
To heal the gut fulfill the soul
May 18th, 2020 Posted by Ivette Vega The Soul's Journey 0 thoughts on “To heal the gut fulfill the soul”
There is not a healthy body without a healthy gut, nor a healthy gut without a fulfilled soul. In today’s 24/7 society where success is more and more about achieving and having, thriving or dying, the fact is that many of us, at some point in our lives, compromise our physical and emotional health by not living our soul’s purpose.
The gut as the second brain
As you have probably heard, your gut is your second brain in your gastrointestinal system. Although both, your gut (Enteric Nervous System) and your brain (Central Nervous System) are entirely different from one another, and each of them plays a specific role within the entire body’s system orchestra, they are composed of the very same tissues. With more than 100 million nerves lining in the gut itself, brain and gut are wired and interconnected by neurons or neurotransmitters – the body’s chemicals messengers that transmit messages between brain and gut neurons, being the major neurotransmitters synthesized in the gut (serotonin, dopamine, glutamate, norepinephrine and nitric oxide).
Waste, toxins, and microbes, such as bad bacteria, fungi, protists and viruses stored in the gut due to poor eating habits disrupt the digestive process causing not only functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (GT) such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating, pain, stomach upset, irritible bowel, syndrome (IBS), leaky gut, ulcers, immune system disorders, inflammation, and eventually, chronic diseases, but also a decrease of the levels of neurotransmitters that are to be sent by the gut to the receiving neurons in the brain, preventing the chemical processes between the brain and the gut from working efficiently. This count down and the inefficient neurotransmitters process have a direct impact in your emotions, your moods, your daily activities, your choices, the way you perceive reality, your energy levels and your response to what happens to you in life.
On the other hand, the same circuits that connect a troubled gut with the brain can also send signals to the gut from a troubled, unclear, unsatisfied, frightened, traumatic and conflicted brain. In other words, just as a conflicted brain can be a by-product of a distressed gut due to unhealthy eating choices and poor digestion, a gut distress can be the cause of a conflicted brain due to lack of life satisfaction, clarity and knowledge about your truest self, but overall, a lack of life’s purpose. In either case, the results are the same: your immune system becomes weak and your overall well-being compromised.
The healing of the soul is the healing of the gut
By repressing your soul’s calling and neglecting your gut health, you are suppressing your immune system.
Studies have demonstrated that by repressing your truest self, you repress your digestive system as well. In this process, you also debilitate your immune system. Therefore, you become more prone to illness, gain or lose weight, get easily injured, fatigued, depressed, anxious and, ultimately, neurotic. Both, the body and the mind stop thriving. The initial stress caused by the lack of self-expression shuts down your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the system responsible for the body’s rest and digest, while it activates the “fight and flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), the one that controls the body’s response to threat. This response turns your initial acute stress into chronic stress, therefore, chronic pain.
It is at this point when the afflictions of chronic stress start to manifest: weight gain, inflammation, pain, and those so common incurable, unknown and mysterious chronic diseases. You may even find this familiar: after visiting a dozen doctors and specialists, going through multiple blood tests, MRIs and Xrays, you get the same hopeless diagnosis: fibromyalgia, depression, and anxiety as the cause of your pain, because “all is in your head” therefore, “in your gut.”
What it seems to be a simple GI tract discomfort can end up being a mysterious illness. However, by simply transforming your way of eating and following your soul’s call will help resolve the mystery. In the light of many searches and literature on the connection between, stress, trauma, and digestive problems, it is clear to me that the healing of the gut is impossible without the healing of the heart and the fulfillment of the soul. Living in harmony with your truest self, will not only help you return to your original state of health and wellness but it will allow you to live in a sustainable state of a blissful wholeness.
This is why by taking care of the heart and fulfilling your soul’s purpose can heal your mind, your heart and your gut. Follow me to learn more about the steps towards a healthier, more joyful, loving a peaceful way of living for the fulfilling of the soul and the healing of the gut .
With love,
Ivette