Dear Joshua,

I have had stomach bloating since I was in my early 30s and now I am in my mid 40s. As soon as I swallow the first bite of food, the bloating starts. By morning, the bloating is gone, but starts again with breakfast and lasts throughout the day through dinner time. The bloating is uncomfortable, it stops me from eating more, and I resort to wearing clothes with elastic or drawstring at the waist for comfort. All foods and even water can make me bloat.

Since I became more spiritually inclined, I have looked for spiritual answers to the bloating problem, rather than focusing on the foods I eat. My body is trying to tell me something about myself, but I struggle to figure it out.

Rachna

Dear Rachna,

You are a magnificent and limitless being of pure positive love and acceptance. However, you are living as a victim, completely blind to the magnificence that is you. You have a set of beliefs that hold you apart from your true self. The true self lives in harmony with the environment, the people, and the conditions that exist in the moment. The true self fully loves and accepts everything about herself. You are living a false perception of reality, believing that you are flawed in some way. Since you perceive yourself (including your body) to be flawed, you exist in a state of resistance. Your body is simply conforming to your beliefs about yourself.

If you are spiritually inclined, you must accept that you are not your body, nor are you separate from your body. You very much wanted to experience this reality in the exact body you have. You have not accepted that body in the past. You have viewed your body from a limited perspective of imperfection. This is an illusion.

In fact, your body is perfect. It’s not only perfect for you, it’s perfect for the life you intended to live. It’s perfect in every detail. Your body’s response to your thoughts are also perfect. Your body is responding to consistent negative and resistant thoughts and beliefs. In order to live fully as you intended prior to your birth, you must see yourself for who you truly are. You must see through the illusion of imperfection of any kind and fully see the magnificence and perfection that is you – Rachna.

You have two choices; continue to blame your body for problems or accept your body as perfect as it is. You can continue to focus on perceived problems in all areas of your life and live in fear or you can radically change your entire approach to life and see the perfection in it all. You must come to see your own perfection as well.

If you continue to live in fear rather than love and acceptance, you will find more to fear. Your body will continue to give you stronger and more intense feedback. If you choose to completely shift your focus of attention to all that you appreciate, you will gradually begin to feel better. However, you must not do this in order to achieve something. You may only strive to feel grateful and appreciate the body you have because that will, in and of itself, feel better. You appreciate those in your life, because that feels good. You appreciate the conditions of your life because it feels good to do that. And if you shift focus from fear to love, from problems to fix to things to appreciate, you will shift how you feel in general and your body will respond in kind.

With our love,
We are Joshua