Feeling Constipated? These Tips Will Help
At some point in their lives, everyone has experienced issues with constipation and elimination. Here are some Ayurvedic tips you can use to help get your system flowing naturally and more consistently.
Become Aware – Constipation and elimination tend to be sensitive topics that people don’t normally like to talk about. Even if it’s embarrassing, it’s important to become aware of your elimination patterns. Are you someone that goes every day? Once, twice, three times a day? Are you someone who goes once every other day or every couple of days? Notice the timing in your cycle.
It’s also important to notice the consistency. If you only go once a day, is there a large amount of stool? Does it float? Does it sink? Is it small? Is it hard?
Stay Hydrated – It seems simple, but a major cause of constipation is dehydration. Make sure you’re drinking 8-10 glasses of water per day. I recommend 8 oz. every hour. If you drink more than that per hour (some people like to guzzle it down), you will pee it all out probably within 30 minutes and your body doesn’t have a chance to absorb the liquid into your digestive tract.
If you’re drinking plenty of water and it doesn’t seem to help, add a little bit of oil to your water. You can add coconut, sesame, almond or even olive oil. Just a tiny bit will make a huge difference: it will help moisturize the colon and enable your body to absorb the oil. Since the colon is a dry part of the body, it’s important to make sure it has some degree of moisture so the stool can flow through easily.
Alternatively, you can also just take a TB of whatever oil you choose in the morning or at night before you go to bed.
Get Moving – If you’re constipated due to a mobility problem, that is, if your colon is slow or sluggish regarding moving things through, then you want to increase your exercise. You core muscles, or your abdominals, are especially important: when they contract and expand, that will help the stool move along the colon instead of getting stuck, stagnant and dried out.
Eat Intelligent Foods – Leafy green vegetables (lettuce, kale, spinach and broccoli) act as a colon sweep and are great to help the colon get the stool moving along. My recommendation is to incorporate a leafy green vegetable into every meal, particularly dinner.
When you’re eating, consume the leafy greens last. So if you’re eating a pasta dinner and there is spinach on your plate, eat the pasta first and the spinach last. This will help move the stool through your body because raw vegetables are generally cool so you want to eat them last. This way your digestive fire stays stoked through the meal.
Was this helpful? What other tips do you use to help yourself stay regular? Leave a comment in the area below.
