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Did you know stress might be causing your digestive problems? Stress shuts down digestive function, but meditation can lower stress and restore your gut health.

How Meditation Helps Digestive Health

Our gut is a pretty amazing and complicated system. It includes a number of vital organs, like the stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas and intestines. These work together to break down food into nutrients and then direct those nutrients into the body to be used for energy and healing

Although your digestive system is vital, it’s also the first thing to get suppressed during stressful events. (That’s because digestion isn’t a top priority when we’re dealing with threats.)

The problem is that in modern life, we often react to daily stressors as if they’re threats. This can shut down blood flow to the digestive system and cause inflammation. This inhibits proper digestion and can cause all kinds of digestive problems.

But there’s good news: we can counter these problems with meditation.

Meditation lowers the body’s stress response and allows functions like digestion to return to normal. It helps the digestive system relax and receive proper blood flow so it can do what it does best: digest!

Which Meditations are Best for Digestion?

Any type of meditation will provide the basic benefits of stress reduction. However, specific meditations can help you bring awareness to the body and help you relax.

Try one of these meditation practices for digestion:

Body Scan. In this meditation, you pay attention to specific parts of the body and note how they feel. Working from the head downward, you notice where you hold tension and other sensations. This can help you become more attuned to your body’s needs.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation. This practice slowly takes you through all parts of the body, relaxing each part before moving on. This meditation decreases stress and enhances feelings of calm and relaxation.

Positive Visualization. In this meditation practice, you will visualize your digestive system functioning at its best to bring you more health and vitality. This practice can help you start to heal your relationship with your digestive system so you associate more positive feelings with your gut health.

How Much Meditation is Enough?

Even short meditation sessions can make a difference! The key is consistency.

If you don’t practice meditation regularly, start with just five minutes a few times a week. If you’re more experienced with meditation, build up to at least three 20-45 minute sessions per week.

More of My Posts About Gut Health

I talk a lot about restoring digestive health on this blog! I even wrote a book on it called The SIBO Solution. Check out more of my posts on gut health below:

•  How to Reduce Gas and Bloating After Eating
•  How to Diagnose Leaky Gut Syndrome
•  How to Get Rid of SIBO Constipation

You can also download my free YES/NO foods list for SIBO here.