If you have trouble with your digestion,
If you're feeling stuck or have problems eliminating or are feeling just uncomfortable and bloated,
This is the meditation for you.
We'll begin by going over a couple traditional Chinese medicine informed qigong moves.
That's just a more complicated way of saying we'll work with our energy through physical ways,
And start to invite that movement,
That healthy,
Natural movement back into the digestive system.
And once we've achieved a more comfortable physical state,
Then we'll explore how we have trouble digesting on the emotional plane and the mental plane.
Digestion is one of those things that whenever I experience,
I know that there probably is a physical cost to it,
Perhaps what I ate or what I haven't been eating.
Maybe I haven't been eating on a very regular schedule.
But what's so interesting in my experience is that digestion started,
Or those issues with digestion started a lot of the times in my emotions and what I was feeling and how I was thinking and how I was carrying myself.
So to begin,
Let's get comfortable.
And I encourage you to sit in a way or even lie down in a way that feels good for your digestion right now.
And that can really be any posture.
It doesn't have to look like a meditation posture.
Your comfort is priority here.
And once you're in that position,
As comfortable as you can get,
Start to invite some deeper and slower breaths.
Now,
If you're coming to this meditation with digestive issues,
You'll actually notice that you can track where in your body the breath feels stuck.
Like there's a little hitch.
A lot of the times for me,
I feel it in my upper abdomen area.
It feels like when I want to take a breath all the way in,
It either hits a wall there or either just feels muffled or warbled.
And you'll notice in your system,
You'll feel something similar.
So we'll start by gently expanding every deepening breath and just pushing that edge a little bit where it's getting stuck in your digestive system.
By bringing in breath into this stagnant area,
We're waking it up and encouraging it to do what it was made to do,
Which was move and flow and break down,
Digest.
And I know that digestive issues,
Especially if they're persistent,
Can feel so discouraging or just like a low grade annoyance.
Know that simply by breathing and paying attention to where that breath is getting stuck and how it's slowly opening up your digestive system,
Know that you are already helping that system wake up and move and that you're going to feel better really soon.
Continue with this breath.
And now I invite you to bring your hands together and start to rub them together.
We want to generate some heat and once it feels nice and warm,
Go ahead and just put them on the place on your body that feels especially stuck or especially bloated.
And breathe in here.
Now in addition to the breath,
Opening things up,
Bringing in that fresh energy into that digestive system,
We're introducing the element of heat.
Warmth is the antidote to a sluggish,
Stuck digestive system.
You may continue doing this and so breathing and rubbing those hands together,
Generating more of that warmth,
More of that energy,
More of that moving energy,
And then placing it on your body.
Realizing how the warmth expands your ability to flow in that area.
Bringing it one step further,
Rubbing those hands together again,
And this time we're going to rub our entire abdomen area up the right side,
Over to the left side,
Down the left side,
And then back over to the right side in a circular motion.
And depending on your status right now,
It might feel good to apply some nice downward pressure,
Especially on that left side as you push downwards.
We are following the path of the intestines here and down the left side is basically that last part before we eliminate,
So we're helping it out a little bit physically.
We're starting to continue to breathe and feed this entire system more oxygen.
At this time,
Your digestion should feel better and as we move into the exploration of the emotional causes of indigestion,
The mental causes of digestive issues,
I welcome you to continue tuning into your system,
Your body,
And playing with what combination of these three qigong moves we just did feel best for you.
So breathing in all the way to your digestive system,
Taking in that qi,
That energy into the area,
And then bringing in heat to encourage movement and flow,
And finally physically stimulating the entire area with heat and with movement in that circular massage.
Our digestion is part of our parasympathetic rest and digest function.
The other end of that would be fight or flight or simply go mode,
Movement forward,
Accomplishing things out in the world,
And sometimes when that lever is stuck on that go mode and we don't allow for the flow of our body's natural rhythms to take us back into rest and digest,
We can be stuck and stagnate in that forward,
Always on mode and that in a nutshell is what leads to low-grade,
Prolonged stress.
One of the ways in which that shows up is in our digestion.
Our digestion doesn't have the capability now to relax and then break down all the food that we've been feeding it.
On top of that,
We're constantly now in a state of tension,
Which makes the whole process really difficult.
One of the quickest ways to get to this state is by being in a state of fear,
By allowing fear to be such a constant in our life that our system doesn't feel safe to enter,
Rest,
And digest.
So to start our exploration,
I welcome you to think back,
Maybe the days or perhaps even weeks leading up to this feeling of indigestion.
Were you particularly stressed?
Or feeling unsafe and scared?
How were you overriding your body's natural instincts for rest and repair?
And just a gentle reminder,
As we begin this exploration,
It's natural for difficult emotions and experiences and thoughts to come up.
I'm asking you to think about what's been stressful,
What's been scary.
Know that it's natural for those emotions to come up right now.
Know that all you have to do is to stay with those emotions,
Let them move through you and continue to breathe or apply that touch to yourself in a way that's supportive.
Digestion is also a place where we can feel stuck in,
You know,
Which is why we have those digestive issues.
And so zooming out,
How are you feeling stuck in your life in general?
Where are you not flowing?
Or,
Put it another way,
Where are you not allowing flow?
How are you blocking life's natural processes?
The flow that we experience in life will translate to the flow within our physical bodies.
And when there's elements of control or tightening and holding onto in our life,
That may show up in our life.
And it feels like for digestion,
In my experience,
There's two ways that we can control.
The first is by overdoing something in some way.
Where are you overindulging?
Maybe it's with food,
But maybe it's also with things that you're doing.
And on the contrary,
Where have you been avoiding?
What have you been putting off?
What decisions perhaps do you feel frozen about?
What are you allowing to stagnate?
Maybe that can be a situation at work or with your relations.
What are you refusing to accept or digest?
What are you having trouble integrating and processing?
What are you having trouble with letting go of and eliminating?
Maybe that's literally a toxic situation or person.
These questions,
These metaphors of how we've been digesting and then processing and then eliminating aspects of life that no longer serve us are so intertwined with the physical process of digestion.
If digestive issues is a constant in your life,
I hope that these questions start inviting some movement and flow in all areas of your life.
We'll start to transition out of our meditation by moving around and bringing in fresh energy,
Fresh chi into other parts of our body.
Perhaps doing some sighs.
Sighs are amazing in the traditional Chinese medicine tradition to physically move and release all that doesn't serve us,
All that we want to let go of.
On your next inhale,
Gently open your eyes.
Place your hands on your abdomen.
Notice the shifts and the changes.
And acknowledge your digestive system for its wisdom and power to sustain you in life.
Perhaps ending with a little prayer of gratitude for that area of your body.
Namaste.
Namaste.
