One of the most powerful aids to enhancing your digestion is meditation. While most people consider meditation a practice for “spiritual awareness” or “inner peace” the benefits are way more. Did you know that meditation can dramatically improve common digestive problems like cramps, bloating, and gas? Here are a few reasons why:
Meditation helps in better digestion
As a practice combining both deep breathing and heightened mental focus, meditation opens the door to an array of wonderful benefits, some more apparent than others. The less obvious benefits of the ancient mind practice are better blood oxygen levels and better blood circulation. But what are the implications?
With highly oxygenated blood circulating more readily throughout the body, the digestive system, as a whole, is upgraded immensely. This is especially true for the lining of the stomach and intestines.
Meditation reduces stress
When you are stressed and anxious, the body shifts into “fight or flight” mode. With the system flooded with stress hormones (like cortisol), everyday bodily processes take a backseat to basic survival. Perhaps the most affected of all – the digestive system. Fight or flight cortisol can wreak havoc on your gut leading to a slew of gastric problems – including inflammation, acid reflux, ulcers and even food allergies.
Meditation’s mind benefits go far beyond simply making you feel calm. By helping you out of the fight or flight stress mode, meditation helps achieve a deep level of relaxation. This in turn improves overall health on a massive scale, including your gut health. Naturally, the digestive system is designed for optimum performance only when we are calm and relaxed.
Meditation helps in mindful eating
The truth is, to cope with life, many of us like to reach for the fork and spoon. Whether it’s the big hit of dopamine we get from an extra sweet dessert or the temporary “filling up my empty life” fullness we feel from a satisfying meal loaded with fats. Food can be both an emotional and physical drug. Luckily there’s meditation.
Instead of pushing down your unresolved emotional conflicts, meditation offers the perfect medium to resolve this dysfunctional deep down buried “stuff.” Meditation helps melt away anxiety and depression, session by session and layer by layer, breaking the vicious overeating / poor food choice cycle naturally.
In the end, meditation opens the door to a kind of mental and emotional balance where nourishment is both for the body and soul.
Healthy mind, healthy body – the old saying holds so much truth.
If you want your digestive system to perform at the highest level, then give meditation a try.
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