Gut Health is Key to Your Mental Health at Work

It seems that everyone talks about IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome.?

There isn’t one type of IBS, but many types.?It can manifest as anxiety (nervous stomach), rumbling, constipation, diarrhea, Crohn’s disease, and many other intolerances of real and serious natures.

What has impressed me to learn is that the gut influences the brain, and not vice versa.?I will repeat that:?we are at the mercy of our gut:?how we think, how we act, how depressed we are, how clear our eyes are, how cogent is our thinking, etc.

I have had to learn that I had to eat a certain way to help my own gut health, and that this might not be the way you ate, or thought, or took herbs or medicines.?I had to learn that we were all unique, and that it was important to outline special protocols of nutrition, exercise, AND I learned that I HAD to meditate and do certain breathing exercises, or I would pay the piper.

I learned that travel could be a miserable experience for me if I did not do certain protocols, some preventative, some regularly.

And I have been instructed that digestion was the key.?To digest food effectively, or to metabolize what I had ingested, I had to be in a parasympathetic state.?That means my nervous system could not be in a sympathetic state (read “fight, freeze, flight”), but had to be relaxed and calm to adequately absorb food.

Eating on the run was no more.?I was taught to do deep breathing before each meal.?I was taught to chew each mouthful a certain number of times.

The author suggests ways to improve gut health at the office and to feel better at work:

Avoid eating junk food at the office.

Now, I know, from the pounding I get from my healer and therapist, that our nervous systems lag in the afternoon.?I am to rest between the hours of 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.?I used to grab coffee and sweets to muscle through.?Now, I systematically relax my body for 20 minutes.?I am guaranteed a good dinner, a good rest of the day, and improved clarity and sleep that evening.?It is 100% guaranteed.

Get some exercise.

Sitting is the new smoking.?This has been around for ten years now.?WE MUST TAKE BREAKS FROM OUR COMPUTERS ONCE AN HOUR, EVEN FOR FIVE MINUTES. And this does not include the 30-minute walk we do daily.?Duh.

Drink plenty of water.?

Drink half your body weight in ounces.?If you weigh 200 pounds, you are going to drink 100 ounces of water, so, glub glub.

Take your time when you eat.

If you think you are starving and just must grab something, ask yourself, "Is it true??Am I really that hungry, or can I wait another 45 minutes to sit down and properly feed myself?" You will be surprised at your answer.

Gut health is mental health.?Gut health is emotional health.?Gut health is psychological health.?These are simple equations.

Work with them.

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