Do You Ever Feel Like You’re Running Around Like a Chicken with It’s Head Cut Off?
I hope you enjoyed a chuckle at this cartoon. I did! In Classical Oriental Medicine, we differentiate between anxiety and nervousness by a simple descriptor of “where.” Do you mostly feel too much energy in the chest and head, probably along with some “Monkey Mind”? Or do you more likely feel butterflies in your tummy – maybe VERY overactive butterflies that are always churning, and maybe you find yourself constantly worrying about others or yourself?
It’s hard to feel grounded and calm when either of these conditions are going on. It’s hard to be the go-to emotional resource for your family; it’s hard to make good business decisions. It’s hard to keep juggling all the monkeys when you feel like you can’t see straight!
In Oriental Medicine, one of the descriptions of anxiety is “Shen Disturbed.” This means that the person isn’t fully present. You may observe this by the presence of light in their eyes. If you have ever been with someone as they’ve grieved, you have felt that shen get disturbed. It can also happen when people are over driven and overtaxed, when they haven’t slept enough, when they’re dehydrated, not grounded, or undernourished. When the shen is calm, the person is easy to be around, relaxing, and maybe even funny! 🙂
Let’s take a deeper dive into what’s going on with these two symptoms, what causes this, and the real cost of this.
1. Your brain neurotransmitters which dictate how well you think and how good you feel are made in your gut. If your gut is off, then you won’t make neurotransmitters well.
2. Your brain neurotransmitters are made from hormones. Your gut has to make those first. Hormones like insulin, leptin, ghrelin, cortisol, and estrogen regulate your metabolism and weight. If your gut is off, you won’t make these hormones properly.
3. Your gut also makes hormones that support your immune system: estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, oxytocin, serotonin, and prolactin. The quality of the food that you eat directs the quality of the hormones and neurotransmitters that you make.
4. When you eat, food gets absorbed from your digestive system into the circulatory system, where your veins carry it back to the heart. This is where we get the saying: Your Heart Feeds First! And this is why digestive problems very commonly show up in the heart. In clinic, using the Heart Sound Recorder, we can identity nutritional deficiencies and correct them before they become major cardiac events!
5. The Universe color-coded our vitamins! See COLORS of VITAMINS chart below! The easy way is: try to eat a rainbow every day!
6. HOW you eat is as important as WHAT you eat – read on for BOTH!
What to eat to calm anxiety?
Actually, HOW you eat is even more important than what!
Do this!
Eat in a calm and relaxed atmosphere and do not rush your meal
Avoid intense interactions at meal time, including television and reading. *Note – if you have trouble quieting your mind and you tend to eat alone, and you use television to relax, be sure to choose something fun and relaxing, not “captivating.”
Chewing food thoroughly supports spleen qi
Don’t eat meals late at night – best to finish 2.5 hours before bedtime.
Avoid overconsumtion and excessive fasting
Don’t eat these:
- Raw, cold food, and iced beverages
- Excessive dairy
- Oily, greasy, and fried foods
- Refined sugar and limit overly sweet foods like fruit
- Refined carbohydrates
- Excessive alcohol intake
- Excessive meat consumption