Just what is the microbiome?

It’s actually the epicenter of your health.

“All disease begins in the gut”

~ Hippocrates

Not until recent years have we realized just how powerful our microbiome. Your gut microbiome is made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi and other microbes. The amount of bacterial cells within the human gastrointestinal tract outnumber the host’s cells 10x. The genes encoded by the bacteria resident within the GIT outnumber their host’s genes by more than 100 times. Wow, that’s a pretty impressive comparison when you think about it. These microbes have tremendous potential to impact our physiology both in health and disease. They protect against pathogens. They contribute to metabolic function which in turn affect our physiological functions both directly and indirectly.

These microbes affect our hormones way more than we think.

It controls how we digest our food, absorb our nutrients and directly affects our immunity.  If you are eating healthy but are not absorbing your food, you will become nutrient deficient which is the bigger part of the puzzle.  The villi in the small intestine is responsible for absorbing the nutrients and which then seeps into the bloodstream so our body can use these nutrients for energy.

When dysbiosis (an imbalance of good vs. bad bacteria) occurs it can cause all sorts of havoc. Including IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), IBM (inflammatory bowel disease), gas, bloating, pain, diarrhea, constipation, indigestion, nutrition malabsorption, skin issues, etc. Recently evidence indicates that the gut bacteria can alter the way we store fat, balance our blood sugar, respond to hormones and atopy (genetic tendency to develop allergic diseases).  Therefore, affecting wider systemic diseases such as obesity and diabetes 2. It also affects your brain and mental health as there is a direct connection between them.

If you want to avoid your yearly bout with the common cold, I might suggest starting with cleaning up your gut.

It’s where your entire immune system lives and boosting your gut health will greatly improve your ability to fight off common viruses, improve your brain health and help you fight off other more serious health conditions such as cancer.

What I found is that the gut is the driving force of our health in every way.

It was the culprit of many of my own health conditions such as cystic acne, eczema, psoarsis, graves disease, etc. However, at the time, I literally had no idea and still if I were to mention this to my endocrinologist today he’d most likely roll his eyes.  Thankfully, I am a multi-passionate woman and nutrition and holistic methods were my love next to cooking.

Research after research pointed me to what you were eating or not eating that is greatly affecting our guts much more than we even realize.

There are a lot of factors that can disrupt your gut flora as well as cause inflammation.

Namely,

  • Sugar
  • Processed foods/fast food
  • Unhealthy fats and oils
  • Dairy
  • Gluten
  • Not eating a diverse diet
  • Stress
  • Lack of prebiotics (non-digestible parts of food)
  • Lack of probiotics
  • Excessive alcohol consumption
  • Antibiotics
  • Medications
  • Heavy metals
  • Lack of sleep (your gut follows a circadian rhythm)
  • Smoking
  • Taking over the counter medicines such as acid blockers, nsaids (pain killers, aspirin, ibuprofen such as tylenol and aleve, advil and such)
  • Not enough exercise

All these things can have a serious impact on your gut health. It’s not only about the imbalance of bacteria but over time you can develop intestinal permeability aka leaky gut.  This occurs when damage to the small intestine causes bacteria, waste and particles to escape from your intestine and into your bloodstream. Your body goes into an autoimmune response because these particles do not belong there so it can cause so many different type of symptoms. It can range from a headache, digestive upset, skin issues, joint issues, and so much more. It honestly can be different from one person to the next so it’s very important to listen to your own body and what it is telling you.

Often we put band-aid approaches to symptoms that we need to pay attention to.  And, it’s also disheartening to go to the doctors only to be told there is nothing wrong with you or that these symptoms are normal.

Never underestimate the knowledge you have about your body and how you are feeling.

Listen to your “gut” literally!!!

Scientific fun fact:  The gut also has its own nervous system and does not have the ability to “doubt” like your central nervous system does.  So – always go with your “gut”, it’s never wrong ~ is really true and can serve you much more than you think!

Some foods naturally improve and “seed” the microbiome such as:

  • Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, tempeh & miso
  • Starch resistent foods such as bananas
  • Prebiotic foods such as broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, onions, leafy greens and avocado
  • Blueberries
  • High fiber fruit & veggies
  • Diverse range of foods
  • Raw apple cider vinegar

Stress also plays a critical role in how your gut functions as well as your brain health.  Having a meditation practice in place helps reduce stress and boost your beneficial bacteria while stress kills it. An imbalanced microbiome can cause brain fog as well.

And, of course taking a high quality probiotic supplement is beneficial to your digestive health and gut flora.

Do you have digestive issues or other symptoms that might indicate that your gut is out of balance?  Please tell me in the comments.

Sigmund Freud did not invent the concept of the three levels of consciousness but he brought it to the forefront of science.  It’s mind boggling when you think about it being the era that this came to life. Sort of when you think about how a cellphone came in our day!  What’s next?

Whatever the mind can think and see – it is!!

What I want to convey is how much of your very own unconscious thoughts are running and possibly maybe even ruining your life? And, you thought bad luck had something to do with it!  Or, that you don’t have control of what your mind thinks!

You do!!!

The mind is nothing but an energy field on the quantum level. Our entire body is truly just ball of energy not matter. The mind sits outside our body as a swirl of energy attracting like energy.

What’s truly fascinating is that 90-95% of your brains activity is beyond our conscious awareness and resides in the unconscious mind.  And, 5-10% of our cognitive activity resides in the conscious mind.   When I was researching, there were conflicting percentages but for the sake of this post I’m leaving it to two.  I honestly don’t remember learning this in school but this would be a great lesson to learn!  And, as much as I’ve been learning about this for the last 15+ years it’s not that easy to truly change our subconscious beliefs and thoughts – but it is possible!

This is where Sigmund Freud’s “Tip of the Iceberg” analogy comes in.  The vast majority of our lives is being driven by our unconscious minds where we are totally unaware or even know that we are thinking these thoughts – and my gosh in massive state.  Just look at the picture!  You can clearly see that the most important part of that iceberg is underneath where you can’t see, just like your unconscious.

This isn’t hokey pokey stuff – this is learning how to direct your life in the way that serves you best.

Don’t you want to be in the drivers seat of your life from now on!  You may think you are but most of your actions are on autopilot driven from the thoughts you are thinking subconsciously.

Whether you want to believe your unconscious mind is directing your life or not – it is!  It’s the law of the universe.  The entire universe is governed by the mind – the Law of Attraction. Everyone and everything on this earth is energy!

Now to put this to use for your life:  Let’s use an example such as “You may want to make more money!”  If your subconscious mind is telling you (conscious mind) that more money isn’t good, is hard to come by, or has you believing you are not worth that much money – you will never attract it no matter how much you want it.  Or, you may make good money especially if you are inspired and driven but somehow you always make it disappear.  Or, I’m sure you read stories where people that won the lottery and are broke in two years! Your car breaks down, you have unexpected expenses, you give it all away as soon as you get it, even worse repel it by being totally careless with your money.  Money is just an exchange of energy.

If your thoughts about money are any of those I mention above, money wouldn’t spend that much time around you.  It would go looking for someone with beliefs of respect, worthiness, deserving, helping others, etc.

Same goes for overeating or eating unhealthy on purpose.  You can say you don’t want to overeat and you want to lose weight. You even get all excited about the new you that you are creating!!  But little by little you find yourself overeating, you are eating things that are not healthy and you don’t even know why.  You drive yourself bonkers with cravings then you beat yourself up for overeating and wonder what’s wrong with you and you give up.  Well, nothing is wrong with you!

Most people are not even aware of the thoughts they are keeping that are leaving you in the dark your entire life.  And, year after year you try, try and try again but you don’t really succeed to the level you wish.  Or, things are good for a little while but you wind up going back to your old ways.

Living with regret and mediocrity.

We are all born with a blank slate.

It’s through our parents, caregivers, family members, mentors, teachers, friends, environment, etc that help form the beliefs that are so locked up in our unconscious minds.  As children, we are like magnets just taking in all this information.  But as a child we don’t have the analytical skills to really figure right or wrong – we just absorb this information and store it in our subconscious and unconscious mind.

We become ashamed, resentful, anxious, fearful, scared, embarrassed to name a few. Maybe not at that given time because we don’t even know any better – we just take it in.  Just remember it’s not your parents fault – they are just doing the best they can/did given how they grew up.

There is no blame.

Now you know this – you can change your thoughts so you can have the life you truly desire.

Your mind’s job is to keep you safe and out of danger.  This is how the subconscious/unconscious works.  It is constantly trying to keep you safe – even if at this present time that isn’t serving you or complete opposite of what you want to do.  It’s just doing it’s job.

Does this sound familiar?  “Hello!  I’m ready to jump into a new business but I’m scared of  “fill in the blank” so I never really do what I need to do. Keeping myself comfortable and in the right lane of life – just plugging by, making excuse after excuse as to why you can’t do what your true dream is.  Sound familiar?

So what’s next?

Once you understand how your actions are created from the above diagram you can truly create anything you desire.  I’m not going to pretend it’s easy especially if you’ve been believing a certain thought your entire life.  But – if you want to change what you are doing or not doing you have to change your thoughts! Your thoughts are causing you to feel a certain way which in turn is causing your actions or in action.

This isn’t going to require hours of therapy, dragging up the past, beating yourself up or hours of soul searching.  You can start right here – right where you are – now!

Ask yourself these questions:

  1. How am I feeling upon doing or not doing a specific action? i.e. overeating, drinking, taking action on business goals or sabotage
    • anxious, stressed, disgusted, annoyed, etc ?
  2. How and why do you feel this way?  If you say, you don’t want to feel this way but you are still doing it…
  3. What’s causing it?
  4. What thoughts are creating this feeling?
  5. Where are these thoughts coming from?  Your childhood?  Your parents, teacher, friend, etc?

Just understanding and being aware these thoughts, feelings and where and why you have this belief will help you move forward.  You also need to have compassion for yourself and not beat yourself up.  If you skip this step, you will land right back in the road to nowhere!

Write this down.  Do not spend hours, days, weeks, years doing this exercise.  Just think where these thoughts could be coming from.

Everything in your life right now is a reflection of your thoughts.

Remember, you are exactly where you need to be.  Once you understand why or what this thought that you are having is making you feel a certain way, it triggers a certain action or in action.  You can change your thought pattern (even if you don’t believe it to be true!).  Your unconscious mind does not know truth from lie.

  1. Rewrite your new beliefs and truths that will create your desired results.
    • ie.  I am worthy.  I am enough.  I am important.  Money supports my happiness., whatever is true for you, etc.
  2. Keep these new beliefs with you, in the forefront of your mind, read them, morning, noon and night and more!  Write them on your bathroom mirror.  Say them aloud and have some emotion around it.
  3. Visualize your new self, your new manifestations as if they already are here. Close your eyes and just feel the emotion around it.  See it as real, even if it has not happened yet.
  4. Use Mel Robbins 5 second rule to stop yourself and interrupt your thought pattern (if you don’t know Mel Robbin’s 5 second rule – google it.) if you still are having old self-destructing thoughts or not doing what you desire.  Ready – 5 4 3 2 1 – bam!

We all live by our feelings.  We go through life wanting to feel a certain way at any given moment. It’s why we do the things we do.

If you try to go about it just like 95% of the world does.  Such as…

I want to go on a diet —> You go on a diet —> You start out great —> lose 30 lbs  —> little by little you are back into your old habits and 10 lbs heavier than when you started.

It’s because you haven’t changed your beliefs.

Or, possibly you only got to day 3 and you are raiding the cookies because some how you think you can live on lettuce alone.  Weight-loss has nothing to do with willpower!  Your brain will always win! Stop beating yourself up!

It’s your subconscious/unconscious mind that keeps us stuck in our old patterns. It keeps you comfortable.  You might be saying well I’m not comfortable being 40 lbs overweight.  If you think about where your thoughts are around food or the feelings that is driving that behavior that is causing you to eat something that you know  you shouldn’t or don’t really want to eat can really help put a stop to it.  Think about your childhood where is coming from?  Do you use food to comfort yourself because to you food creates a feeling of comfort.  These are just examples to help you do a little investigating as to how you came to believe these thoughts.  And, they are not right or wrong – they are just thoughts and they are not serving you in your adult life anymore.

I want you to succeed to your highest self no matter what that looks like for you.

No matter where your thoughts are today we can change our thoughts and beliefs so that we can live a life that we truly are meant to live.

It’s available to us right now if we choose it to be!