Do you struggle with gas, bloating and constipation, interchanging with loose stool?
Our lives are so busy, irregular, and unexpected that our bodies have a hard time keeping up, which expresses itself in irregular digestion.
Ayurveda mentions four types of digestion, irregular, slow, sharp, and stable. If you experience symptoms like gas, constipation interchanging with loose stools, and bloating, it is a sign of improper functioning digestion and, in this case, irregular digestion.
Irregular digestion
Irregular digestion is a typical vata digestion. Whether you have a dominant vata constitution or not. A vata digestion can be recognized by different physical and emotional symptoms.
physical symptoms:
Bloating
gas
Constipation interchanging with loose stool
Emotional symptoms:
Anxiety
Overwhelm
Stress
Three steps to heal your irregular vata digestion
Eat a vata decreasing diet
Start a daily routine
Get enough consistent sleep
Eat a vata decreasing diet.
A vata decreasing diet contains freshly cooked warming foods with plenty of healthy oils like organic cold-pressed sesame or ghee. Also, add some warming spices to aid digestion (mustard seeds, cumin seed, turmeric, fresh ginger). A vata diet should have a 60/40 augmenting/extractive ratio. Which includes enough grains to keep you grounded (often overlooked by vatas 😉)
Start a daily routine.
To calm the nervous system, it is essential to keep your life as predictable as possible. I know this might sound impossible in our modern society. Still, no matter how small, every step helps, from waking up and going to bed at the same time to set meal times and making your daily habits like brushing teeth, showering, abhyanga, etc., all at the same time.
Get enough consistent sleep.
People with a vata dominant constitution or a vata excess often have the feeling they need very little sleep and can function best when just getting hours of shut-eye. But this will eventually burn you out—Vata's need a solid 8 hours of sleep to sustain a healthy body and mind.