The main brain took in visual input of Tums, which sparked memories of recent diarrhea and constipation, and automatically assigned an emotional evaluation of threat. The oversensitized amygdala exaggerated the severity of symptoms and sent an alarm message via the spinal cord to the intestinal brain, which activated her gut. If the threat is seen as a crisis, the system releases stress hormones such as cortisol or adrenaline—which cause a series of reactions including tightening of the gut muscles, resulting in pain, bloating, cramping, and more. Sally ended up canceling her date—not because she was sick but because she saw a Tums and that set off a feedback loop gone bad.
Neurohormonal Retraining
The good news for Sally and all gut sufferers is that there is an adjustable link in this automatic chain of events. The part of the brain that decides whether a threat exists, the amygdala, is retrainable. On the negative side, the amygdala can be falsely conditioned to arouse a fear response when there is no actual danger, thus setting off a feedback loop gone awry. But on the positive side, the amygdala is the loophole in the main-brain/intestinal-brain circuitry that provides an opening to fix the erroneous programming. The process of fixing this feedback loop is called Neurohormonal Retraining, a key skill you will learn in this book.
Ecological Rebalancing
Because everything is connected, a variety of imbalances in your body/mind system can have negative effects on the function of your gut. Your connections outside your body comprise your exterior ecology—everything from your personal relationships and home life to your workplace and environmental surroundings. Your interior ecology includes the food you eat, the levels of vitamins and minerals in your system, and the health of your microbiome—the 100 trillion microbes that live inside you. These are the bacteria that help you digest food, strengthen your immune system, and keep you in a good mood. While you may not find it amusing that several pounds of microbes are dwelling in your gut—far outnumbering your human body cells—if your microbiome is imbalanced, it could be a cause of your gut distress. Throughout this book you will discover techniques for balancing your inner and outer ecological systems.
How to Start the Process of Getting Centered: A Three-Step Exercise
Now that you know the importance of centering for your gut health, it's time to begin putting it into practice. Here are a few steps you can take right now to begin the process of centering and the journey of your CORE healing:
1 Get grounded.
2 Identify your strengths.
3 Set your intention.
Get Grounded
Grounded is a common term used to describe being calm, centered, relaxed, and focused. Yet most people don't know how to deliberately achieve this experience. Here is an exercise to help you get grounded:
1 Sit in a comfortable chair.
2 Take slow, easy breaths for 30 to 60 seconds. Breathe in through your nose, into your center, and slowly exhale through your mouth.
3 Pay close attention to your senses (visual, auditory, sensory/kinesthetic) in your body and what they take in. Spend 1 to 2 minutes on each of your senses.
For example, start with your vision. Simply sit in the chair, look around the room, noting any visual details you can see. What do you notice? You may see a plant sitting on a table. A piece of artwork on the wall. The clock. A couple of table lamps. The tiles in the ceiling. And so on. Just notice how many visual details you see, without analyzing or making any judgments.
After a minute or two, switch to auditory (sound) awareness. Do the same thing. Perhaps you'll notice the sound of the ventilation system, cars driving by, a muffled voice in the next room, and so on. Next, switch to sensory/kinesthetic awareness. Notice the sensation of the bottom of your thighs being supported by the chair. Feel the temperature of the air on your skin, the weight of your jewelry, or the tightness of your clothes. Don't judge or analyze; just feel.
That's all there is to it. What do you notice? Among other things, you'll feel calmer, your mind will be quieter, and your attention will land more in the present moment and not stuck in the past or the future. This comfortable feeling is good preparation for the next step in the centering process. Remember how good it feels to be grounded.
Identify Your Strengths
Think of a time in the past when you encountered a situation that was challenging or downright difficult, but you ended up successfully achieving your goal. Take a minute to close your eyes and breathe slowly and gently. As you calm down, it becomes easier to identify your strengths. Let yourself drift back to an earlier time in your life when you overcame a big challenge.
Remember as many details as possible about the obstacles you faced. Now, review everything you did to attain your goal. As you reflect, try to identify the skills and abilities, both mental and physical, that helped you succeed. Don't be shy or modest. Feel free to acknowledge all the positive attributes that you were able to bring to bear on the problem you faced. If it is hard for you to see your own strengths, ask your friends, family, or coworkers. They are in a position to be open and honest about your strengths.
There seems to be a direct correlation between being centered and feeling confident about your strengths. If you are ungrounded, you may be temporarily blinded to your strengths. Some people perceive themselves as so weak that the very mention of personal strength evokes grief and shame. On the contrary, the more grounded you become, the greater your personal power becomes. The fact is that we all have strengths, and when we are calm, we can call upon those strengths more easily and build upon them to achieve our goals. For example, some of Dr. Weisberg's patients become so grounded and adept at self-hypnosis that they can undergo surgery using only a very small amount of anesthesia. Their centered concentration is so focused that they can voluntarily shut off the feelings in the nerves near the site of the operation.
As you review your personal resources, have something to write with nearby and list all the strengths and skills you used. Take that list and keep it in a safe place. Refer back to this list frequently as you participate in the CORE program, as you'll be using these same strengths and skills.
The following example illustrates how you can use this valuable exercise to identify your strengths and resources for healing.
Jim Identifies His Strengths
Jim was a carpenter in his thirties who suffered from chronic indigestion, gas, bloating, and abdominal pain. Dr. Weisberg invited him to remember a difficult situation when he ended up being successful so we could identify his strengths. He had no trouble coming up with an example.
Jim had been overweight all his life, but he just accepted it because his entire family was overweight. However, when Jim turned twenty-five, his new primary care physician, Dr. Taylor, changed his attitude. He convinced Jim to act by gently explaining the various health risks of being forty-five pounds overweight: a greater chance of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, immune system problems, and so on. Jim accepted Dr. Taylor's recommendations for dietary changes—including exercise and Weight Watchers—and kept at it until he lost thirty-five pounds. What's more, he's kept that extra weight off ever since.
Jim wrote down his recollections of this challenge and the inner and outer strengths that helped him reach his goal:
