Do I need to heal first?

Hey love, ​ Your gut– the literal way you metabolize the outside world to create yourself. It is our lifeline to the nutrients all around us. Like so many of you, I struggled with stomach aches, bloating, and digestive issues for most of my life (I’ve yet to meet a hypermobile, sensitive feeler that doesn’t). And while my gut isn’t perfect now (unlike my husband who can travel across the globe with great bowel movements the entire time – #goals), it is light years better than ever before. And honestly, it wasn’t changing my diet that made the biggest impact. Like Danielle told me as she started to do this work, I’m “in awe that so many years of bloating can simply have been something with my breathing/mechanics.” So let’s break this down. Clinicians are starting to realize that the digestive system isn’t just about the chemical abilities of our gut, but it is the tension surrounding our gut, too. This is why when they hit a block in helping someone with digestive issues, they refer them to a Pelvic Floor PT. It turns out the tension of where we empty ourselves matters a lot in our ability to empty ourselves – makes sense right? But this is one small part of the holistic story of our gut. Our entire fascial fabric web, and the nervous system housed in that web, matters when it comes to our gut health. Now, what I’m not saying is that this work will heal everybody’s gut issues. I’ve worked with people that have extreme gut issues that this helped a bit, but was nowhere near everything they needed. But what I am saying is that this work is non-invasive, pretty cheap and has helped thousands of women have a better feeling gut. And here’s why: Learning how to keep your pelvic floor open and long improves your ability to easily release bowel movements. What I teach about learning to live with an anterior pelvic tilt made from moving the top of the thigh bones back, worked much better for me than Pelvic Floor PT. This is because changing the way you hold yourself goes beyond trying to manually release your pelvic floor muscles (they just tighten again) or heal them in the traditional “neutral” pelvic position that keeps the pelvic floor short and everything tight. (I love you Pelvic Floor PTs and know my intention is to lift us all up and make us better at helping women. I like you, was trained into thinking neutral pelvises are helpful, turns out, they aren’t!). We don’t tighten the core back here. When you’re constantly sucking the core backwards to “protect your low back” or “get rid of your mom pooch” or “connect to your deep core” you are strangulating your gut. That sounds dramatic but once you feel it, you can’t unfeel it. Your gut gets its nutrients (blood and nerve supply) through a curtain-like structure coming off the front of your back. When you tighten your core it's like bunching up this curtain and wondering why the flow decreases. This leads to feeling like you can’t digest anything well or fast (slow digestion is a main reason for bloating because there’s more time for bacteria to accumulate and make gas). This is why you can restrict all types of food (trust me i’ve cut EVERYTHING out) and still have the same symptoms (so annoying!). This work gives you more stability and control of your body in general which signals to the nervous system that we are safe and can focus on things like digesting food and pooping, instead of fighting the threat that is constant joint instability or tight muscles. Your nervous system is inside your fascia which wraps around and in between every structure of your body. When the fascia has the right tension to it, the nervous system and body work better. As always, this isn’t personalized medical advice, as maybe you’re straight up allergic to some things, but a permission slip to consider loosening your grip on food restriction and focusing your attention on how you’re holding yourself and thus you feel inside your body. With that said, the two diet changes I’ve found extremely helpful for my gut are taking magnesium (at least 300 mg and increasing it until you have perfect poos) and eating something fermented everyday. This video is a good place to start if you’re new to this work, and the diaphragmatic breathing & ribcage expansion videos in the FOUNDATIONS section of REVIVAL is where to go if you’re refining this work. ​ All my love in gut healing, Dr. Lily