17 Jan Selfcare will improve your gut health
Health care and self care should go hand in hand.
Self care is really preventative health care in my opinion.
You can’t expect to have amazing health results while you are in a state of chaos and stress. You have to make time for healing to occur… as inconvenient as it might sound it’s the truth.
It’s all go-go-go until you burn yourself out and then you wonder why you are unwell or have been ignoring some niggling mild symptoms that could potentially turn into something more serious if left unchecked. I don’t know about you but I know a lot of people calling hustle culture BS and opening up about burnout and their issues caused by being overworked and overstressed.
Look at Arianna Huffington for example… she hustled her way to a concussion and now she openly speaks out about how important sleep and self care are and she has even written a book about it, if you’re interested. Sleep Revolution – Ariana Huffington
Welcome wellness is the aim of the game, each and everyday, to enjoy life without the annoying health issues holding you back. Healing any health issues (big or small) require a bit of effort and it can be anything, whatever your issues… like trying to heal acne, trying to maintain a healthy weight, trying to improve eczema or trying to resolve some anxiety or hormonal issues, these all require healing at a gut health level.
These “things” are sometimes an annoyance and sometimes a much more damaging issue like the physical and psychological issues that acne can cause. These symptoms are a message that something is out of balance or unhealthy internally that needs addressing. When left for years and years can turn into something much more serious so it’s good to nip it in the bud, address and overcome annoying health symptoms.
Don’t just think because your symptoms are not “life threatening” that they are not important. These health issues impact on YOUR life and it’s all relative to YOUR happiness which IS important. You can still be sympathetic to someone struggling with more drastic health issues than you… but you also have to hold space for yourself. If you are a loving mother it can be difficult to revert your attention away from your child for a moment, but you could also be doing your child or partner or family a disservice by not looking after yourself.
That said… Let’s talk about the topic on hand. Selfcare…
Self Care.
When we are in a restful state is when healing can occur, so that’s the aim of the game when it comes to self care. We are not made to be in a constant state of stress. When you’re stressed the hormone cortisol is released which triggers body function to stop or slow down so attention is reverted away from say, digestion or your fertility because they are very energy taxing processes in the body. Self care is the practice of focusing on your mental wellbeing and learning how to hold space in your life for a little calm and rest to lower cortisol. Your mindset/mental wellness is very important for healing too, so it kind of goes hand in hand with a self care practice. Improving your mental wellness will help your gut to heal because our thoughts and emotions have the ability to literally create physiological changes in the body. For example, think about when you cry, you have an emotion / thought or memory that creates a physical reaction. Or when you are nervous (an emotion) can literally manifest butterflies in the stomach, which is a physical reaction of the digestive system. A lot of the neurotransmitters for your brain are made in the gut and are connected through the vagus nerve. Your brain and your gut directly link up and it’s a 2 way communication. Stress can literally cause your gut to become inflamed and cause the beneficial bacteria in your gut to shift from beneficial to bad bacteria which can cause symptoms to flare up. Or create a leaky gut, which causes a whole host of symptoms and health concerns. So creating time to address your mental wellbeing is a must!! So why not make it fun, include a friend or a family member along the journey to self care sunday.
“If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step you take gets you to the wrong place faster” – S.Covey
So starting out on the right path to allow healing is a must to set your journey to wellness off on the right foot. Selfcare is so overlooked and I love that someone coined the fraze “Selfcare Sunday” and it’s great because it reminds people to leave a day for rest, a day for self love and kindness.
Self care can be anything that involves rest, relaxation, chill time you name it.
Whatever it is that fills you with joy, love, calm, peace, happiness will reduce inflammation and cortisol to allow healing where its needed.
Some ideas might be:
- You could go for a walk or a hike with a best friend in nature. (Just being in nature has been well studied to reduce stress).
- Pamper yourself with a face mask or a home manicure while watching your fav show.
- Do some painting, which is very calming and meditative. Or colouring in/drawing if that’s your thing.
- You could sleep in, read in bed and take the morning slowly and off of social media.
- Do a yoga class in the afternoon or a meditation practice.
- You could go for a coastal walk with your lover/partner, friend..
- Spend the day organising your wardrobe… literally my fav organising, melodic task while cranking some chilled tunes.
- Clean the house to some of your fav music.
- Go to brunch with your bestie for some soul sharing good chats.
- Have a long bath or pay for a massage.
Bonus points for getting outside in nature or socialising, laughing and connecting with your loved ones.
Ideally you want to allow time for you to fill up your cup. It will help with your mental wellness in a few ways.
Connecting with family, friends or your community (hobbies and groups etc) is so deeply ingrained into our DNA, we are from tribes and we are social creatures. When we spend time with our loved ones or our tribe it adds a healing aspect to our mental wellbeing as long as its a positive interaction, don’t hang out with toxic people. Feelings of love, joy and laughter are healing emotions so if you are stressed sometimes spending time with loved ones can be considered self care. Saying no to things that might cause you stress and saying yes to the things you enjoy are considered self care.
Doing tasks that are slow, calming and meditative are hard to integrate into a busy week, so making time specifically on self care sunday, helps you to make time for these restorative activities.
We live in such a hustle, go-go-go kind of world we need to re-learn how to slow down… I am personally someone who can’t sit still so this didn’t come easy for me. You might be the same… or this might come easily for you.
If you are on a healing journey, I recommend focusing on your mindset, mental wellness and mental health as step number one to welcoming wellness into your life.
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