When the Body Speaks: What Digestive Health Taught Me About Healing

I want to talk about a pattern I see across my clients and society in general, whereby interventions such as nutrition support people really well, yet lack the long-term transformational change that everyone is really longing for. They work, at least short term, but I see there is so often a piece missing. Retaining the gains rests so much on willpower, discipline and ultimately a need for control over things that isn't so easy to maintain year after year.

It's my own experience that first led me to engage in the deeper work of exploring behaviour patterns, the nervous system, and the messages and values we hold at a foundational level. How we feed, nourish and care for ourselves becomes easier, more flexible and ultimately enjoyable too, when we look to these deeper questions that lie in our bodies rather than in the modalities we search exterior to ourselves. In this way, health and our relationship with it, restores from the root rather than being propped up by a plethora of interventions, routines or “rules”.

My Own Experience with Digestive Health

Back in 2017, in the thick of functional medicine nutritional therapy training, I ran a stool test on myself because I was struggling with digestive symptoms. It identified imbalances in my gut flora, and I set to work: I used anti-microbial herbs and biofilm disruptors to attack the ones I didn’t want, stacks of probiotics, prebiotics and gut healing powders to support the growth of the ones I did want. I also cut a whole bunch of things out of my diet – think gluten, dairy, nightshades like potatoes and tomatoes, sugar, even fruits.

And it "fixed" my gut in the space of a few weeks, which you might think is brilliant, right? Well no, not really… After a while of eating “normally” again, I started to notice that symptoms were returning… Slowly at first and I felt like I could “catch” them – if I spent a few days being super strict with my diet, and/or upping the supplements, things would be good again. But slowly, slowly, of course, the symptoms built up again.

Why? Because I actually hadn’t changed anything else in my life. In the same way that someone who takes medications but changes nothing in their lifestyle, or has no fortunate change in circumstances, ends up reliant on those medications forever. I was also dependant on this strict diet to control how my body responded. I was still fighting it (and resenting it) just proactively to prevent symptoms rather than reactively to ameliorate them.

It was becoming harder and harder to keep up this fight, and life became more and more miserable – I couldn’t eat out with my friends without feeling like I was a complete inconvenience. I couldn’t relax and enjoy a nice glass of wine every now and again without paying the price the next day.

My whole digestive system was on the one hand, the best it had ever been, but on the other, so incredibly sensitive it was taking over my life - or at least keeping control of it was taking over my life.

Before I continue this story, I want to stress that digestive health is often where the journey begins for many people, but the deeper lessons I learned through my own gut issues changed the way I understand health as a whole. What I’m sharing here isn’t just about digestion - it’s about a way of listening to the body that can apply to many different symptoms.

You might like me to now present "the Turning Point", a beautiful picture of what I did next to fix everything and indeed, that would be lovely. But the honest reality was that I sort of stopped bothering in the end, and just put up with the symptoms until I realised that other interventions I previously hadn't considered related, started to make the positive change I was really hoping for my digestion and my wider health as a result.

What I can say is that those symptoms have largely gone away. Now. And hopefully for good. I generally eat a healthy balanced diet, but I don’t worry about eating anything, and I don’t experience uncomfortable symptoms on a day-to-day basis, my digestion really is fine now.

A More Holistic Way of Working with Digestive Health

So here's what I love to do when working with clients with digestive symptoms now - I combine all my learnings to work holistically. That's:

• Taking out: sometimes eliminating some key trigger foods (if we can identify them) for a short period of time (emphasis on the length here – it’s usually not forever!) is helpful

• Adding in: perhaps also using some supplements to help support and speed up repair and rebalance, again, for as short a time as possible (these things are expensive if nothing else!)

• Slowing down and eating in a more mindful way - this often requires tackling the nervous system and its response to things outside of food too

• Incorporating new foods or greater quantities of foods that are supportive of a healthy gut and digestive tract

• Leaning in and listening to what the gut is trying to say, and what it really needs at a broader level*

So I wonder if you can see what this does in addition to the physical changes made? What is happening here at an energetic level?

It shows the body a hell of a lot of self-care, that's what.

Wherever you are, whatever you're doing right now, please take a moment of pause right now to ask yourself:

"How connected to your body do you feel right now? When did you last pay attention to it and actively listen to how it feels and what it might be trying to say to you? When did you last consciously show it some care?"

My guess is probably never. At least probably not for a long time anyway.

But I believe that our bodies are talking to us all the time with the symptoms they present. When we start to show them that we consciously care, there’s an energetic shift in the way we relate to them and to ourselves, that starts to unlock a deeper connection to the self, and opens the doorway to better communication between our body and our mind.

Do you see the difference between this and the way I first experienced "gut healing"? Back then it was like I was attacking my body. I wasn’t truly caring for it. I wasn’t listening to it. I was identifying what was "wrong with it" and I was trying to force it to “mend”. But of course, it didn’t need “fixing”, it needed compassion, safety and an outlet to communicate the changes I needed to make.

I needed to look at the bigger picture of what was happening in my life, how I was caring for myself. I needed to interpret the effects that was having on my body, and start to make the harder, deeper, but ultimately profound beneficial shifts that would support my whole self to come back into alignment and live with more ease. When we make that shift, when we get better aligned and truly show self-care to our bodies, they don’t need to scream at us with symptoms any longer. I just didn't know that then, and I certainly didn't know how to do it.

Once I had made those shifts though, it became so much easier to make the healthy choices to support my bodies at a physical level. I truly relaxed and as a result my gut became much less sensitive to food choices that are perhaps less “physically healthy” but brought me something else - like fun, and joy, and connection and belonging. The things my soul seeks to experience here in this lifetime*.

Please note that whenever I speak of soul work and my spiritual beliefs, I am sharing them to express my perspective and convey a message as I understand it. This is my way to share in the manner in which I came to understand the bigger picture, in the hope that that resonates with you. I am very aware that different people have different perspectives, different beliefs, and that is also completely fine – please take what is helpful to you and leave the rest.

I hope what I convey when I write, is sense of deep compassion for everyone and a desire to help support and make a positive difference to as many individuals as I can, making a positive change to the whole world as that effect ripples out.

Interpreting the Messages of the Body

So how do I work on these other changes? Everything likely feels a bit abstract if this is the first time you are experiencing this way of thinking and working. This is the key part, and this is also the part that endless research studies just don’t seem to help us with (although there are increasingly more and more that do!) But on the positive side – the answer lies in a much simpler place for you to access – YOU.

You, and possibly you alone, are the one that can properly interpret the messages your body is sending you - you hold the key to your answers. And I can walk by your side, hold your hand, and provide some tools to decipher them and start to make change.

The Chakra System

As an example, the Chakra System is one tool I often use when considering digestive issues. I'll do another post on these, but for now it's enough to know that I am considering the solar plexus - linked with our fundamental right to be who we are, or perhaps the sacral chakra - our right to feel, depending on the position of the symptoms. Are these symptoms perhaps originating from an unstable belief or sense that someone can't show up as themselves or take up space in that capacity? Are there emotions that are being pushed away and not felt?

If my client has, like I did, an overgrowth and imbalance of gut flora causing bloating and gas - how does that relates to this solar plexus chakra, and the right to be who they are. For indeed our bacteria are not us - an imbalanced microbiome presents perhaps as an over-abundance of entities that we do not want there, that are uninvited, that are perhaps overriding our body’s calm and harmony in being what it is and doing what it wants to do. These microorganisms are not only causing uncomfortable symptoms, they are also crowding out what we do want to absorb into our body. And perhaps, therefore, our life.

Behaviour Patterns and Archetypes

For me, the lens of the archetype now also becomes useful as it helps to start to describe patterns of behaviour linked to things in a way my mind can understand them.

To use another example, let’s look at a constipated gut. What is my constipated client like as a person? Are they perhaps a bit of a Perfectionist, trying to make sure everything is just right, spending more energy than they have on creating this perfection before they will show their work or themselves to the world? Could constipation be the body holding on if we look at it metaphysically? Holding on, trying to keep control and not letting things flow?

What would happen if they loosened up a bit in certain aspects of their life, let people see their house as messy as it really is? Would their relationships perhaps also loosen and flow a bit more easily?

Or vice versa, the client with diarrhoea – do they feel like they don’t have a grip on anything in their life? Are things always happening to them? Do they feel like someone or something else is running the show and they just a Victim in it? Are things just running away with them all the time, leaving them unable to steer their life with any sense of control?

The Victim, the Perfectionist, the People-pleaser too - archetypes that frequently show up when we try to be liked but don't honour ourselves or our own needs. The Hermit, hiding away to avoid the discomfort of showing themself but never feeling truly comfortable inside or out. So many patterns can link in here, but seeing them and acknowledging them can be a real turning point for not just the mental and emotional symptoms, but also physical health symptoms too. The body is communicating.

Creating Change

What we do once we identify these behaviours also depends on the individual. Perhaps there is a need to go back and understand where this feeling came from, release it somehow and start to make some space to embody who they really are.

Perhaps a change of situation is needed, as was in my case. To create the safety that is needed for the nervous system to truly and safely return to a parasympathetic state of rest and digest.

Or perhaps neither is necessary. Maybe that would drag up unnecessary trauma and we can instead find some exercises instead to start to test these beliefs, and gently move feelings of discomfit with safety already in place.

Summary

When we fuel well with the right foods and also the right environment – sufficient sleep, time out to rest, movement and exercise, social relationships, we also show the body self-care and signal that we are listening, and that we want to change and support it at every level. We support it at both a physical and an energetic level.

We can then start to make other changes to support unhelpful behaviours too – the People-Pleasers start to say no when asked for too much, they set a small but significant boundary and the body starts to reclaim some control over the gut too.

Or perhaps they start to digest something - to accept that their closest relationship has been built on being someone they thought that person wanted, rather than who they truly are. As a result, the tension in the belly also relaxes a little, and starts to take in some more of the things it needs. It's not always drastic and oftentimes those relationships actually grow stronger because the other person isn’t even asking for this version of them. Perhaps seeing the real version deepens and strengthens the connection and bond. (Or perhaps it doesn’t, but either way, the body is honoured, space is created for a deeper connection with someone who is truly attracted to who they really are.)

"Your body isn't failing you - it's trying to guide you home"

To conclude - I still believe in the the power of good nutrition. This, and other lifestyle factors like sleep and movement, were the way I started to show my body self-care. Techniques to calm my nervous system gave me rest. And through that, I grew a deeper connection with my body and my body started to grow stronger, to build back its resilience.

My mind became clearer and my energy levels increased until I was able to make the changes I needed to, to make myself feel safe again. And then my body and my whole nervous system could finally relax for real.

I worked on digesting the reality of what had happened. I was safe to be who I am again. My microbiome rebalanced and was no longer hospitable to those organisms that did not support me. I could let go of controlling everything and everyone and allow more flow, and find a sense of trust again in things which I truly could rely on.

I wasn’t at war with my body, I was listening to it, honouring it, working with it to get back to a balanced place both physically and energetically.

Although I’ve used digestive health as an example here, this way of working applies to many different areas of health. I’m curious what resonates for you? If you would like some support to dive into this further, please reach out and book a free initial call to discuss it with me.

In health, love and alchemy,

Catherine x

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