Gut Health in a Larger Context

Ever since I could remember, I always had this vision of my body that I had other civilizations on me. I imagined that these other realms were everywhere and they existed on all the surfaces of matter that existed. We had a children’s book in my house that explained all the body parts, and all the organs, and in this book, each of these organs had little “helpers” on them that did the work for the sake of explaining the organ function. Even though I mentally knew this was not how it was understood to work in science at the time, I just believed that book was actually closer to reality than we knew it. I fully believed that my body was a planet of sort, and there was a whole new universe right on and inside my body, and that a slap of my hand on my skin, if hard enough could maybe wipe out that miniature civilization that was on that part of my arm, but since this universe was so small, even though my body was only a few years old in my time, in their time, their civilization was a billion years old by the time that happened. I also believed that we were just like these beings, just bigger, and lived on another being called Earth. I saw the world like those Matryoshka dolls where everything just continued, just on a larger or a smaller scale, and that all things existed within each other, and that all those universes were inter-connected. I would have vivid imagery of this in my head. So even though we learned biology at school later on, there was a part of me that always believed my vision I had as a child was the truth somehow, and it was my secret and I felt secure in that truth. So it was both a surprise and not a surprise that this was actually true after studying herbalism and the role of the microbiome. It was a surprise to my conscious brain that had been slowly getting educated out of listening to the messages I was getting (thankfully I am very stubborn), but it was not a surprise to my soul since I always knew that somewhere deeply inside of me that my body was “Earth” for another realm of beings. But the study of the role our microbiome plays in our health definitely allowed me to understand these childhood visions a lot better. And let’s face it, it’s not just the microorganisms that live on us that make us up.  Our bodies consist of grouping of billions of cells, each of which has a life of its own, as well as the atoms that make up the cells and everything inside it which ultimately make us into one matter. And isn't Earth itself made the same way? The health of earth depends on all the beings on the planet, as our bodies terrain determines our health. I was blown away when I heard about the Gaia theory because it was like the image I carried in my mind since childhood regarding how things were connected.  I always knew deep down that Earth was alive somehow. So I can't tell you how shocked I was when I first read about this theory. But also put me at such distress as well, because here it is, someone much smarter and educated than me explaining how our Earth was a “being” just like we were, which was more than enough proof for me, and as a race, we were running a mock with it, totally disrespecting this being we lived upon. I began to think of us humans as the neutral organisms in our microbiome that could either go to the good side or bad depending on the environment we create for ourselves. And once there is a bigger portion of the bad organisms, we produce toxins that are bad for our entire earth (Gaia), and cause it to implode somehow, as we see in many IBS conditions when our microbiome is overtaken by the bad microbes. Perhaps the warming of the climate is just like inflammation in our bodies that had been receiving junk for nutrition for years, and not properly paid attention to. So many people today have IBS and autoimmune diseases, both intricately connected to gut health.  Spiritually, the gut health is connected to deeper relationships (family, environment, with oneself, higher realms etc) and immune issues are connected to our sense of security, which are both being threatened at a larger scale when we see how we have managed to deforest so many parts of the world with no regard to other beings that share this home with us, and causing the 6th largest extinction we are witnessing today. That is just one way in which we are disconnected. The social, racial, and political divide also tells another story of our disconnectedness. This began to be even more evident to me as I studied the spiritual aspects of the herbs we generally use for IBS and Immune issues such as the mushrooms, Aloe, Japanese Knotweed, Elecampane, and many others. Our health is a direct reflection of the state of our planet and our consciousness. We are the planet. The Matryoshka doll image I had as a child, now, I understand it as the “As above so below” philosophy of the Alchemists. When Ancients talk about balance and co-creation, it is with all the dimension of the Matryoshka doll. You can see this connection clear as day in the herbal medicine world as plant’s ability to heal the physical body is reflected on what they can do spiritually for us. So I can't help but to imagine, if each of us not only paid attention to the health of our gut, and our relationships (people to people, environment, how we treat animals, etc), how much better, could we make our world collectively? (Also what is Gaia a part of then? What is the universe? Makes you think right?)

For true happiness to take place, everything we are connected to must be balanced and be happy. So what is it that we can do on an individual basis? I really think it is to work on ourselves. Go in with our energy instead of out, and make our own energy that you give off to the world better. Plants help us do so in the manner of creating awareness within us. They give us the ability to see clearer towards a better future.

This is why I am very serious about healing ourselves to heal the world. And it was difficult for me to write this because I know… who am I to write such things. I am in the same boat as everyone else. I am in no position to tell people what to do. I am always finding more and more things I need to face within myself and beliefs and emotions and other things to peel off of or to stare directly into to accept before I can use that energy for renewal, and that work is very hard.  Plus, knowing something, and putting something into action are two different things and I very much struggle with it. But the more you are aware, the more naturally you lean towards better choices, I think. I have lots of forgiving to do too. And it is hard. And there are many things I have not even discovered about myself. But… at the same time, I felt I needed to get over myself in this fear of judgment. If it helps even one person in any way to mention the connections I began to see, then it is worth saying something because now I truly feel one person’s healing impacts all of us.  

Another thing I wanted to mention here was the importance in trusting what comes to you.  We are always given messages that we often feel as gut instincts and we tend to dismiss them because we have become such a “thinking” society. Many of us also feel it in the heart too, but it’s getting long now, so I will leave that for the next time.

Image by @imogenfoxell