Digesting Life

By Vishali,

Author of You Are What You Love

Ever wonder why the body holds onto some forms of waste and toxins and releases others? Ever wonder why some people can eat foods that make others ill? How can that happen? The truth is, digestion is a metaphor, as well as a physically based reality. How well our body is (or is not) digesting food is a reflection of the bigger picture: how well are we digesting our lives, our thoughts, emotions, experiences and perceptions? What toxic energy are we holding onto perceptually and emotionally, that our bodies, by way of dis-ease and illness, are reflecting back to us? What are we inviting ourselves to let go of internally - both psychologically, as well as, physiologically? What is it that our bodies cannot separate from, because the mind has formed an attachment to? In the flow of life, what are we holding onto, because we do not understand what is enhancing and what is diminishing? What are we eating, versus what is eating us? What are we mindlessly consuming, and what are we consuming mindfully?

We can become aware of what our unconscious issues are by examining what the digestive process is reflecting back to us, forcing us to feel the limitation of it.

Where in our body do we feel we have stuffed something we do not trust mentally or emotionally? Is it in the gut? Remember, digestion is a metaphor for how well we are swallowing, stomaching and nurturing our human experience with all the universal food we consume on a moment-to-moment basis.

In the West, we define digestion as starting with the mouth, chewing and mixing with saliva, then swallowing. The Eastern philosophies say that digestion starts when we see the food, when we smell the food, when we touch it with our fingers.

How many times have we told ourselves while driving home that we were not hungry, only to open the front door, smell dinner cooking, and have the stomach start to rumble? How many times have we driven to the grocery store when we were not hungry, then, as we walked up and down the isles, touching the fruits and veggies, we found ourselves ready to eat everything in our shopping cart, along with all the impulse items at checkout? And let’s not forget about Pavlov’s law! How many of us were not hungry until we heard the dinner bell…as in the sound of bacon frying, bagels popping out of a toaster, dinner plates clanging? We can clearly see from this part of the metaphor, that digestion starts not only at a perceptual level, but also at any level that involves the five senses.

That is why digestion of life happens when we give something our attention, when we touch something, or when we experience something with any or all our senses. We start digesting our day even before we smell the coffee brewing. Speaking of smelling the coffee, ever noticed that the olfactory part of digestion is always the most satisfying? How many times have we walked into an establishment, smelled freshly ground coffee only to find it tasted so bitter we couldn’t drink it?

In the same way that the brain digests our thoughts and beliefs, and the nervous system digests what we feel on a tactile level, our internal organs, in addition to having a physical food-related function, also digest our emotions.

According to the Eastern system of medicine, each internal organ has a specific emotional food, digestive, transformative process. For example:

• The spleen, stomach and pancreas digest anxiety, worry, and nervousness. That is why we get “butterflies” in the stomach when anticipating or perceiving something involving stress.

• The liver and gallbladder take on anger, rage, envy, and frustration.

• The heart and small intestines digest impatience.

• The kidneys and bladder deal with fear and terror.

• The lungs and large intestines have the task of breaking down loneliness, sadness and grief, as well as low self-esteem issues and feeling of worthlessness.