Dealing with years of digestive pain, I definitely found tricks and tips of how to soothe an upset tummy. And while I am no longer in constant pain now, I find that when I want to feel adventurous or test out a food on my digestive tract, these tricks still come in handy.

So when you first feel a twinge of pain, ate too much, ate something you know your sensitive to but just couldn't resist (it happens!) here are some tricks you can try to bring your tummy back into balance.

1. Digestive Enzymes- I don't always suggest digestive enzymes as I have seen a lot of individuals dealing with digestive troubles begin to rely on them and get hooked on them. This leads the body to think that it doesn't have to work so hard producing digestive enzymes so getting off of them can be difficult if you're eating multiple at every meal. But, this handy supplement can support a troubled digestive tract for a short amount of time or an evening. When you find you have eaten a large amount of food or something just isn't sitting quite right, digestive enzymes can be an aid to boost your digestive power to break something down in your stomach that is having a hard time digesting.

2. Apple cider vinegar- ACV really just is a cure all for so many ailments. I have read so many articles recently on just how wonderful ACV truly is for our body. Often times, acid reflux or difficulties digesting a high protein meal can actually mean that you need more acid in your stomach to break down your food (not less, throw out those Tums!). Putting a 1 tsp-tbsp. of ACV diluted in a glass of water and sipping it before or after a meal can add some acid power to your stomach to help break down a meal and diminish any pain. You can even add a few drops of liquid stevia to it to make a refreshing drink. Yum!

3. Ginger- Ginger tea, ginger root, ginger capsules, ginger syrup. There are many ways to get your ginger in. Ginger stimulates the digestive system to produce more enzymes to facilitate digestion. It also helps stimulate more bile production, which can aid in making any digestive pain go away by increasing your ability to break down your food. When I travel abroad I take ginger capsules with me and they work fairly quickly in helping with a digestive woe. You can also make sure you have some ginger tea with you or if you're home break out some ginger root and start chewing. I would just suggest to stay away from ginger chews with the added sugar; the sugar takes away from the benefits of the ginger.

4. Deep breathing- Much of the time digestive pains can be due to trapped gas from possibly eating too fast. When I was going through the worst of my digestive troubles, you could often find me face down, lying on the carpet breathing into my belly. Deep belly breathing can begin to relax the muscles of your stomach switching your whole body into a relaxation response, which is what is needed to turn on digestion. When you're going through any kind of digestive upset, try to remember to breath through it. The added thoughts of "Ow, this hurts, I wish this would go away, why is this happening" causes the body to tighten even more which can in turn worsen the pain. Try lying on the ground, placing your hands on your belly, and just focusing on watching the rise and fall of your belly and feeling the support of the floor beneath you. This too shall pass.

5.  Activated Charcoal- Speaking of trapped gas....activated charcoal will be your little miracle worker. It will bind and absorb to any chemicals or gas or whatever it is that is upsetting your stomach thus diminishing the stress being put on your digestive tract and decreasing pain. Just make sure that if you're taking any medications to take this away from your medications as it will decrease the efficiency of your medications being absorbed as well. Its powerful stuff!

Just remember to add in some extra self love when you're going through any digestive pain. Loving yourself up through the process of learning what does and does not work for your body will help you to move forward from any digestive and eating experience with so much compassion and patience for your unique journey living in a body.

I would love to hear from you! What have you found has worked to help you when you're having a digestive upset?

I find more and more these days my clients are finding they are sensitive to the foods they are eating every day.

Eating the foods we are sensitive to can cause low grade inflammation in the body and cause all sorts of bodily and emotional distress.

Watch this episode of Gut Guru and learn about how you can spot and identify a food sensitivity without all sorts of medical or blood testing (which can sometimes miss the foods we are sensitive to anyways).

Have you discovered any food sensitivities? How did you learn from your body around what foods did not work for you? I would love to hear about your experience discovering and learning from the foods you have found simply don't digest well in your unique system!

I get really excited about things.  Ethan, my boyfriend, often compares me to a dog when I get really excited because I can't contain myself.  I want to pounce on the opportunity, the conversation, the situation.  I get so wrapped up in the moment that I can forget about waiting my turn to speak and being patient with my surroundings.

Furthermore, I grew up in a family where I am the youngest of 3 and the only girl.  So I constantly felt like I had to interrupt to be heard over two very entertaining and loud brothers.  This continues to show up in my life now. 

I try to be kind and compassionate with myself when I notice I am getting super excited and want to speak when it is not my turn or feeling the urge to interrupt someone else to make sure I get my point across.  I'll admit, this is a constant practice for me, both to pause and take a breath and to be kind and compassionate toward myself.  But, something that has helped (besides talking to myself to either calm myself down or tell my inner child that they will be heard eventually) is to start to focus on what the other person is saying.

I teach my clients that we are not just nourished by what we are eating but also by our surroundings and environment.  A conversation can satiate you just the same way a meal can when you are really hungry.  When we slow down, not just with our meals, but with our friends and family we get the chance to enjoy their company and truly listen to what they are saying.  When we sit and listen to what someone else has to say we can then process that information easier and digest that experience thoroughly because we were truly present and not in our heads thinking about the next things that we want to say.

Greek Philosopher Epictetus said: We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

When I am able to listen with both my ears, my excitement does not diminish but it gets contained; it becomes more manageable in the moment so that I can stay present with myself and those around me.  This feels more nourishing in the end.  When we are able to be nourished and satiated by our conversation with others, we feel connected to our surroundings and thus more connected to ourselves. 

This week on Gut Guru we talk about Bio-individuality.  This term basically means: "There’s no one-size-fits-all diet – each person is a unique individual with highly individualized nutritional requirements. Personal differences in anatomy, metabolism, body composition and cell structure all influence your overall health and the foods that make you feel your best. That’s why no single way of eating works for everyone. The food that is perfect for your unique body, age, and lifestyle may make another person gain weight and feel lethargic."

Watch.  Enjoy.  Engage with the challenges and let me know how they go!

I have always judged myself on how often my mind goes off into la la land and who ever is around me usually has to ask me where I went off to or if I'm alright.  As I grow older and come to terms with my little quirks, I am able to laugh at myself more and more.  These days when I go off into my intellectual musings in my head, I have begun to actually speak them out loud and I have seen that when I give my mind a voice and I get to hear what it is speaking, my mind sounds completely ridiculous!

We as humans try and keep our lives very private (and I am aware this is a far generalization) yet even those that lay it all out on the table for everyone to see make others feel very uncomfortable.  It is this silence that tears us apart as a civilization.  Without open and honest communication we all can project our feelings, prejudices, and vulnerabilities onto each other and assume things that really we don't know.  I feel as though if we were all more open about how we function that we could begin to understand that we truly cannot compare human beings to one another.

What works for me, will not work for you.  And I mean this in every aspect of life.  My ability to be a space cadet and still be aware of what is happening around me helps me to function in this crazy world, yet I know many people who would go off into la la land and never come back.  There are so many things on this earth that we do not understand on the mental plane.  And as people we want comprehension so bad that when we need an explanation our minds will make something up just to find relief in an answer.  How often have you gotten emotional over a current circumstance only to realize later that the situation sparked an old wound within yourself that had nothing to do with the present moment?  Or have you ever sat around a group of people and started to think they were better than you and your mind began spinning off all these things that were "wrong" with you?

We are all gifts just the way we are.  An astrologer friend of mine is helping me begin to see that our souls chose our bodies for a reason, chose our families for a reason, that everything going on in our life is there to teach us something.  We constantly ask in our heads what we are doing wrong instead of searching and tapping into our felt sensation in our bodies for what we are doing right!  The way you function is individual to you and it is just a matter of getting out of judgment and into cultivating appreciation and self acceptance and humor for all your beautiful uniqueness.  No one can eat like you do.  Even if you binge on food every single night the next morning you can wake up and laugh at yourself.  Instead of beating yourself up, which only causes more stress within the body which no one needs in this society today, you can look at yourself in the mirror and laugh.

Your relationship with food is a wonderful teacher.  This relationship can be viewed like a peal in your hand.  Hold it too loose and it falls out of your hand, hold it too tight and you may crush it, but hold the pearl in your hand just right and you can begin to see its beauty.  When we look at our relationship with food we can see how it correlates with how we do everything else in life; how we approach our career, our intimate relationships, our family, our friends....and if you feel as though your relationship is not serving your highest self expression the first step is still coming into awareness of what you and you and your food have together.

Coming to terms that I am an individual has helped me to count on myself more.  I cannot ask anyone else what to do or eat anymore because it is really, truly only me and my body that knows the answers to any questions.  When we stop comparing ourselves to our external environment we begin to listen to ourselves internally; and then we can receive some pretty profound answers.  These answers can be an aid pointing you in the direction of where your soul's true intentions lie and can help you begin to love you and all your quirks.

A third solar eclipse is about to happen on Friday July 1st; the third one to happen, which is very rare.  A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between earth and the sun, totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth.  So what does this mean for us exactly and why should you even care?  Think about the fact that the power of the moon can change the waves of a tide.  Now in some organisms, up to 90% of their body weight comes from water. Up to 60% of the human body is water, the brain is composed of 70% water, and the lungs are nearly 90% water. Lean muscle tissue contains about 75% water by weight, as is the brain; body fat contains 10% water and bone has 22% water.  Needless to say we are mostly made of water so the moon will ultimately have a very powerful affect on us as well.

Plus the fact that this Friday is also a New Moon, which means new energy and a good time to start new endeavors.  When an eclipse is taking place dramatic things can happen and emotions can be heightened.  So if you are having an emotional week or Friday things just blow up in your face, there are larger factors at play here.  Astrology fascinates me as it reminds me to: 1. come back to self acceptance of who I am because I was born with a blueprint and it is just a matter of getting to know me instead of trying to change me and 2. it brings the awareness that most things in life can not be explained with a simple answer....there are many factors working at the same time all the time.

So often I find myself wanting answers and understanding why I do the things I do or why my digestive tract suddenly starts acting up when I mentally feel nothing has changed.  Yet, things are changing all the time: our relationships, jobs, for women where they are in their cycle, our energy can wax and wane depending upon the thoughts going through our head.  And then there are the bigger things that we consciously don't stay awake to: the sun, the moon, where the stars are, the cycles of the earth, the season, the weather, the energy being emitted from our wireless router, our computer, the telephone wires, our cell phones.  All these things affect us.  Ever sat in front of the computer for a really long time and just got more and more tired.  It is not just because you are working so hard, or blinking less as you stare at the screen, but the energy that is being emitted from your computer can be toxic to your body.

So what is the message here?  We can't walk around in fear all day thinking about all the things that could be affecting us (trust me I've spent a day or two like that and I did not get a lot accomplished that day needless to say).  It is a matter of coming back to earth, coming back to the ground.  It is about lying on your floor and staring at the ceiling and walking barefoot in the park to connect back with the earth's natural energy, which is ultimately soothing and healing.  When life or emotions get stirred up how can you nourish yourself to come back to the stillness that resides within you?  How can you ride the wave of your own emotions and watch yourself from the outside like a curious observer?

It is not an easy thing to do, but the more you can completely empty yourself and get out of the thoughts of who you think you are or should be and accept what is, you can root your energy and presence back into the present moment.

P.S- this Friday...stay close to earth and it will help you connect back to your smiling heart.

I once saw on a poster: "Remember you are unique, just like everybody else."  I laughed out loud, but secretly I could feel the hurt pride of my ego.  For me, there has always been a wish and a hope that I was unique and I had special gifts to bring to this planet.  The conundrum of this thought is that on another level I consistently wish for communion, a feeling of togetherness, and that I am not a lone island.  This has had me explore the difference between the messages from the mind and the messages from the body.  The mind, I often feel, is where our ego lies.  It tells us what we want to hear or what we want to believe or what we desire.  It is our mind that often tells us I really want chocolate cake or sugar or ice cream or chips; it tells us we deserve these things, especially on hard and stressful days.  On a body level, our bodies remind us that we are never alone.  We are connected to ourselves every moment, even when we are not consciously aware.  We are connected to really everyone and everything.  When we exhale the trees/ the earth inhales and when the earth exhales we breath it in.  It is our body that tells us what will nourish us on a more profound and deeper level.  It will tell us whether we need vegetables, protein, what kind, how it wants it cooked or not cooked and it will be very specific about its desires and all we have to do is slow down and listen.

Beyond food though, our bodies will tell us when food is not the form of nourishment that we need.  When we get out of the ego and the mind, we tap into deep desires of perhaps needing a hug, a touch, connection, understanding, a deeper understanding of ourselves.  How is your body being fed by your relationships? your spirituality? your physical exercise? And I am not going to say something like it is all a matter of finding balance; I stopped believing in balance a long time ago as I am someone who lives (as my mother likes to say) on the outliers.  I feel it is a matter of slowing down, coming back to the breath, and viewing life with child's eyes of curiosity, especially in the moments when we feel "out of balance."  How can we sit with the feeling, the sensation of being out of balance (whatever that means or feels like to you) and get out of the ego of the mind that we shouldn't be there.

When we tap back into the body and stick with description of just what is then we begin to get out of the need to be unique and different than everyone else and there comes a realization that we are all one.  When you help someone else, you are also helping yourself. When you reach out into the world the world will reach back to you.  It is all a matter of our own perspective.  We can view ourselves as being an "over extender" or we can view every action we make as an offering back to ourselves.  I have been told too many times this past year of my life that I don't focus on myself enough.  I'm not even truly sure what this means exactly because, for me, when I am helping someone else out or being present and holding space for another individual I am learning so much about myself and life in the process that I feel being in relationship with others allows me to come into a deeper relationship with myself.

How have you discovered the different and often contrasting messages from the body and the mind?  And what have you done in those moments when you are not sure which one to trust?