Thank you all for another great CHAT-TTY Tea Time.
I'm sharing an overview of what we talked about.
Feel free to reach out with any questions.
Hope to see you next month on Wednesday, November 13th.
DIGESTION & INDIGESTION ~ THE HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE
· The word Holistic means “Whole.” When talking about any ailment, or illness from this perspective, we look at the “Whole” person. We don’t separate body parts.
The word digests from an Ayurvedic/holistic perspective means, “That which digests everything.”
Everything that we take in has to be digested. All of our 5 senses are part of our digestion process. We see food, we smell food, we touch food, we taste food, and we hear the sounds of foods. These all stimulate digestion in one way or another.
Deeper than that, we are taking in stimulation from our senses all day and that also is being digested. How that stimulation gets processed in the body, affects actual food digestion.
· From the holistic perspective, we refer to food as anything that we come in contact with. This is a far bigger concept than actual food. The people we surround ourselves with are food. Our environment is food, the seasons are food, our mood is food, our self-care is food. Everything is food and it will either nourish us or poison us.
DIGESTION FROM AN AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE
· From a western perspective digestion takes about 6-8 hours for food to process from your stomach into the small intestine. Then it enters your large intestine where it takes up to another 36 hours for further digestion and water absorption before elimination happens. This timeline is different for everyone.
· From the Ayurvedic perspective the more subtle digestive process takes around 30 days, and the ideal end result should be a quality called OJAS. This is a quality that gives us good health and longevity.
· According to Ayurveda, healthy digestion comes from balanced doshas (our physical and energetic makeup), balanced agni (digestive fire), balanced dhatus (our bodily tissues) balanced malas (our waste), as well as a well coordinated state of the self (Atma), the senses (Indriyas), and the mind (Manas).
When our digestive fire is balanced (agni) the body is able to extract the nutrients from the food, and it moves easily through the tissues and expels easily as well.
When the digestive system is compromised, we experience things like heartburn, constipation, gas, diarrhea, bloating, and many other things.
The quality of your digestion has a lot to do with your dosha type.
For example, Vata types experience erratic and/or delicate digestion. Pitta types experience firery and/or intense digestion. Kapha types experience slow and more stable digestion.
Things that can disturb digestion:
Fasting
Eating during indigestion
Eating of food not suitable for you, heavy, cold, too rough and contaminated food
Suppressing natural urges
Over-eating
Irregular eating
Things that can aid or support healthy digestion:
Drinking warm/hot water throughout the day. Starting your day with a glass of warm/hot water.
Not eating 3 hours before bedtime
Eat your biggest meal when your digestive fire is the strongest which is between 10am and 2pm
Don’t over tax your digestive system. Give it a break.
Not skipping meals, even if you have a smaller meal, but don’t skip.
Things like fresh ginger with a sprinkle of salt and juice of a lemon before meals will keep the digestive fire going.
Eat your meals quietly. Remember the digestion process is a downward movement of energy. Talking is an upward movement. This can cause an imbalance in airflow, causing indigestion.
Incorporate the 6 tastes into your food as much as you can ~ Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent, pungent
