphragm Breath: This is a great isometric exercise that can be used to aid digestion, and it helps to oxygenate both your mind and body.
For more energy exercises and ideas on how to use energy work to heal and balance physical and emotional issues, subscribe to EnergyGirl’s YouTube channel.
