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Healthy Digestion for Abundant Living
Abundance is a concept we’re hearing a lot about these days. The abundance of the universe, and how we can open ourselves to trust in that abundance so that we may receive more of all that we need and desire in life. But have you ever thought of how your digestive system is related to receiving abundance? According to the ancient wisdom of Chinese medicine, the state of our digestion is a gauge of how open and ready we are to trust and accept abundance in our lives.
Think about it. Digestion is how our bodies take in and absorb nourishment from the earth and release back to the earth that which we don’t need or want. Plants use solar power to create living food energy, and our digestive systems work to use and release this solar energy back into the system. The earth represents nourishment, stability, grounding. So earth energy issues are issues about our basic needs: our physical nourishment, the ability to assimilate knowledge and to receive emotional support.
Abundance is also related to the emotion of “worry”. We’re all aware of the unhealthy use of worrying, but there is also a natural and healthy kind of worry. If you’re familiar with the phrase, “The dog worried the bone”, this is a definition of worry that means to see something from all sides, looking for every bit of nourishment we can find from it. This is what our digestive activity does with our food – turns it this way and that, over and over, to mix it with fluids and to absorb all the nourishment possible for our benefit.
Earth energy asks the question, “Are my needs being met?”, and this leads to worrying or considering what we need, as well as what others need. A healthy relationship to earth energy is to honor our own and others’ needs in balance, and to trust that life essentials can be met for us all by an abundant universe.
So here are some symptoms, all of which begin in the digestive system, which may indicate that our earth energy, our trust in abundance, needs attention:
Lack of or low appetite, tiredness and low energy, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, anxieties, lack of clarity in decision-making, obsessions, over-concern for others and world affairs.
Even more fundamental are those thoughts which underlie the symptoms. Some belief systems that relate to digestion and trust in abundance are:
I’m not worthy of receiving – Life is overwhelming (over-concern with the needs of others) – There’s always something, something to worry about – It’s all up to me; God needs my help – What’s going to happen next? – There’s never enough
When we address our health issues at the level of the belief systems that help to create them, significant improvements can unfold. The BodyTalk System facilitates communication with the natural, innate wisdom of the body/mind to identify all the many factors and contributors to health issues, including the underlying belief systems and emotional patterns that so often block our progress. When we talk to our bodies and listen to what they have to tell us, we can unlock the doors to our own abundant health and begin to participate more fully in the joys of this abundant universe!
The Heart of Joy
Our hearts are so much more than an organ pumping blood, essential as that is for life. In both traditional Chinese medicine and new frontiers in energy medicine, the heart is seen as the central governor, information distributor and energy organizer of the body/mind. These are important functions of the heart energy complex.
But the deeper essence of the heart is our experience of connection. It is the home of joy and sadness, of love and of our tenderest, most inmost selves. From the Chinese perspective, the emotions of joy and sadness, and their full, free expression are the keys to a healthy heart governing a healthy life.
What is joy? Those moments of joy seem to be the moments when we transcend ourselves, forget ourselves, and feel fully present and alive. Or that feeling of elation when we acknowledge growth in ourselves or someone else. Or find ourselves lifted into a realm of love, beauty and light beyond this material world. Joy, in its very essence, is fleeting. Like the sun, it reaches its zenith briefly, then wanes again. But we know, and trust, that it will return.
True joy, then, seems to be the reward for being in the moment. Not holding onto the past, not leaning forward into what may come. It is being fully present – and receiving what is, just as it is. Being present, however, is certainly not always about joy. But it is about fully feeling whatever is there – joy or sadness or the many gradations in between.
To be fully alive to whatever we feel, whoever we and others are in the moment requires acceptance. The more accepting we are of whatever is – in the moment – the more genuinely we can be and express whoever we are in that moment. And this leads to the joy of connection to ourselves, to others and to all that life has to offer.
Lovely as this all sounds, it represents an ongoing lifetime task of healing and growth. But identifying those beliefs that underlie our attachments to past or future, that keep us hiding our hearts behind walls of protection, are fundamental to that process. Here are some examples:
“I’m not lovable”, “I’m not acceptable as I am”, “I have to be responsible”, “I don’t deserve joy, happiness”, “I’m not good enough; I’ll never be good enough”, “It’s not safe to show my feelings”, “I have to protect myself”, “I can’t really be myself, or ______.”, “It’s not safe to be intimate”, “I’ll never be happy again”…
In BodyTalk, we call these belief systems, as they are so much more than a thought, but energy complexes with tentacles that reach into many areas of our lives, taking hold over years to become lodged in our very cells. But once identified, they can be shifted. By tapping over the governing heart energy complex during a session involving a belief system, we seem to be helping the body/mind to replace “what has been” with “what should be”. The heart can then send this new “memory” out to the rest of the body/mind for lasting change.
Taking care of our hearts is eating well and exercising, but more deeply involves finding ways to shift and release old beliefs that keep us hiding ourselves or trying to control our lives and other people, succumbing to the stress of efforting to “have” more joy or to avoid sadness. Taking care of our hearts is to continue the journey of opening ourselves to all that we are, accepting imperfections, trusting in the ups and downs of life, and to “kiss the joy as it flies” one moment at a time.
Honoring Our Anger
Anger is something we seldom feel good about. Many of us have learned, through early life experiences, to associate anger with explosiveness or hurtfulness, coming from conflict and causing pain – both for the one expressing it as well as for those on the receiving end of it. And this results, for many of us, in interpreting and expressing anger in ways that undermine our own and others’ happiness and health.
Traditional Chinese Medicine, however, offers us a wise and encouraging understanding of the role of anger in our lives. One Chinese word for anger is “sheng qi”, the energy of plant growth. What does a seed need to do in order to thrive, to grow into the plant or tree that is its life purpose? It needs to push up through the soil, stretch towards the light of the sun, push its roots down to take in water. In other words, it needs to express its life force in a way that pushes through the natural resistances to its development.
In this light, obstructions and challenges are a natural part of growth, and it is natural to resist them. It must follow, that there is a natural or healthy way to express our resistance to that which obstructs our life and growth. This healthy expression of the emotion of anger is, in fact, essential to our spiritual evolution, assisting us to grow towards our True Selves and towards the infinite.
Healthy anger is the energy of creating strategies, setting goals, overcoming inertia, deciding to make healthy changes in ourselves and in our lives, taking some risks, trying out new ideas and behaviors, establishing and affirming our own boundaries and on behalf of others. It’s about speaking up and standing for justice It’s also about accepting setbacks, developing creative solutions to challenges and creating a win/win vision for interaction with others. A commitment to unity and harmony with ourselves, our fellow humans and with our world. And to just keep trying when we fail to live up to it all.
Consider a bamboo plant in a large forest. Its job is to grow towards the sun, strong and resilient. When the wind blows, its flexibility allows it to bend, but it will return gracefully to its upward path with no grudge against the wind. It accepts the inevitable challenges and obstructions that life brings. The bamboo plant’s focus on its own growth toward the sun also allows the plants around it to grow in their own way, in their own time. There is no need to struggle with or manage and control the other trees. As each plant holds to its own upward vision, there will be plenty of light and nourishment for all.
The result of this healthy expression of anger is the quality of benevolence. Such a gentle word. But there is much strength in it, as well, the strength that comes from mastering our anger. Not transcending it, not denying or suppressing it, certainly not indulging it, but honoring it. Honoring ourselves and each other for this important and life-affirming emotion as we allow ourselves and others to grow in patience, compassion, generosity of spirit and benevolence.
If mastering anger seems like a worthy goal, it is most helpful to try to identify the underlying beliefs that challenge or obstruct the process. For those inclined towards belligerence, some possible beliefs may be: “Life is a battle” – “Things just aren’t fair” – “Everyone and life are out to get me” – “If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself” – “Others just can’t understand me” – “People need to be managed”, etc.
Or if the tendency is more towards timidity (which can lead to resentment), some toxic beliefs may be: “If I’m angry, no one will like me” – If I make a mistake, I’ll lose everything” – “If I speak up, I won’t do it well and make things worse” – ” I feel stuck” – “It’s all hopeless” – “I just have a hard path in life” – “My partner is violent, dangerous, abusive” – It’s not safe to be angry” , etc.
By identifying and acknowledging the beliefs that distort our expression of healthy anger, we are already beginning the process of defusing and shifting them. The good news is that these distorted patterns passed on from generation to generation, undermining our health, our relationships, our contributions to society and our spiritual evolution don’t have to continue! In addition to practitioners who hold to the traditional form of Chinese medicine, there is now a smorgasbord of holistic approaches to health available to us. We have but to get a little angry to overcome our inertia, take a little risk, and reach out for support.
Healing Connections
The last post about our healing connection with the earth began a meditation for me on the true nature of health, which may be much deeper than we can know or understand in our current state of development. But this concept of “connection” seems to be a key to what it means to be healthy and whole.
We know that true health involves developing a connection to our own deepest selves, being aware of and honoring our feelings and emotions, listening to the promptings of our deepest desires and longings to become fully alive to all that we are and can be.
Which is really about our connection to spirit, the Creative Force, or God. Since we are, in essence, beings of frequency, vibration, non-material spirit, it is essential for our health to nurture and strengthen our awareness and identification with this essence through connecting consciously and regularly with the Source of our being.
Just as important to us as physical beings is our need to connect with our planet, as this development called “earthing” is clarifying for us (see previous post). Literally, 
through touch or direct contact with the essence of the earth. What is happening when we do this? At the micro-level, the very ground itself provides perfectly what our bodies need to thrive, in the form of free electrons. Mother Earth truly nurtures us through her touch.
And for whole health, we need both in balance. Spirit aligned with the “sky”, body connecting to the ground – drawing sustenance and strength from both so that we can serve as a conduit for spirit to take inspired action in the world.
And that world is the world of relationships and contribution, of community. Here again, connection and health begins with the need to touch each other. Skin to skin, heart to heart, soul to soul. In this fast-paced world with all our technology, so many are starving for real touch with real people in real time. We all long for community, a sense of belonging and contribution. Support and care, giving and receiving require that we slow down to speak and to listen from the heart and to really see and honor each other.
If we could see these hands of connection at the level of their vibration, we would realize that, literally the energy is exchanged and blended, blurring any lines of “you” and “me”. Giving and receiving simultaneously, we become each other. True community begins with this awareness of our essential oneness.
From these thoughts, it seems that the essence of whole health is very much about relationship. Balanced, “right” relationship with ourselves, our essence, our planet, and each other. What an inspiring vision! So much more than pieces and parts of separate machines that need to be “fixed”. We are so much more than we can know, a deep mystery beyond our greatest imagining!
Healing ourselves and our world takes awareness , it takes courage, it takes time and the willingness to change our perspective But what an exciting and wondrous adventure, and how deeply comforting – and healing – to know that we are not ever, in any way, alone.
