​About a month ago I wrote about Yoga for Digestion as part of my current series “Your Body on Yoga” where we discuss how yoga helps all the systems of the body to operate at their best. The suggestions for yoga postures and breathing for digestion have been pretty helpful in digesting all of the rich food of the past few weeks. Today’s post is part two—digesting experiences, thoughts and emotions. Have you needed some help with those too lately?

We are not just bodies; we also have thoughts and emotions. Yoga has always taught—and western medicine has more recently confirmed—that body, mind and emotions are integrally related. We don’t need to read a study to know this to be true! We’ve all had butterflies in the stomach and inability to eat when anticipating a test or a hard conversation. Or if we’ve ever had a serious injury or illness, we remember how it messes with our mind and emotions. The rollercoaster of physical symptoms and mental/emotional stress can be challenging.

Here are a few ways to practice mental digestion as supported by yoga:

• Movement is essential. Sometimes when the mind gets stuck in a loop of negativity, it really helps to move the body. Notice that the word “emotion” has the word “motion” in it. Thoughts and emotions that don’t get digested properly do indeed get stuck in the body, just as food that doesn’t digest well can block up the system and make you feel yucky. Get outside for a walk or go to a yoga class. If time is short, get onto the floor on all fours. Begin with cat/cow and downward facing dog. From down dog walk the hands back to the feet for a forward bend, stand up to mountain pose, then fold forward to return to hands and knees. Repeat the series 3-5 times.

• Breathing brings clarity. When the mind is unable to digest experiences, thoughts and emotions, it can feel foggy and heavy. Breath carries prana—our life force—and by definition prana is light, able to move and change quite easily. Find some place where you won’t be disturbed for 5-10 minutes. Sit on the floor or in a chair with hips slightly elevated so that the spine is lifted and long. Take 10-20 slow, deep breaths all the way down into the low belly, letting it fully expand. Let the breath release easily and without effort on the exhalation. At the end, notice how much more centered and clear you feel. 

• Meditation helps you let go of what you don’t need anymore. Yoga teaches the practice of replacing a negative thought or emotion with a positive one. Take a few moments to consider what negative is intruding in your life and what its opposite would be. For example, if you’re feeling anxiety the opposite might be calm. For fear, courage. For overwhelm, peace. Find some place where you won’t be disturbed for 5-10 minutes. You can even set a timer for 10 minutes if you like. Take five slow, deep breaths to settle your body and mind. For the meditation, exhale the negative thought or emotion you want to be free from, then inhale its opposite. Visualize the negativity completely leaving your body and mind, and welcome the positive thought or emotion to completely fill your body and mind. As you go about your day you can return to this mantra anytime: “I completely release _____ and I fully receive _____.”

​As we continue our journey through the body’s systems, we turn now to our digestive system and how yoga helps it to function more efficiently. According to yoga’s health science, Ayurveda, the digestive system is the most important system of the whole body. The physical act of digestion is responsible for absorption and assimilation of nutrients which is essential for our overall health. In fact, the digestive tract is actually called “the channel of food,” so it is true that we become what we eat.

We all know that movement is good for the body and it is especially useful for the digestive system. A short walk after meals helps our food to digest well and it moves glucose more quickly through the blood stream, a plus if our blood sugar levels are higher than they should be. (That’s 50% of the American population!)

But here’s an important yoga tip: Wait at least two hours after eating to practice yoga. We move our bodies differently in yoga class, in ways that are more stimulating for the digestive tract overall, not the immediate effects that come from a brisk walk in the hour after a meal. For this reason, yoga maintains the health of the digestive organs for a lifetime and should be part of everyone’s weekly routine.

Here are the best yoga practices for the digestive organs:

• Twists: These are the best poses because of a process called squeeze and soak. When we move the abdomen into a twist (seated, standing or lying down), we squeeze the digestive organs which are all situated in the central part of the body. This squeezing action gently massages the organs and presses some of the fluids out of the organs. When we release the twist, fresh fluids return to the organs. (You can see why we don’t want to practice yoga on a full stomach!)

• Inversions that lift the abdomen: This could include lying down on the floor with the pelvis lifted on a bolster or block, or even taking the legs up the wall. In yoga, we bring emphasis to the part of the body that is lifted.

• Restorative yoga poses: When we lie down on the floor and support the body with lots of props—blankets, bolsters and blocks—we calm the nervous system. A calm nervous system retreats from fight or flight and embraces rest and digest. Just listen for the gurgles in the belly.

Additionally, we can support our bodies with healthy, seasonal food. Yoga practice and sensible eating work together to keep us well all year long.

We all know how wonderful it is to have healthy physical digestion. We just feel better about ourselves and about life, am I right? But Yoga and Ayurveda teach that it is even MORE important to have healthy mental digestion. Here’s why:

There is a quote attributed to Henry Ford (the car guy!) which says it well:
“Whether you think you can or think you can’t—you’re right.”

The mind has the power to shape our attitudes and our actions. The mind decides if we’re having a good day or a bad day. The mind chooses to listen to and believe certain things, often to the exclusion of many other things which may be just as valid. Just as amazing, what goes on in the mind affects even how we feel in our body. Wow!

Now that you know how important it is to digest thoughts and emotions, here are a few ways to cultivate healthy mental digestion:

Pay attention to the ways your thoughts and emotions affect your body. Do you get sick to your stomach when a fear arises? Maybe a familiar pain returns when you have a difficult conversation with a friend? Seeing the relationship between body and mind is a good first step in noticing when you’re not digesting well.

Process your thoughts and emotions through writing or conversing with a trusted friend. Could you have handled a situation differently? What did you learn from what you endured? Have compassion for yourself and for what it means to be human.

Seek out other perspectives. Just like the body needs a variety of foods with lots of spices to keep physical digestion healthy, the mind needs a variety of views from people who see the world quite differently. Liberals need to listen to conservatives, conservatives need to hear liberal views, and all of us need to open our hearts to people from other parts of the world.

Get your 6-8 hours of sleep every night. Yoga and Ayurveda teach that our mental digestion happens most easily while we’re asleep. No one really know for sure, but maybe this is why we dream! What do you think?

Who doesn’t want healthy digestion? You just feel better, happier, lighter when you are digesting well. Maybe you even sleep more soundly and smile more too.

Compliments of Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of healthy living, here are some suggestions for healthy digestion, just in time for the season of eating:

Eat food that has been prepared with joy since the energetic flow makes it move through your system more happily.

Eat in the company of friendly people or eat quietly by yourself without the distraction of media or unpleasant conversation.

Add spices to your food to help your body digest it more easily. If you’re only using salt and pepper, you’re missing out! Spices that especially aid digestion are cumin, coriander, fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric, ginger and mint.

Stop eating when your stomach is about half full. Nothing good ever comes from overeating. Enough said.

Go for a short, leisurely walk after eating. Bonus: If you have time to do so, it also helps to lie down on your left side for 10 minutes before taking your walk.

Eat at least two hours before bed so that the first stages of digestion are complete before you lie down to sleep.

Take this information into the holidays and you’ll be sure to have a happy, healthy body moving into the new year!