Listen to Your Gut
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying your gut feeling, or trust your gut, but what does that even mean? Is it really mentioning our gut and digestive system? The discovery of the gut-brain connection has helped unlock many answers as to why your gut can literally sense when something is good or bad. A form of intuition, when our gut can sense unease, it can help guide decisions moving forward. Let's dive a little deeper into what really happens within the body when you start to get that gut feeling.
Within the nervous system holds the gut-brain axis; a communication pathway that allows the gut and brain to talk to each other. The main way they both can chat is through the vagus nerve. An information highway between the gut and the brain, the vagus nerve holds many important roles within the body. It helps regulate appetite and nutrient absorption, build resiliency towards stress, supports motility and proper bowel movements, and an overall sense of well being. Clearly this nerve houses important properties needed within the body, but what can cause it to tilt off balance and stimulate that gut feeling?
When a person experiences low vagal tone it implies they are unable to cope with stress as well as they should with a healthy vagal tone. Ways the vagus nerve can malfunction or become irritated can be through an excess consumption of alcohol or spicy foods, stress, or a high fat diet. If this sounds like something you resonate with, don’t stress, there’s many holistic ways to help stimulate and strengthen the vagus nerve:
Deep breathing: helps slow down your heart rate and heart rate variability (the variation between heartbeats which can be used to measure stress)
Acupuncture: stimulates an anti-inflammatory response and slows heart rate
Positive emotions: creates beneficial hormone production
Cold plunges: builds resilience to stress due to the shock of the extreme change of temperature, which aids immunity, and supports the body’s ability to transition between the parasympathetic (rest and digest) and sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous systems
Gentle movement: breathing in combo with movement helps stimulate the vagus nerve
Many life events will stimulate a stress response and trigger that gut feeling. Living within this space consistently can cause that vagus nerve malfunction and begin a spew of health issues because of it. When we listen to our gut and move within support of that space, we get to live in a state of contentment and comfort within our body’s. Interested in learning more about how to support the vagus nerve and become better at listening to your gut? Schedule a free consultation with me to see how health coaching through Happy Healthy Hershey can help!