22 Jan Does Happiness Affect your gut health?

If there is one thing that 2019 taught me it was this… 

Your happiness is your responsibility.

It was a weird year last year. I had plenty of ups and downs but ultimately I realised that my happiness was MY responsibility. I had to stop relying on other people to find joy, laughter and fulfillment. 

I basically dove in deep to learn the things that I truly loved, things that made me happy. I spent A LOT of time alone and a lot of time quietly blaming other people for not being available to give me something to do. My partner had expressed that its not up to other people to bring you joy, and I couldn’t agree more. BUT listening and actioning are 2 very different things. 

I don’t know when it clicked but I decided to drop all my responsibilities and excuses and started searching for that thing… an outlet that bought me fulfillment (that’s why I have been MIA on Welcoming Wellness for the most of 2019).

Now it didn’t happen overnight… that’s for sure, it was definitely something that was progressive and took a while, but when I finally took ownership for MY happiness a few things in my life changed. So take note of how you can apply this to your life.

• My stress levels reduced.
• My rashes reduced.
• My anxiety around food subsided.
• My friendships got stronger.
• My relationship got deeper.
  

When you stop reaching out to other people for reassurance or for happiness it taps into something internally. 

News flash: Your mind has the ability to change your biochemistry. When we feel scared it raises our heart rate or when we are angry it raises our cortisol… this is not a load of fluff… its the reality of the human body. What we think or feel emotionally can physically manifest a change in the body. Our mental health needs to be understood and a tool in your tool box could be to learn how to understand how to use it to your advantage.

A lot of people overlook the importance of focusing on your mental health for overall health and wellbeing.

I certainly didn’t even consider it when I first started my health journey. I just thought that health was diet and body related.  There is a lot of science to back up these claims, full disclosure I don’t have specific papers however in the multitude of books (written by qualified professionals) I have read and trust me the science is there. How else can you explain butterflies in the tummy? You feel nervous and it manifests a physiological reaction (diarrhea), its real people, who hasn’t experienced that? 

Now i’ll swing this back to gut health, but stick with me here for just a moment. 

The opposite is true too… stress causes a lot of issues on the body and reducing that stress can reverse the damage or allow the body to heal the damage. Our bodies are very complicated biochemically and I by no means claim to “know it all” but I have learnt from experience and I like to break down WHY things have worked for me. So here goes… real talk.

I truly think one of the reasons I wasn’t able to shift my food intolerances was because I was putting a lot of unnecessary stress on the food aspect and not addressing the anxiety food gave me. Now that was a catch 22 because stress was probably causing my gut health to be compromised and my symptoms were anxiety and rashes. Some of the symptoms of a compromised gut (aka leaky gut) can be skin issues, anxiety etc, I don’t think it was a coincidence . The inflammatory response from stress can shift not only your biology but your microbiome (the bacteria living in your gut) and can cause an imbalance of beneficial vs undesirable bacteria and their nasty side effects. “Re-balance your biology and many of these problems will disappear” (1) So when I started addressing the stress and anxiety I had around foods I had developed an intolerance to my rashes started to lessen and so did the anxiety. If i have learnt anything it is that your mind is like a muscle… you have to work that muscle just as you would your abs or biceps. You need to put practices in place that help you form healthier mental patterns or habits. When these habits are repeated its like building a muscle in the gym, repetition helps to build a strong mindset. So don’t underestimate the power that your mindset as over your biology. When you put practices in place to be happy it does have a ripple effect on your health in a positive way.  I think forming habits are so powerful because the eventually become second nature and you dont have to think about doing “the thing” just as i mentioned in my blog post about healthy eating habits to adopt in 2020.

By not being so stressed or anxious I was able to focus more energy on myself, look at what I truly enjoyed and I just did more of that (which was photography). By being happy with yourself it filters out into other areas of your life… love, friendship, family etc. So again, don’t underestimate the power of your mindset. What you think you can manifest a biological response so you want to be careful with how much focus you spend on the negative as it can have a physiological response on your gut health and manifest symptoms of discomfort. 

There is a difference between surface happy and deep fulfillment / happiness… it just takes a little time digging below the surface to actually see what fills you up, what makes you happy and notice what is superficial. This literally changed my health for the better in 2019. Hopefully my story gives you little breadcrumps as to how you can go about forming new healthy mindset habits for 2020.