The gut and microbiome
Contents:
1. A magical thinking approach to our gut health:
2. Things that we do that affect our belly's happiness
3. Diversity PSA
4. Herbs that can make your belly a much happier place:
5. Exercises/ different things to help make your belly happy
1. A magical thinking approach to our gut health:
Have you ever walked into someone’s house and just felt like you just don’t like? It might be perfectly nice, and they might love it, but its missing some fundamental aspect that makes a living space feel good to you. It could be too noisy, or it could be too bright, or it might not be cozy enough, or it could feel too open. They might like scents in the air that you don’t like. And they might have decorated it differently to how you would. But you walk in, and you just feel like you don’t want to spend much time there.
Conversely, sometimes you walk into a space and want to move right in. The space feels good. There’s enough air flow and the furniture looks inviting and even the art on the walls is art you’d like. It feels good to be there.
If both people invited you for a sleepover, you’d probably choose to stay at the place that felt good to you, right?
And when it comes to finding a place to live, you’d start to look for places within your budget that have certain things that are important to you. Like light. Or space. Or whether there’s air conditioning.
And when it comes to finding friends, have you noticed that you’re drawn to certain types of people? Do you prefer people who are kind? Or people who are witty? Or people who are interesting? Or people with a dark humour streak? Or people who you can call and talk about your problems with? You often know within minutes of meeting someone whether you like them or not. There are also character traits that you avoid. And none of these character traits, for you to like or dislike them, need to be universally accepted as ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Which is to say that we all have personal preferences, and those preferences are generally guided by how we feel around these elements or people, or spaces. And nothing can really change our preferences: you can’t replace ‘love of chocolate’ with ‘love of broccoli’ and derive the same pleasure from broccoli, if chocolate is your jam.
Now that I’ve spent ages stating the obvious, I’ll get onto the real reason I brought all of this up: the microbiome.
Within our bodies, we house colonies of microbes that as individuals are just cells, but all together make up a giant organism called the human microbiome. This microbiome is unique to each individual human, and is comprised of a variety of microorganisms that all live in harmony with each other. It covers every area of exposed skin, from our digestive tracts, to our skin, to, if you have one, inside your vagina.
And this microbiome does amazing things: it helps us to digest foods; helps to draw nutrients from foods; helps to protect our membranes from invading pathogens. It helps to produce neurotransmitters; and certain types of bacteria are even correlated with different personality traits, behaviours, and moods.
Which is to say that the types of bacteria that make up the microbiome of our bodies are important, because they determine so much about how we feel in the world, both in terms of our emotional outlook, and also how healthy our bodies feel.
Because humans are very clever, we think ‘well if X bacteria exist in the bodies that look and feel the way we ‘should’ all want to feel, then we can single out those organisms, and put them in capsules, and then put them in bottles, and then sell them to people who will take them, and then through taking them will transform into the types of people who have these organisms in their bodies.
Clever, right?
Except, studies have shown that when we take probiotics, they don’t always stick around. And that changing the microbial content of our bodies is way more difficult than just taking a probiotic every day (wouldn’t it be nice if all our problems could change with a single pill?).
I have a wild, wild thought:
What if our bodies and entire beings are the environments that our resident wee beasties choose? What if, these little beings, who all have their own preferences, are introduced to a place and then go ‘this is PERFECT. I am going to stay here.’ Or ‘yeugh, this place has too much blood flow, I am moving on.’ What if all of the things that make us ourselves are the things that make certain microbes want to move in, or move on, or build an impenetrable biofilm fortress.
And I know its hard to fathom sometimes because we don’t so much enjoy changing ourselves, but what if, in order to change our bacterial/ fungal composition, we actually have to change all the things that make up the environment that make them want to stay or go. In other words, what if the ‘self’ you know as yourself, and the ‘self’ that is your microbiome, are basically one and the same. And that in order to change one, you also need to change the other?
Haven’t jumped ship and unsubscribed because I’m way too out-there? Ok cool, let’s take a deeper look at some of the things that create the environment within our bodies.
2. Things that we do that affect our belly happiness
All of these different elements are interconnected, as you’ll see: it’s hard to talk about one area without veering into another. That’s because the categories are somewhat arbitrary: I’ve tried to pull out some of the different aspects of the things that make us US, and describe them, but the big picture is really just this connected mass of things we do that are all caused by, reliant on, and affected by each other. The fun thing about this is that because it is all interconnected, when you affect one area, you affect all, and vice-versa. So none of these things require a complete overhaul multi-step-intricate plan (*looks at all the Hermiones in the crowd*), but just a gentle exploration. If I might be so bold as to present an approach plan: if something sounds interesting, or exciting, or like it’d be playful or fun, explore that.
Nervous system/ stress/ trauma:
I cannot emphasize enough how much and deeply the state of our nervous systems affect our gut health. A high stress, or even moderately stressed state, over time, will keep your blood flow and energy directed to your musculature, so that you can run/ fight; and away from your belly, where the digestion happens. This is why its so important to have a systemic approach to the body: if the discomfort is in the belly, then it’s easy to just want to throw herbs and therapies at the area that’s experiencing the discomfort, but the vast majority of the time with GI stuff, there’s a nervous system component to it too, and that component can be small, or it can actually be the cause of the entire thing. For example, I’ve seen cases of leaky gut clear up entirely through healing underlying trauma responses (I think because the GI tract was finally getting the energy it needed to repair itself regularly). If there is underlying trauma (this trauma could be physical, emotional, a major stress, or chemical), then its sorta going to be like trying to stick a band aid over a dripping pipe when then actual cause is that the pressure is too high (did my plumbing analogy work?!).
To be clear: if there is trauma at the root of gut issues, it’s not that the trauma happened that is the issue. It’s not that there’s no hope if there’s trauma in a person’s life, and that the event, whatever it was, has made irreversible changes. That would be sad and horrific. It’s the *response* to the trauma that has become a pattern in the nervous system, and usually becomes some form of hyper-vigilance for years afterwards. What happened can’t be changed, but the response can. See below for some herbs that can affect the nervous system, and consider a healing modality that addresses and helps to release or re-route trauma responses.
This is the primary thing to address in part because it’s often the root of gut issues, but also, in part, because for many people, the stress/ hypervigilant state is so ingrained that attempting other changes can sometimes backfire/ cause reactions. We are very, very good at protecting ourselves, which can be both an amazing skill and a hindrance at times.
Posture/ tension patterns:
Where we hold tension in our bodies determines where blood, lymph, and nutrients flow.
Our posture/ tension patterns can affect how we breathe, by restricting the movement of our diaphragms. It can affect the flow of lymph (let’s say you have really tight shoulders, neck and/or jaw), which can impede the flow of lymph all around the body. The way we spend our time and use our bodies can also do this thing that happens a lot, where the front line of the body becomes very over-active (think, tight hip flexors, tight diaphragm, tight SCM muscles and jaw), and the back line stops connecting so well (think, under-active glutes, under-active lats). And this will lead to further hunching. Or that thing where people try to prop their chests up by popping their ribs out to look as if they are standing up straight. Tension in various areas impedes blood and lymph flow, and in turn how nutrients are delivered to areas, and how waste products are removed from areas. If we hold tension in our bellies, then gut motility is also impaired, which means digestion will be more sluggish in general.
Things you might not know:
Holding your belly in is terrible both for your posture and your digestion. I know, we are told to suck it in all the time, but it’s actually bad for you. Not only that but it perpetuates a beauty ideal that is silly (Look! I cannot breathe properly! How sexy am I?!).
Breath:
The free, unimpeded movement of the diaphragm affects processes in our bodies that are really important for digestion. Lymph, for example, is moved by the pumping of the diaphragm. The liver works better when it is massaged by diaphragmatic movement, and tension in the sides of the diaphragm can impede blood flow to the liver… and the liver is sorta all about the blood that flows through it.
If one holds a lot of tension in the diaphragm, then the diaphragm isn’t going to expand fully upon breathing, which means it won’t be pushing down onto the gut, or pushing the belly muscles out. The entire digestive tract is sorta massaged by this motion: its free-movement and soft receptiveness is so important both for the enteric nervous system AND for the actual movement of food through your digestive tract.
Our breath also affects our nervous systems: deep belly breathing is a quick short-circuit into a more relaxed, digestion-focused state of being. The breath is the only way that we have to directly affect the nervous system within our own bodies (ie. For some weird reason, being told to ‘calm down’ doesn’t work?). So we can use it more. Breathe into your belly, and allow the breath to become natural there. THIS BOOK is also great. https://www.amazon.com/How-Breathe-Simple-Practices-Resilience/dp/0399582711/ref=asc_df_0399582711/
Mood:
Try something for me: let yourself hunch forwards. Let your belly contract and your shoulders round and your head drop forwards a bit. How do you feel here? How ready to face the day? How capable to take the world head-on?
Now do something different: Raise your arms up and out to the sides. Look up. GRIN AS WIDE AS YOU CAN. Lift the center of your chest up to the sky. How does that feel?
Our mood and emotional outlook is often based more on patterns than what is actually happening in physical reality. Have you ever noticed how your life has an emotional ‘flavour’ to it? If you’re anxious a lot, then the world looks scary often (even if this fear isn’t necessarily based in observable data: I am, for example, terrified of flying, but drive very fast, when statistically my fears should probably be reversed if mortality is my issue). If you’re angry a lot then the world pisses you off more (try driving in LA at 5pm on a Friday, for example :P). If you’re sad often, then you see sadness everywhere. But these things aren’t the *only* things happening in the world: not everybody is an idiot; there isn’t only destruction happening; not everything can kill you. So the emotional state and reality are actually two separate things (despite the fact that we’re raised to believe that our emotional state is a reflection of, or is caused by the world around us).
And have you noticed that when you feel a certain way, you gravitate towards certain foods? What foods do you crave when you’re sad? What foods do you crave when anxious? What foods do you want to eat when you’re bubbling with happiness? When you feel good about yourself, what foods interest you? This isn’t a call for universal judgement on different foods: I have no idea what things sound good to you at different times. And, have you noticed how food can sit in your belly and not move if you eat when anxious, and how sometimes you can eat things that normally wouldn’t make you feel great but you’re so happy that you do it anyway and you’re actually fine? What we are feeling affects our physiological processes.
It affects the things we want to do, the things we want to eat, the information we want to digest, the way we interact with the world, and our posture. BUT, these things also, in turn, affect our mood. So it doesn’t matter which direction you approach it from: change your mood first, or change what you’re doing first, but both can have a really significant change on how you (and your belly) feel in the world.
Movement:
We all know that movement is good for us. But the type of movement that is good is different for all of us, depending on our stress levels, where we are in our lives, time of day, etc. For some of us a heavy weights workout is a stress-relief, where for others it actually creates stress in the body. Same for running. Same for hiking. Same for dancing. Etc. All of these things that we are told that are objectively good for us and that we ‘should’ be doing more are not necessarily good for us at all if they create more stress. Have you ever forced yourself to do your regular work out when you’re not feeling great and are over-stressed and haven’t eaten well and are tired? Does it feel good? I don’t mean the satisfaction of sticking to your plan no matter what, but in your body: does it feel good to force your body past its own limits? If so, cool, carry on. If not, then why not switch it up?
The best thing I ever heard from a physiotherapist I saw a couple of years ago, when I had a hip injury, because I was training 3 hours of dance a day, was that I am not a professional and have no need to train that much. I argued with him, of course, because that’s what I do when I have a plan and someone wants to deter me from it. But he explained some things: professionals build their entire lives around training. They eat to train, and sleep to train, and don’t usually have other jobs that require a lot of them, and if they did, their goals are to be at peak performance so its worth it. But for those of us with jobs, families, lives, the performance isn’t the goal; LIFE is the goal. So what kind of movement feels good, and supports life?
What kind of movement, for you, supports life? What makes you feel better after you’re done? What helps you breathe more deeply and feel more supported and relaxed after? Sometimes that’s going to be something intense like a vigorous hike, or a run, or weights. But other times it might be a gentle walk. It might be dancing your tiredness into expression. It could be restorative yoga.
And here’s a top tip: if you’re able to breathe deeply and evenly through your nose while you’re doing it, then your body is still calm. If you start breathing through your mouth, then you’re in a stress state. Sometimes it helps to be in a stress state, or express excess tension through something vigorous. But if your belly is off, be it temporarily or long-term, think of doing things that are calming (see above about the nervous system :P).
3. PSA on diversity
As the diversity of the ecosystems that we live in diminish, and the diversity of our food supply shrinks to about 12 foods, the diversity of the bacteria that live within our bodies also shrinks in size.
And yet, diversity, within the ecosystem, within our bodies (and within society!) is key to a healthy functioning system. Bodies and ecosystems that have a lack of diversity in the microbiome tend to get sicker more, and have a harder time fighting off foreign pathogens. (And I think a society that lacks diversity ends up in poverty, too. Maybe not financial poverty (though maybe yes?), but poverty of culture, poverty of ideas, poverty of the joy of connecting and learning, poverty of that moment where someone ‘other’ becomes familiar and our sense of self expands as a result.)
But also, ecosystems that start having ecological die-off don’t start and end with one species. One species dying out leads to other species, that relied on the first, dying out, and this effect amplifies over time, as more and more species leave, or die out entirely. An example of this is in a small inland sea that I used to sail to with my dad, where there used to be sea horses. The sea horses used to eat jellyfish. We used to swim and see sea horses and jellyfish. But the conditions in the sea changed and the sea horses started disappearing, then one year we went, and the sea was full of jellyfish. There were millions of them— these non-stinging, tiny little jellyfish. You couldn’t swim without them brushing over your body. It was eerie, and sad.
Have you ever noticed that when you have to start eliminating foods, it rarely ends at one? Eliminate gluten and pretty soon there are other substances that you can’t digest well. And after a while you are searching for culprits everywhere. Elimination diets are rampant, but they remain a last resort for me when working with people. Because diversity of experience is essential for the health of our bodies, psyches, and bellies.
Eating seasonally is great for the body for many reasons, one being that the foods that come up at certain times of the year tend to be GREAT for us at that time of year. Watermelon in the hottest days of summer? Root vegetables in winter? Greens in spring? They sound good, right? The added benefit of eating more seasonally is that your body is given a diversity of foods, which in turn requires a diversity of bacteria to digest. The more diverse our diet, the more diverse the bacteria that share our intestinal spaces, and the healthier we are as a whole. But deeper than that, have you ever noticed how much we tend to close off to new people and experiences as we age? And as humans age, we get dryer, more rigid, less flexible in our bodies too. It might be great in terms of efficiency and ‘having what we want’ to get to control our environments to the point where we are only exposed to the things we like/ agree with/ want, but it’s not necessarily good for our *souls*. Or our long-term health. Or our mental flexibility, and neuroplasticity.
So switch things up. Not just the foods you eat, but the way that you eat them. Switch up the places you go. Expose yourself to more people, more cultures, more different types of foods. Choose diversity, and new things on occasion. It’s better for your brain, your belly, your psyche, AND for society as a whole :).
4. Herbs that can make your belly a much happier place:
Bitters
Bitters drag our awareness into our bodies, into our bellies, our guts, and return our attention to our gut instincts. There's the sensory aspect of bitters, like with aromatics, where you are dragged into your body awareness through your senses (GAK! BITTER!) but there's also the physical action of it: stress states put more energy into our nervous systems and brains, because we are panicking and looking for solutions to the danger. That energy that's shunted to our nervous systems has to come from somewhere, and it usually comes from our digestive processes. You've heard about how we are either in a fight/flight/freeze state or in a rest/digest state? That's what happens here. Stress (and TIME is a stressor) diverts energy away from digestion. We can divert energy BACK to digestion, and in the process, it helps convert our stress state to calm, present and aware.
Bitter herbs that are lovely:
Citrus peel
Artichoke leaf
With both of these you can put the fresh or dried herb in a mug and make a simple tea; or make a simple and delicious tincture with vodka.
The COOL thing about bitters is that you can make bitters from anything, and there are so many amazing bitters blends out there from herbalists, so you can take bitters that also have other effects in the body.
So, if you have a tendency to become disembodied, or disassociate when stressed, try damiana bitters.
If you get stressed out very easily, want to stay more even-keeled, cultivate more joy, keep your immune system healthy, and your nervous system calm and supple, try tulsi bitters.
If you tend towards overheating and emotional lability, try rose bitters.
If you tend towards irritability, digestive stagnation, try lavender citrus bitters.
If you love deliciousness and heart-warming, heart-opening brightness, try cacao bitters.
And if you want something subtly warming, smoky, pine-y, try smoked bourbon bitters.
Demulcents:
Demulcents are really useful if you tend towards dryness and irritation. But the dryness is really key here: there are plenty of digestive processes that need moisture to be able to function well: think of the mucous membranes of the body as if they are one giant organism, and how if they’re too moist, then they’re likely to get boggy, or prone to infection, but if they lack moisture, then they will also be weak, because the moisture in our membranes acts as a protective barrier, preventing pathogens from getting into the body. The moisture also keeps the membranes pliable (think of how easily your skin cracks when its dry). If you tend towards dryness, you’ll know it: your skin will be dry, and your eyes will dry out easily, and your boogers will tend to be more cement-like, and you might marvel at people who can blow their noses easily. And when you go to the loo, it’ll be more like rabbit droppings than anything satisfying. Sounds like you? Get some demulcents in thee, stat. I’ve seen people visibly relax on drinking a strong marshmallow infusion: like the body tension is the result of being so dry and irritated, and when that moisture hits mucous membrane, the relief is palpable.
My favourite demulcents are below. and you can find a really good list of demulcent herbs, HERE on Rosalee's website-- scroll down to 'D' and find her list of demulcents.
Asparagus racemosa // Shatavari root
Juicy. This is the word that comes to mind when thinking about shatavari. Some people might have issues with the word juicy (I'm personally more grossed out by the word 'moist'), so I apologise for using it so many times in one short sentence but it perfectly describes shatavari's action in the body. A classic and quintessential 'yin' tonic, shatavari gets the body in touch with the deep, moist (gak!) forest aspects of our own bodies. For those of us who tend to be fiery and driven, who prefer to 'do' than to 'be', who need to be moving forwards constantly, and who are (and this is key) a bit exhausted by this, try shatavari. Most people who have this 'fire' pattern constitutionally are utterly fine like that, but there are many of us for whom that fire is just a layer and what's underneath that layer is a slow loris dying to be given attention, and the space to soak in the world around it. It's called a 'female' herb, something that grates on my nerves almost in the way a pink bic does, because really, are we not past this idea of gender binaries yet? But, there is a set of principles in the universe that tend to be more moist (GAK!), receptive, slow, passive, reflective. In Chinese medicine the word 'yin' is used but here in the west we don't have a word for it and call it 'feminine'. We all contain it, we all have access to it, and we all use it, it's just that in society it's not really seen as a good thing to be any of these things, so we train ourselves to hide it and find our energy elsewhere. If you're the type of person for whom this 'feminine' energy is your primary fuel source, getting in touch with it and learning to operate from that place is going to be of immense importance to you, lest you burn out horribly and start to hate life. Shatavari does that. Slow, moistening, nutritive, nurturing. It increases milk supply (if you are in need of milk), it increases energy flow to the depths of the body, and in doing so helps digestive processes, and reproductive processes, and all of the stuff that our body doesn't have time to focus on when we shunt all our energy to our nervous systems to 'get more stuff done'. One of the side effects of this balancing is that people feel calmer, more grounded, balanced, happier, and more loving.
Read more: Asia Suler's article
Found in: Maple + Roots, Tulsi + Ashwagandha Chai
Althaea officinalis // Marshmallow
Marshmallow is easily found, and one of the best mucilaginous herbs out there. Cooling, and moistening, it's brilliant for over-heated, irritated, dried out mucous membranes. It also has a really mild flavour, that's easy to add things to, and easy to drink in large quantities.
To use: try an infusion for either shatavari, marshmallow, or both in combination. There are specific measurements out there in the world, but you can always try the stress-free BEKKA METHOD (tm): Take a small handful of herb, and throw it in the bottom of a jar (quart or half gallon). Boil some water, fill the jar, and then leave to steep for at least 2 hours but until it cools is preferable. After a discussion with some of my favourite boffins on Facebook, it has been decided that marshmallow's mucilage is best extracted over a long period of time. And contrary to popular belief, it gets even more slimy when boiling water is used :D.
Carminatives
Carminatives warm and stimulate the digestive tract. Think of all your favourite spices, and I am *pretty* sure they are all carminative-- ginger, cardamom, all-spice, clove, cinnamon. Adding them to your foods makes your foods easier to digest, and drinking them in tea after meals helps with your digestion. If you're prone to bloating, gassiness, and indigestion, try bitters and a carminative tea and see if that helps.
Nervines
To be honest, this is my favourite/ most important category for a happy belly :). If the body is in a state of stress over a long time, then digestion is not going to be working optimally, and addressing the root cause is really important (though all of the other stuff will help too). You'll see below a few of my favourite nervines, and I've got a couple of categories: nervines that simply calm the nervous system, and aromatic nervines that are also
Relaxing nervines:
Lobelia // Lobelia
Lobelia is a really incredible herb to use in drop doses when we feel as if we’re stuck in a stress/ panic/ overdrive loop. It stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, quite dramatically, and as a result you find yourself breathing deeper, often having an all over body-shudder reaction as your body starts to release tension. Of course lobelia is sorta famous for being an emetic, and it is: that parasympathetic stimulation, when taken in excess, leads to sweats and vomiting. Which isn’t going to kill you but isn’t fun. So stick to low doses: 1-5 drops. I take 3 :).
One of the things I love about lobelia, is to do with the underlying thread of fear that seems to drive so many of us through life. So, in intentionally calming down that stress state, you give yourself a moment’s choice to take a different route: to breathe more deeply (lobelia has an amazing affinity for the lungs and helping us to breathe more deeply and smoothly); to remind yourself that your self-worth isn’t tied up with whatever you’re stressed about; to do some heart-centered breathing. That brief interruption of the stress-state flow gives us a tiny bit of space, and that’s sometimes all we need to remember that there are other ways.
Scutellaria spp // skullcap
I have a funny story about skullcap. I was gathering it, up in the mountains, miles from my car, when all of a sudden I heard a loud rattling noise. It sounded like it was coming from right beneath me. And, like any person out in the wild hearing rattling, I freaked out. You're supposed to stay still, supposedly, and find where the noise is coming from. I'm way too skittish for that. I jumped about 6 feet and ran. And would you believe it the rattling noise was following me as fast as I was running. And after about 6 seconds (which felt like FOREVER) music started. The rattling was the beginning of a song; my phone, in my pocket, had started playing music.
You guys, I was so freaked, I was shaking afterwards. All these images of people being blissful, gathering happily in nature? Not me. Every sound scared me. My hands were shaking. I'd basically had a full adrenaline dump and then had to deal with it. Had I known what I know now, I'd have gone for a run, but I didn't, so I reached into my bag, and picked out a skullcap leaf, and started nibbling on it. Within a minute, my perception had gone from that narrow-focused 'everything is trying to kill me' place to... nice. More relaxed, more open, more expansive. More connected. Skullcap is a calming, sedating, but most importantly, it's what's known as a trophorestorative. That means, basically, that it rebuilds something (in this case, the nerves) from within, both relaxing interfering tension and allowing the nervous system to learn to regulate its responses to situations. When we're super stressed and it's a long-term constant grind on our nervous systems, skullcap is an absolutely brilliant ally, not only to get us through, but to help rebuild, and sustain.
Aromatic nervines:
Aromatics
Aromatics stimulate the nervous system, awaken it, enliven it, make you feel more alert. But more alert within your body. So, aromatics help us to be more present by awakening our senses. There's a technique you use for anxiety, or panic attacks, where you start saying aloud the things you can see. Touch. Smell. Hear. Where you ground into your body by focusing on your sensory input. In a way, aromatics do this: you cannot help but be more present when your senses are being nudged upon.
Damiana // Turnera diffusa
When we experience something that scares us, our bodies will go into ‘fight or flight’ which is an activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which gets us ready to, well, fight, or run, or deal with the stressor in whatever way we know best. But when the stressor is too overwhelming, far too scary, or, maybe we cannot fight or flee, then our sympathetic response is overridden by an older, more primitive response: we freeze. At the same time as we freeze, we often leave our bodies a bit, hovering somewhere nearby, become outside observers into our own trauma. It’s an amazing mechanism that protects us from psychologically breaking.
It can also keep us from feeling, for years.
And while not all of us experience trauma so deep that we leave our own bodies, many of us do experience feeling like we're somehow a bit frozen, like we cannot feel fully, or like there's a layer of protection between us and the world.
Damiana warms us from the inside out, effectively dismantling, sometimes even shattering that deep freeze. It does this in a beautifully gentle way, reminding us that we were actually always there: we’re always present, always powerful, always empowered… but sometimes we experience powerlessness, and it makes us feel permanently powerless. We cut ourselves off from feeling to save ourselves, but then we believe ourselves still in danger, and stay there. And just as our bodies can be the things we want to escape from, our bodies can be the path back into feeling safe again. Damiana reminds us how beautiful feeling can be, warming us from the inside, melting that deep freeze, bringing us back to the awareness of our sensory selves, and our natural ability to take pleasure in our senses.
Not only that, it teaches us that it is *safe* to feel. Safe to be in our bodies. Safe to experience pleasure. For many of us, it's not that we don't love sensory experiences, but we've often got a low-level stress going on. Damiana relaxes that low-level stress, and in doing so, reminds us of the sheer joy of sensory pleasure. And yes, this can be sexual pleasure, of course, but it can also be the simple sensual pleasures of life: Soft fabric on your skin. A patch of sun on a cold day. Vivid, beautiful colors. Flavor, exploding on your tongue. Being stroked (not like that, you dirty dogs). A beautiful piece of music. Moving your body to music. The smell of the forest. These sensory experiences can bring us so much joy, can wiggle through us and make us feel utterly alive.
I'd be remiss in talking about this without talking about the act of receiving. You see, the way I see damiana is that it relaxes the tension/ stress that we have in the way of receiving the pleasure that the world is already offering us. I mentioned it before, that I think pleasure is the natural state of existence, and I stand by that. I think that we're taught to block it, and that what damiana is doing is reminding us how to be alive by allowing the natural flow of sensual pleasure in our bodies again.
Of course, as a result of this, it's marketed as an 'aphrodisiac' herb, which is a bit funny. Damiana isn't going to magically make you attracted to someone you don't want to sleep with. But, if you're really stressed out to the point where you're no longer able to feel so well, or if you're feeling a bit disconnected from life, or a bit disembodied, damiana will remind you of how good it feels to feel, and to connect with your partner(s).
Because damiana is warming and aromatic, it's also a really good carminative, helping digestion, especially if there's stagnation involved. I think damiana is especially useful where, you guessed it, people are denying themselves the pleasure of delicious food, maybe as a form of self-punishment, and their digestion gets really sluggish as a result.
Found in: Sensorium smoke blend
Ocimum sanctum // Tulsi
While tulsi has [most likely] about a million medicinal uses, the vast majority of them owe themselves to tulsi's ability to boost our ability to handle stressors. These stressors can occur in different systems, be it the immune system, digestive, nervous or in the overall metabolism, and these stressors can come in many forms, be it chemical, metabolic, psychological or bacterial.
In the immune system, stressors come in the form of pathogens, but at its most basic, the immune system differentiates 'self' from 'not self'. Tulsi helps the body's immune response and is at the same time antimicrobial, helping the body to fight 'not self' both from the inside (by helping the response itself) and also by directly fighting pathogens.
In the nervous system, tulsi helps to increase our stress tolerance, not by turning us into super humans, but by once again working on that 'self' and 'not self' axis. I'd say, from my own perspective, that tulsi strengthens the innate sense of 'self' which then makes 'not self' that much easier to deal with. When it comes to mental stressors this is incredibly important: think of how much mental stress actually has to do with us thinking we don't have the capacity to handle something. Think of how much more stressful life is when we feel overtired and that our resources are too meager to actually be effective. If 'self' is small, and 'not self' is huge, then the entire world feels overwhelming and like it's too much to handle. This is an incredibly stressful place to live, and most of us who suffer from anxiety issues live here full time! Think on the other hand of how the world looks when you feel calm, centered and *big* enough. Like you have enough resources (energetic, financial, whatever) to handle what life throws at you. That is a place where the world can't swallow you whole, and it comes from knowing that you are enough to handle it. Tulsi, in my opinion, helps to strengthen that sense of self. It's not that it by itself is a stress relieving herb, but the effect of that strengthening is that you can handle more by default. Psychologically it calms the mind because the mind doesn't need to be as agitated if you're not about to be swallowed by the world around you. And your nervous system doesn't need to be on high alert because you feel safe.
Another side effect of this 'safe' feeling is that, since your nervous system is no longer freaking out over every minor thing, your view of the world is no longer clouded by fear or panic. As a result, people tend to see the world with more clarity when taking tulsi. In a way, it's incredibly expansive in the brain, because our perspective narrows intensely when we're feeling threatened, and when we feel safe, our perspective expands. Our worlds quite literally get bigger to us as a result of taking it. Tulsi's effect on mental activity as a result of this is incredibly interesting: it helps with retention of information, and also with clarity of thought.
This calming, centering, grounding extends to the digestive system,
where tulsi's aromatics help calm agitation in the gut. Once again, this same action: where some foods can feel like 'too much' for us, causing indigestion or gas or bloating, tulsi draws our attention into our guts and the centre of our bodies, calming, grounding, and assisting with the digestion of foods.
And when it comes to finding a feeling of spaciousness, I love tulsi's ability to draw our attention, over and over again, to the depth of our own resilience. The stressors of the world don't disappear, but they become less crushing as you start to feel more capable.
Found in: Tulsi + Pinon syrup, Tulsi + Ashwadangha chai, tulsi & pinyon body oil, tulsi & pinyon digestive bitters, smoky bramble tulsi tea
5. Exercises/ different things to help make your belly happy
Belly massage:
Regular belly massage can be absolutely life-changing— it brings both awareness and blood flow back into the area and is so deeply calming and soothing . If you’re lucky enough to live near LA, go and see Pamela, STAT. If not, you can probably find someone in your area who does it. Or there are video tutorials on the youtube. Conversely, just have someone you love put their hands on your belly and whisper sweet nothings, telling your belly how good it is. You think I’m joking, but bellies *love* sweet nothings.
A big mug of calming/ carminative tea:
Two blends I love:
1 part Turmeric
1 part Ginger
1 part Cardamom
1/8 part Licorice
And:
1 part Peppermint
1/2 part Fennel
1 part Marshmallow
Make a big batch of each and drink a mug or two after meals.
Lie on the earth with your belly on the ground:
Connecting your belly with the earth feels so good and is deeply calming.
Get the sun on your belly:
Years ago, I had an adverse reaction to a medication the doctor gave me for a small procedure, and ended up with horrific vertigo (felt like I was spinning round and round constantly— couldn’t stand up straight without holding a wall!) for about 24 hours. Unfortunately, I had a midterm first thing the next morning, and had to get myself TO school, then to the classroom, and to sit up to actually take the exam. My roommate was there, and she took me outside, and said ‘when I was growing up this was the thing that would always help’, and she had me lie on the grass, lift my top up, and get the morning sun on my belly. Know what? It helped so much. I lay there and let my belly absorb the sunlight and felt myself coming back together. And I’ve done this a million times since then. Let your belly absorb the sunlight and revel in the pleasure of it at the same time.
Psoas release:
If there’s tension deep in the muscles of the belly then it’s going to affect digestion overall. A psoas release is such a wonderful way to return blood flow to the belly, but it also helps to calm down a stressed-out body, and return your breathing to deep, relaxed and easy.
Here is My favourite psoas release
Love your belly:
We live in a world of aspirational abs: rock hard abs. Six pack abs. Eight pack abs. 25 pack abs. Thor’s abs. 2 months after giving birth ‘bouncing back’ abs. We are bombarded by these images in grocery store check out aisles and on social media. As a result, we often think of our bellies as something that you can see from the outside, and judge from the outside. The thing about our abs,whether rock-hard or not, is that it’s a body-fat-distribution thing,and a body-fat-as-percentage of your overall adipose composition thing. Which means that some people are going to have visible abs naturally, and others are going to have to starve, torture, and force themselves to have some semblance of abdominal muscle visibility, and most of this is arbitrary. So to place value judgements on ourselves based on how our bodies like to distribute their fat is pretty silly. The body positivity movement is making amazing headway with showing how bodies are beautiful, period. But I think another way to allow our bellies to soften is to learn to love them from within. Our bellies are these soft, squidgy, moist, gurgly, dark places in our bodies that are so AMAZING. They communicate with us, they have their own brains. They tell us how they feel constantly. They are so primal and wild and are this untamable, noisy, gurgly part of us. Which is to say that our bellies are incredible. And beautiful. And lovable. And sometimes just taking a few minutes to lie down with your hands on your belly (or a hot water bottle) and marvel at the beauty of your insides is the perfect thing.