It is vital to consider the connection between your gut and your brain when thinking about your overall health. Sometimes poor gut health can contribute to adverse mental health effects, while poor mental health can also decline your digestive health. This connection is essential to understanding why certain symptoms might arise in your daily life. In order to use this connection for positive change in our bodies we must learn to support both our digestive process and mental health individually as well as together.
How To Best Support Your Mental Health Through Daily Activities
A decline in one’s mental health can be caused by many different issues including stress, loneliness, sadness, and tragic events. While we cannot control the events that occur in our lives, learning how to best support yourself through hard times and through stressful moments is essential in maintain proper mental health.
Stress specifically can impact the balance of good bacteria in your gut and can destabilize your bowel movements. This is an example as to how certain mental issues can cause digestive issues, but luckily there are some ways to manage stress to avoid this.
Sometimes your stress levels could be due to an overwhelming amount of information being thrown at you either from the news or even at work. In order to reduce this stress you should work on finding ways to disconnect yourself from this overload of information. Since much of our information is transferred through the use if social media or a cell phone, try disconnecting from your devices for a moment and simply live in the moment either with yourself or with your loved ones.
Even though we are responsible in ensuring that we have our priorities in check, we must work to ensure our mental health is strong enough to do so. Taking the time to check in with yourself and to do the things that bring you joy will only benefit you in the long run both with stress and digestion.
Adding rituals and limits to your daily lifestyle are also a great way to ensure your mental health is in order. When we do not add small rituals here are there throughout the day that are responsible for taking care of us, then it leads to us feeling overworked and out of energy. Activities such as journaling, painting, exercising, a skin care routine, and/or medititation are all great ways to expel pent up emotions. Having a morning or evening routine can also be a great way to set limits for yourself and a great way to separate your work life from your personal life.
How To Best Support Your Digestive Health Through Daily Routines
Since we have already established that there is a connection between your digestion and mental health, we can now focus on ways to strengthen that digestive system to avoid adverse effects. In order to maintain a healthy digestive system it is important to stay consistent with your methods. This includes taking vitamins for bloating every single day.
Two of the most important digestive health and bloating supplements that you should keep on hand are a digestive enzyme supplement and a probiotic. A probiotic helps to maintain the growth of healthy bacteria that is vital to have a healthy gut, and a digestive enzyme supplement is used to help your body break down foods that are otherwise harder on the digestive process.
For convienience, our 3-step wellness routine is a great option to incorporate into your daily routine, because it contains three different vitamins including a probiotic, a vitamin that contains top rated digestive enzymes, and another vitamin that focuses on maintaing healthy energy levels/boost your metabolism.
Another great way to ensure proper digestive health is by adapting to a well-rounded diet that includes whole grains, fiber, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats/proteins. Having a routine is an essential part of sticking to a healthy diet. Meal planning and food tracking are great ways to get in tune with your body and what benefits it specifically. For example, if you are tracking how certain foods impact your system, you can identify what foods might be harmful to your digestive process and you will be able to successfully cut them out of your diet.
Not only is a healthy diet crucial to a healthy digestive system, but it also works to maintain your mental health. A well-balanced diet can help you think more clearly/alert, which is an essential tool to have especially when you are trying to handle potentially stressful situations.
Why Exercise is a Great Way to Support Both Digestion and Your Mental Health
One of the best ways to simultaneously help your digestive system and your mental health is by getting out and exercising. Moving your body helps to release feel-good endorphins in your system and can release any built up energy you might be keeping in your body. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed with emotions — specifically stress or anxiety — exercising can help your body release these emotions leaving you feeling not only physically stronger but mentally lighter.
Exercising helps your digestive system, because physical movement helps to increase the blood flow to your muscles including the ones in your digestive system. These muscles are responsible for helping to move the subtstances you consume throughout your digestive tract. When physical movement increase the blood flow in your muscles it helps your muscles move the food more quickly leading to quicker bowel movements. Exercise also to helps maintain a healthy balance of bacteria in your gut which is essential in not disturbing the health of your digestive process and other bodily functions.
Yoga specifically is a great option for exercising because it contains both mental values as well as the fact that certain yoga poses have been known to help with digestive ailments. Yoga can be a great way to strengthen your body and mind while also relieving you of digestive discomfort.
To summarize, it is vital to understand the connection between your mental health and your digestive health, as well as why both should be maintained through consistent dedication to healthy habits in order to avoid unwelcome issues.