Over the years I’ve gotten pretty good at listening to my body, of translating various signs and symptoms into actionable cause-and-effect chains (or at least as close to them as possible; it gets pretty tricky sometimes).
The hardest part is that my guts do not speak English or even Korean or Braille or any other language that uses abstract thought. Guts speak physicality. They speak hormone. They speak feeling.
Even then, I can only observe through a 3rd party translator, like the health of my skin, or my energy levels, or the quality of my poops. I can’t talk to my guts directly.
Sometimes I get so frustrated because I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU NEED, GUTS. More probiotics? Kill bacteria? Sleep? Are you dehydrated? Do I need to feed you more fiber or less fiber? JUST TELL ME!
And that’s the problem: they are TRYING to tell me.
It’s the same with plants, you know–they’re distressed and wilting, turning yellow and dropping leaves all over your desk–but you don’t know WHY. And they can’t tell you. They’re already doing the best they can to survive but I’m overthinking things like AM I OVERWATERING OR UNDERWATERING? DO YOU NEED MORE LIGHT OR LESS LIGHT? WARMER OR COLDER?
That’s when I pull out the little plastic stake with instructions, that comes with the plants. Those at least give you a hint of what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it.
Sometimes I feel like it’s a complete shot in the dark as to what’s going to make my gut better, since my abdomen didn’t come with a little plastic stake full of instructions.
But that’s not entirely true–I know from experience and talking with my doctors what is good for me. More low-FODMAP fiber, more sleep, more water, more herbals.
Usually one of those helps.