Easy Ways to Support The Mind-Gut Connection This Christmas Season
You may have heard of the mind-gut connection, otherwise known as the gut-brain connection, but what is this really referring to and is it really founded on science? In this article, we’ll discuss what the mind-gut connection is, how it impacts a variety of areas of your health and how you can support this crucial connection in easy, attainable ways this Christmas season and beyond.
What Is The Mind-Gut Connection?
Throughout your digestive tract you have trillions of nerves that are constantly sending signals back and forth to the brain. This superhighway of nerves is a 2-way street, meaning what’s going on in your gut affects your brain and vice versa. That’s why it’s so important to address your health holistically and not simply address one individual organ in isolation. Nothing in the body works in isolation!
The Impact of the Mind-Gut Connection
This nervous system that runs from your brain, down the spinal cord, out to your organs and through your GI tract impacts every system in your body from your thyroid to your immune system and more. This connection between the gut and the brain is strong, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s obvious. It can be a slippery slope around the holidays as there is much more temptation to eat poor quality foods and stop prioritizing your sleep, movement and other healthy habits.
Easy, Gentle Supports for the Mind-Gut
Balanced Nutrition
Yes, we’re saying it again! We know it’s tempting to completely throw healthy eating out during the holidays, but is it really worth the struggle of fighting the intense cravings that have reared their ugly heads over these few weeks, only to try to reign things in for New Year’s Resolutions?
Our tips?
Do your best to keep things balanced, with the scales tipped towards cleaner eating. We’re talking…
less sugar, more protein;
less gluten, more root veggies;
less alcohol, more spring water with electrolytes;
less baking, more healthy fats to fill you up.
These small switches can go a long way!
Magnesium
Why is magnesium one of the best supplements to take over the holidays? Sugar depletes minerals, including magnesium, and so does lack of sleep and stress. Magnesium is required for over 300 functions in our bodies and when we’re lacking our sleep, mood, energy, digestion and hormones can suffer. For whole-body support, try a magnesium glycinate complex.
Vagus Nerve Activation
The vagus nerve deserves a whole blog of its own, but in a nutshell, it’s a long nerve starting at the base of the skull that impacts every system in our bodies from digestion to mental health, while also controlling the flight or flight response.
Here are some quick ways to support it:
Sing or hum
Gargle. Yes, we said gargle! - even just gargling water will help activate the vagus nerve and put your body into rest and digest.
Deep breathing
Tapping or EFT - even simply tapping along the sternum is calming to the nervous system
Get grounded - while you could walk out in the snow barefoot, you can also touch a tree for a similar response! Or use a grounding mat.
Regularly calming the vagus nerve and nervous system has a powerful impact on our health and can make getting through the holidays a much more calm and healthy experience!
The Power of Boredom
The Christmas season is busy and for many people it can be tempting to fill down time with even more activities, events or just binge-watching Christmas movies. But I would encourage you to allow yourself to be a little bored. Boredom is healthy and it allows for more creativity, connection and helps lower stress and cortisol levels when you’re not constantly overstimulated.
We hope you have a blessed Christmas and can’t wait to see you 2025!
To book with one of our nutritionists in the new year, click here.
Asher Kleiber
Registered Holistic Nutritionist
