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C h e c k o u t A B M P 's l a t e s t n e w s a n d b l o g p o s t s . Av a i l a b l e a t w w w. a b m p . c o m . 31 SAV V Y SELF-CARE energy because my digestive fire was high and could burn through anything. After the trauma I experienced, I could eat organic steamed kale drenched in olive oil with pumpkin seeds and not derive what I needed from it. Good digestion is vital to good health. Signs that your digestive system could use support include bloating after eating, erratic bowel movements, and lack of energy. If you are eating healthy food and still feel undernourished or have cravings, it might be time to care more directly for your digestive system. I know people who have eliminated practically every kind of food from their diet and still experience dietary woes. If this sounds like you, please understand that it might not be the food itself that is not working, but the process of breaking it down. Beyond just what we eat, how we eat and the way we feel about ourselves and our lives affects our ability to digest. Modern life requires us to digest much more than food. All the information we come into contact with every day through technology needs to be processed and metabolized. Learning to care for and support our digestive systems is a valuable investment in life energy. If you're having problems with your digestive system, seek help from a nutritional therapist or ayurvedic counselor. Educate yourself. The return will be a lifetime of good energy. What could be better than that? Jennie Hastings is a board-certified massage therapist, writer, and teacher. She is the creator of The Blossom Method and author of The Inspired Massage Therapist (Massage Blossom Books, 2012). She wants to be your friend on Facebook. Sign up for her monthly newsletter and check out her blog at www.massageblossom.com. asked her to tell me anything she could about eczema. I remember her saying, "Eczema is about not being able to fully digest what life has given you." Over time, I began to realize that she meant this not only in the literal sense of physical digestion, but also the digestion of emotions, images, sounds, and thoughts—basically all of life's experience. GOOD DIGESTION = GOOD HEALTH Eventually, I met a nutritional therapist who worked with me on my digestion. With a few key supplements (beet extract, to name one) to stimulate bile production in my gallbladder, my body was able to break down the fat I was eating and feed it to my skin. As quickly as I'd lost my skin to the itchy rash, my skin repaired itself. It felt like a miracle. Since then, I have learned that digestion is the most important part of eating. When I was 20 years old and still blissfully unblemished by some of life's more brutal realities, I could eat a Snickers bar and processed cheese and turn it into vital life 6 Things to Improve Digestion* 1. Meditate. 2. Do some form of daily movement. 3. Do not overeat. 4. Sip on ginger tea. 5. Eat your largest meal at lunchtime. 6. Release negative emotions. * Adapted from the Chopra Center, www.chopra.com. Signs that your digestive system could use support include bloating after eating, erratic bowel movements, and lack of energy.