7 Ways to Promote Optimal Digestion (and stay regular)

Proper digestion, elimination and cleansing of toxins and waste products is one of the factors that deems an individual to be “established in health” according to Ayurveda. You should definitely be having a complete bowel motion each morning, before any food or coffee.

Here are 7 ways to promote a complete bowel motion each morning:

ONE - Sleep well, go to sleep before 10pm.

It’s not about how many hours you sleep for, it is about when you sleep.

Sleeping between 10pm - 2am is the crucial time to be asleep because that is the time your body performs its regenerative functions at a maximum rate. These functions include hormone regulation and liver detox and regeneration.(2)

The detoxification and stress elimination that occurs primarily between 10pm-2am at night escort toxins to the bowel to eliminate out of the body the next morning.

TWO - Wake up before or with sunrise.

The time period of a few hours before sunrise in Ayurveda is known as “vata time,” which means that all movements are enhanced at that time of the day, approximately between 2am-6am. 

This is why people wake up at that time to go to the toilet, dream more or naturally get up in the morning, because various “movements” are increasingly active.

One of those movements is a bowel movement.

Furthermore, the more you sleep in, the fatigue and sluggishness compounds, (this you actually feel more lazy the day you sleep in). Similarly, the more you sleep in, the more sluggish your bowels are.

THREE - Light dinner

Dinner should be the lightest meal of all so that your body can focus its biological energy on the vital restorative mechanisms that occur at night. Proper detoxification and elimination are one of these crucial processes that we don’t want to jeopardise by eating a heavy dinner.

FOUR - Meditate in the morning

Meditation calms the nervous system and the vata dosha, which is the biological energy responsible for moving everything in the body. When vata is in a balanced state, it primarily moves in a downward motion.
This is why meditation promotes proper bowel motion, because it is regulating proper downward movement of biological substances and energies.

FIVE - Sip hot water in the morning

Sipping plain hot water will help melt the toxins and flush them down and out.

SIX - Squat asana in the morning

While drinking hot water or doing self-abhyanga.

The squatting position or squat asana, is known as “malaasana” in yoga and Ayurveda, which literally translates to “elimination posture.” It also happens to be referred to as “squatting defecation posture” by modern science.

This yoga asana is not only wise to utilise while sitting on the toilet (get yourself a “squatty potty” to promote this), but can also be practiced in the morning to help move the stool to the channel of elimination.

The squat asana will help squeeze or contract your stomach which exerts pressure on your intestine, to help improve bowel movements. Furthermore, the flexion within the hips allows the rectoanal canal to straighten(3) and “unkinks” the channel of elimination.

You can squat while drinking sipping hot water or doing self-abhyanga in the morning.