Today’s episode is close to my heart because I think this is the episode that I would have needed most when I was trying to heal my IBS. Also, I think the information and mindset shifts I’m going to share today would have probably been the most difficult for me to grasp at the time.
If you are approaching healing your IBS as a project, or you are approaching it too tightly or too loosely, this approach could be the number one impediment to your healing, and you may not even be aware of it. Often when we are going through a crisis, there is a desperation for a solution that can develop.
Today we’ll talk about how to approach your IBS with lightness and seriousness can make all the difference in your healing.
Find the full transcript for this episode and other resources at healingheribs.com/32.
Approaching IBS Healing
I know it may sound like a stretch to suggest that the key to healing your IBS could lie in the way you are approaching your healing but stick with me. I have thought so much about this concept of the mindset of healing as I went through it personally and then became a trained health coach. I did a deep dive into the research of what IBS was while I was trying to heal and have done even more so as I decided to pivot my career towards helping women heal.
There is a secret to healing IBS that was true for myself and for so many other women I’ve worked with—that I have only been able to see in hindsight. Something that I have only been aware of as I stepped out of the IBS hell and was able to turn around and see with more objective eyes what was going on in my mind and in my body.
The initial approach that I had to healing my IBS was making my IBS worse. What was that approach? Looking back I realize it was a combination of desperation, blame and sheer and utter confusion. I don’t blame myself at all for having that reaction at the onset, it was totally reasonable for me to respond that way considering how much pain I was in and how much confusion.
What I needed was someone who’d been through it and come out the other side to tell me it was going to be okay and to calm down. Once I was able to relax more into my IBS symptoms and even accept them to a certain extent, that’s when I was able to turn a corner towards better health.
IBS is not a disorder that is just a physical manifestation. Your stress levels, your mindset and your emotional reactivity all play a huge role not only in how bad your symptoms will be, but also in the experience of your life during that time period of trying to get better.
IBS Diets as Tools or Weapons
I will give you a really good example of what I mean when I am talking about how you can approach fixing your gut issues in a different way.
Have you ever researched endlessly what was the perfect diet for people with IBS?
And then became increasingly obsessive and distraught about how well you were doing on said diet?
I know that for me finding out which foods I should and shouldn’t be eating drove me around in circles. It seemed like there were so many different answers and varying opinions and I wasn’t sure who to trust. I started to become somewhat afraid of certain foods and my mealtime started to become something I dreaded.
This was me using and IBS diet protocol as a weapon against myself. What do I mean by a weapon? I was using the diet to measure myself, to define whether I was doing this healing “right or wrong”. I felt nervous and guilty and distraught almost every time I ate. I lacked clarity about what I was doing and why and most of all I lacked confidence and curiosity.
Turning Potential IBS Weapons into Tools
Another big turning point for me was when I found the Low FodMap diet through a doctor recommendation. I read a few books about the diet to better understand the rationale behind it and I decided to try this diet with a different mindset attached to it.
Yes, I approached this way of eating seriously, but I also approached it with skepticism. I took it as an experiment in my health, one that I could potentially learn from instead of something I could do right or wrong.
It was also helpful that I learned that this diet was not forever. That there was a time limit to it and a reintroduction phase after those initial 6-8 weeks where I could approach my food a bit more like a scientist. I was prepared to take notes and to bring more awareness to how my body reacted to certain foods when I reintroduced them.
Although the Low Fod Map diet isn’t helpful for everyone, it was very helpful for me. I know now that that is because there were foods that I was eating that did cause a lot of gut irritation for me and made me really uncomfortable. I know now as well that starting that diet at that time was a turning point for me, one where I started to envision certain IBS protocols more as potential tools for me and less like weapons.
I lowered my stress and expectation around trying new things. I took them all more lightly. After about a year of suffering, I had gotten more used to managing my symptoms and I learned how to respond to them with more acceptance and ease.
I wasn’t using this diet to beat up on myself, to feel bad about myself or to fret about my pain as much anymore. There was a subtle but consequential shift I made that helped me turn the corner substantially. I started to get really better after this shift was made. Only now can I see where and when and how that happened.
Are there any IBS protocols you’ve started that are covered in stress and anxiety for you? Ones that are making you feel worse about yourself and your pain?
I invite you today to let them go, or better yet turn them into tools you can use for yourself instead weapons against yourself.
