Making progress with IBS can feel impossible at times. Especially when a flare-up has just wiped you out yet again. It’s already a challenge to get functioning again, let alone move forward.
And yet, if you are reading this, then you have that burning desire for a better life and progress with your IBS.
Here’s how to boost your progress with IBS, and what might be hampering your progress.
Food for thought
Imagine living back when the four minute mile was not possible. No-one had managed to run a mile in 4 minutes or under since races existed. It was commonly acknowledged that it simply was not possible, that the human body was not that capable. Until Roger Bannister actually managed it in 1954. “As of April 2021, the “four-minute barrier” has been broken by 1,664 athletes, and is now a standard of professional middle distance runners in several cultures.”
Consider a person who has been overweight for all or a large part of their lives. They have tried all sorts of diets, eating less, doing more exercise, and yet nothing much has changed. Although they would like to believe that they could have the body the want, a part of them is used to being that way and feeling that way. Anything around food, being fat, even pictures of a new range of summer swimsuits will bring up that lonely longing feeling of “If only…” They may try Weightwatchers again, but deep inside they have the belief that that is just how they are: overweight.
That disbelief gets lodged really deep when it has been a person’s experience for a long time. And when all the evidence around them confirms that “it’s not doable.” And as much as they really want things to change, that disbelief becomes a silent saboteur.
It has them looking for solutions and trying things, sometimes with a glimmer of hope and a little progress. Before they find themselves sliding back into their usual state.
Our minds and feelings can act like thick mud to keep us exactly where we have always been, and allow little progress. And some of us have more mud than others. It can feel useless sometimes to try anything any more.
Know your silent saboteur
Have you ever wondered just what is wrong with you? (I certainly did!)
If you are reading this, then you are certainly not resigned. But consider this. How much of your life have you been suffering with IBS, digestive or transit issues?
Has disbelief hijacked your attempts to get out of IBS at some level? Probably. You’re human.
If you want to boost your progress with IBS, this is something you need to become really aware of. especially if you’ve been trying really hard to make progress with your IBS.
You know that I have fully recovered from IBS and now successfully help clients to do the same. So, like running the 4-minute mile, it IS humanly possible. But do you believe it is possible for YOU?
You may be thinking “I’ll believe it when I see it.” The trouble is that it doesn’t work this way. You have to believe it BEFORE you can ever see it. And even then the thick mud will try to pull you back to what is familiar – every time.
Also, become aware of any dismissive thoughts that may be keeping where you are:
- It’s alright for them. They don’t …
- They are younger, better off, more capable than me
- Yeah, but …
They are just disbelief in disguise.
How to boost your progress with IBS
If you follow this outline, you will boost your chances of making progress with your IBS:
- Decide to believe that progress with your IBS is possible – even if you don’t know how yet.
- Imagine what you’ll do and how you’ll feel when your IBS has progressed (or even disappeared…)
- Consider that if it can happen for someone else, it can probably happen for you too.
- Start walking in that direction every day with your IBS in your actions. Find the limits of what you can and can’t do or eat at the moment. And stay open to that gradually changing that.
- Challenge the idea that you are an IBS sufferer, even though your symptoms are telling you the opposite.
- Stay courageous and perseverant when the thick mud challenges you. Because it will
The status quo can be familiar and even weirdly comforting in some ways.
But I believe we are here to change the status quo and find out what we are really capable of.
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