I’ve got digestion on my mind … literally and metaphorically.

Last week I returned home from 7 days in LA, my 3rd airplane trip in 6 weeks, where I was also taking in a lot of information and experiences. More on that another day.

What happened when I got home, though, was that my body, my digestive system specifically, shut down and was behaving in ways that were not usual for me at all … cramping and painful. Ouch!

Honestly, I wasn’t all that surprised given the volume of info I was taking in that week.

So much whacks out our digestive system and travel, especially on an airplane, is one of them. So are seasonal and life transitions, experiences big and small, holding our breath, and honestly anything that pulls us from giving our bodies time to integrate what is going into it. Food, emotions, experiences, all the things …

As I mentioned, this was my 3rd trip in 6 weeks and I have more coming. I am in a season of traveling every 2 weeks or so this spring. I haven’t been in this kind of pace in years.

And you know what? The other day I realized something has changed in a major way.

I used to be someone who would look at a space in my calendar and if there wasn’t anything booked, I considered it free. I completely missed looking at the bigger picture, zooming out just a bit to see what was happening in the days and weeks around that apparently open free space.

That is not what’s been happening this season … the reason I even have 2 weeks in between trips is because I was tending to that bigger picture and giving myself some time. And I was not relating to that in between time as free space … it was integration time, grounding, changing pace and slowing down to the best of my ability.

I realized that all those years of practicing this, finding ways to increase my awareness and stop this habit of overfilling my schedule had started happening more naturally. (That is how that works by the way, and why it matters to keep practicing.)

It still takes my awareness and intention, however I am no longer using my energy to remember to zoom out a bit more than that seemingly open calendar space. In fact I didn’t even realize I was doing it until the other day. Now I get to use my energy for discernment on what goes into my calendar, including integration and digestion time. A much more resourced place!

I sure am glad I had it last week given all that ouchy pain … I’m feeling much better by the way, because I’ve rested and been engaged with my life, choosing wisely who I am with and what I am doing. And I found a new body worker to help me learn about my body from another perspective, which is always fun for me.

So, I wonder if there are any ways that perhaps increasing your awareness of how and what you are experiencing in your life may support you in zooming out just enough to give your being (and your body) some time to digest some more. So that you can receive the nourishment and wisdom.

That’s my invitation to you this week … to ponder that for a bit and see what you notice in your own habits.