Conscious Choice: Gut Wisdom: Listen to Your Second Brain

March 2005 | Body & Mind Health

Gut Wisdom: Listen to Your Second Brain

by Darlene E. Paris

When you tell digestive health consultant Alyce Sorokie you have a gut feeling about something, she uses that information to determine what’s going on with your health. In her book Gut Wisdom: Understanding and Improving Your Digestive Health (Career Press), Sorokie not only educates people on ways to cleanse their bodies of toxins, but she also helps them identify emotions that may be undermining their sense of well-being.

She believes that when we suppress our feelings, we often experience symptoms in our gut such as constipation, diarrhea and flatulence.

“When you feel bloated, or experiencine discomfort, your gut (belly) is speaking to you,” said Sorokie.

“Instead of trying to medicate it away, or ignore it, or wish it could get cut out, it’s good to look at it as a gift.”

Sorokie has been in the natural health care business for 28 years, but her message is timely now. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over 70 million people today say they suffer with poor digestion. Of course, most of them turn to drugs to alleviate their symptoms. “They spend thousands of dollars seeking advice from doctors, taking diagnostic treatments and buying medicine instead of simply listening to the messages their bodies are trying to send,” she said.

While it may be wise for some to seek medical attention, she believes they also can get many insights about improving their health if they decide to tune in to their guts.

“Listening to your gut simply means paying attention to how your body feels,” Sorokie said. “It’s listening to the subtle whisper of our bodies when we’re feeling that kind of intuitive nudge in our gut, that pull in our gut, that ah-ha in our gut.”

These spurts of intuition usually come when we need protection or are in danger. For instance, gut wisdom kicks in when we’re walking down the street, and all of a sudden don’t feel safe, so we decide to walk on the other side. In this case, we’ve listened to our inner wisdom. We’ve listened to our gut.

Sorokie believes this same insight can help us with digestive problems. “Say you’ve eaten an ice cream cone, a slice of pizza, and some candy, and all of a sudden you feel nauseous … that’s your body speaking to you. It’s saying maybe you need to change your diet. Or if you’re in a job or in a relationship and every time you think of going to that job or seeing that person, you have an irritable bowel flare-up. Your gut is urging you to leave that job or end that relationship in order for you to be well.”

How did our bellies get to be so wise? It all makes sense when we consider that the gut is located in an area of our body called the Solar Plexus — which is regarded by Eastern healing practitioners as the “seat of our emotions.”

“It’s the central point of our inner knowing and personal power. It also reflects all of our fears, especially our fear of losing control.” Sorokie said.

The concept of the belly being an indicator of the health of a person’s mind, body and spirit isn’t new. “It’s rooted in antiquity,” Sorokie said. Chinese Taoists understood the relationship between our emotions and our bellies. They believed that we not only digest or assimilate food in our gut, but that we also digest our emotions. Healers in India, Japan, Africa, and China have long recognized the power of the belly, but health practitioners in America are just beginning to harness the wisdom of the gut to regain good health.

Today, a small percentage of American medical practitioners believe that our guts can give us insight into how to improve our sense of well-being. Their beliefs are backed by scientists who’ve discovered that our gut is actually our second brain.

There’s not much difference between the cerebral brain and the gut brain. “Both brains originated during fetal development. One section turned into the central nervous system, essentially the cerebral brain and the spinal cord, and the other developed into the enteric nervous system, or the brain in your gut,” said Sorokie sounding like a scientist herself.

Like our cerebral brain, the gut is rich in emotional receptor sites. In fact, we feel more in this area than anywhere else in our bodies. It can also process information and remember it, but it can’t rationalize or verbalize its feelings like our cerebral brain.”

Nevertheless, the two brains are intimately connected. “When your cerebral brain experiences stress, such as when you get fired from your job or after an argument with your beloved, your gut may respond with cramping, nausea or a bout of diarrhea.”

Although listening to your gut sounds strange and may not be what the doctor ordered, you’ll get many insights into ways to improve your health if you decide to tune in.

“Your gut is your intuition — your inner antenna. It’s the wisdom of the body that attempts to guide and direct you to make you aware of the things you do to sabotage yourself and your gut’s health.”

So the next time you’re experiencing gas, constipation or diarrhea, remember your gut is trying to speak to you. And if you’re wise, the next time it tries to get your attention, you’ll listen, because as Sorokie said: “The gut knows.”

Darlene E. Paris is a Chicago-based writer specializing in spiritual matters.

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