Get rid of your bloated belly!
In Chinese Medicine, digestion relies on three principles: what we eat, how we eat, and how we digest. What to eat is not the topic for this article. Instead, you’ll learn that HOW and WHEN you eat have an enormous effect on your health.
How to eat is something I often talk about more about with my patients. And I want to share some of that advice, together with some self-care tips for how you can take care of worrying emotions and bloated belly’s, that goes hand in hand, not only in stressful times, but in your every day life – that will have an impact on problems like IBS which is a (too) common disorder.
How to eat
1. Sit down when you eat, at a quiet place
Watching TV, reading, studying, scrolling or combing lunch with a meeting is really bad for our digestive system. It will negatively effect your spleen organ,, which in Chinese medicine is considered the main organ of digestion, working closely together with your stomach. The reason is that your spleen doens’t just digest food, but need to digest stimulus and information brought in through other senses and experiences. What you listen to, read, think, and watch, is like just food for your spleen. It all need to be digested. And you spleen doesn’t like multitasking, which may injure the spleen leading to weakness. This is one of the root problems of IBS. Taking in both food and stimulus at the same time, will overload the spleen. As will cold food and drinks. Your spleen hates cold. It taxes the energy of the spleen, which have to work twice as hard for digestion, resulting in spleen deficiency, one of the most common symptoms seen in clinic. We live in a spleen deficient society. You can change that for yourself.
2. Don´t eat if your emotionally upset
When I see patients with anxiety, worry or other emotional disturbances, I ask them where they feel the emotions in the body. The answers are always around the chest area, shoulders, neck or head. The explanation to this from a Chinese medicine perspective, is that stress and emotions tend to make qi (energy) rise up in the body.
According to Chinese medicine, there are four origins of anxiety
Qi can get stuck in the chest area and create a sense of pressure and a feeling of lump in the throat. It can also manifest as tension in the upper part of the body, often around the shoulders and neck, and create tensional headache. Qi rises, and since blood follows qi, blood may rise up too. And this leaves less qi and blood to the digestive organs to do its job, because your energy goes into digesting your emotions instead of your meal. This can lead to indigestion, loose stools and bloating. And your stomach and spleen doesn’t just deal with digesting your meals, but your life experiences too, remember?
How to take care of worriedness
According to Chinese medicine, there are four origins of anxiety. One, being related to our lungs and large intestine, since our lungs are related to sadness, and our large intestine helps to let things go. The large intestine can be very affected by anxiety, making one more prone to issues like IBS. Second, Kidney and bladder issues could also be at the root of anxiety. Our adrenals regulate our stress response and when adrenal problems become chronic, they can cause anxiety. And third, anxiety can stem from liver imbalance, due to longstanding anger and irritation which haven’t been resolved.
Anxiety from excess worry most often stems from spleen and stomach imbalance though, and anxiety is seen as the spleen’s emotion. When we worry, we tend to digest some thoughts over and over again, having difficulties resolving or letting go of it. This can have a direct impact on our digestion, as mentioned already. When we get stuck in worry-mode, it means we are continuing to hold on and digest our thoughts instead of letting them go.
The best way to find the origin of your anxiety is to go to a trained acupuncturist. In addition to treatments, or if don’t have access to an acupuncturist, here’s some self-care advice for digestive support, as well as calming worriedness.
Self-healing for worry and bloated belly
1. Herbal medicine
My favorite formula that works both as prevention as well as for urgent digestive issues, is DAO Labs Digestive Harmony. A formula inspired by the classic herbal blend Bao He Wan. It offers a soothing and powerful solution for balancing your stomach. It´s an amazing digestive health formula that can deliver gut happiness when other western options have fallen short. Fast digestive balance and harmony after over-indulging or as a daily self-care formula to keep your stomach settled.
3. Acupressure on Spleen 3 and Spleen 4
Spleen 3 acu point is located on the medial aspect of the foot, in the depression posterior and inferior to the proximal metatarsodigital joint of the big toe, at the junction of the red and white skin. In clinic it´s used for gastric pain, abdominal distention and pain, diarrhea, lassitude and heaviness, overweight and dampness. SP 3 is one of the major tonifying points of the body and is very commonly used.
Spleen 4 is located on the medial aspect of the foot, in the depression distal and inferior to the base of the first metatarsal bone. In clinic it´s used for acute gastric pain, gastric distention and stuffiness, poor appetite, pain around the umbilical region, diarrhea, bloody stools, epigastric pain, chest congestion and distention in the hypochondrium. It´s also used for some emotional imbalances, and a good one for worriedness.
Use a gua sha or your hands, to stimulate the point up to five minutes. You can also stroke the meridian from SP 3 to SP 4.
4. Essential oils
The use of essential oils continues to rise and may definitely have the ability to modulate qi (energy) through direct energetic action. It´s also used to harmonize our minds, whether our minds tends more toward anxiety or depression.
The key is to select the oil that has a specific affinity for certain points and meridians. This requires knowledge of both the actions and indications of both the oils and the points, to be able to match them as closely as possible. The oil also needs to be properly diluted before being applied directly to the points. Then you can massage and hold pressure for a while over the point to make the oil seep down through the skin to the area of the point, to energetically activate it.
When it comes to the stomach and spleen, which by the way also relates to the earth element in the body, I would recommend Geranium. It tonifies earth, regulates qi and also strengthens the mind. It can also be used for neediness and insecurity. In Chinese Medicine, geranium is considered sweet scented. Beyond its use to calm the mind, and regulate qi, it can also relax the nervous system and promote a sense of peace and grace. It´s also commonly used for the early stages of menopause.
I hope you found this information helpful. If so, feel free to share with anyone you think might benefit from it.
Book a virtual session if your want individual support.
NOTE. Appropriate consultation and correct diagnosis, acupuncture treatment and dietary suggestions may balance and/or adjust your digestive organs as well as the emotions that you are dealing with in your life. Seek a trained acupuncturist to get support.