While I was suffering, like you, with IBS all I could see was what was wrong in my life. How awful the regular pain was, how difficult the symptoms were – and especially how little control I seemed to have over my condition.
Low Fodmaps, colonoscopy, tests, specialists, diet tweaking. Despite my best efforts to soothe my IBS, nothing seemed to work for long.
Deep down I resented all the fun things I just couldn’t do. While friends and colleagues could eat what they wanted, and their main concern seemed to be about choosing to go skiing, or to Venice for New Year.
It was almost as if I had a rain cloud that walked around with me. One I just couldn’t escape. While the IBS symptoms drove me crazy.
Are you in that place too?
No matter what I ate, my IBS symptoms didn’t make any sense.
No matter how hard I tried, nothing much changed. Food sensitivity got worse, as did bloating, cramps, fatigue and poop problems.
I wondered what was wrong with me.
It was a really difficult place to live in. And nothing changed until I vowed to myself that this was somehow going to change. That there was NO way this was going to continue. ENOUGH!
A bridge to the other side of IBS
I never really thought I would get to the other side, and that I would learn how to reverse my IBS!
To get to that place where I would be able to eat anything and digest it easily without the cramping, bloating and all the rest.
Simply enjoying a delicious meal again. Digesting it well. And eliminating well too.
I didn’t know of anyone who had ever taken that journey out of IBS. And my doctor had told me I would probably have IBS for the rest of my life.
I tried SO many things, hopeful that THIS would be the answer.
What I didn’t know is that the answer was not on the outside. But on the inside.
I, like many of you, had been trained to pay attention to other people. To get good marks, do the right things, be the right way.
But I had never been taught to notice what was going on inside myself.
It was really foreign and seemed like a total waste of time in my rational world.
At the same time, I was doing “other stuff” that wasn’t productive either…
So I decided to try feeling. After all, nothing else was working.
And by learning to feel instead of think, I found that the keys to my IBS were in how I felt deep down.
I discovered what was hiding behind the physical pain I was experiencing.
Start your journey out of IBS
A really good way to start your journey out of IBS is to meditate.
To learn to think less, and feel more.
It may seem like a total waste of time in a rational, productive world.
But it could just turn out to be the most productive thing you have ever done. It certainly was for me.
There are so many things going on in the world that we can tend to flit anxiously from one thought to another. Meditating provides an answer to this.
Here’s how to start meditating simply on your own.
And here is a guided meditation by Calm that you can just follow.
Sounds boring?
There are many things you can do combining quietness with light, directed focus.
For example, Tai Chi is a kind of meditiation in movement.
Focusing on colouring a mandala, paying attention to the colours and the movement of your hand is a kind of meditation.
Even spending time quietly focused on a pet can have the same benefits.
You can mix some of these in with straight meditation to get some variety.
Over time, meditating will teach you to feel yourself more, and to focus your mind on what is truly important to you. It will teach you to rest better, and to feel more peaceful.
And from there you will be in a really good place to notice the deep triggers keeping your IBS symptoms in place.
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