After the small intestine digests 95% of our food, the large intestine digests the last five percent, mainly metals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium etc. It also extracts the last of the water so our stool can firm up. By eliminating the dregs, the large intestine purifies our blood.

All our meridians run a normal amount of energy all of the time. But in each 24-hour cycle, the meridians of each specific organ system run quite strongly for two hours. The meridians of the large intestine run from the side of the nose, out each arm to the index finger.

The large intestine meridians run full out from 5 AM to 7 AM. For most of our long history, that’s when we would wake up and have our morning bowel movement. This is normally the time when we focus on what we want to get done this day.

The muscles that make electrical energy for the large intestine system are the hamstrings, fascia lata and qauadratus lumborum.

Transformation and Change

The ancient Chinese considered transformation and change, not atoms, to be the building blocks of reality. Nothing stays the same. Thinking that we can make things stay the same creates havoc to our large intestine.

The large intestine is responsible for transformation and change in our life. The lungs and large intestine both function in the rhythm of taking in and letting go of what no longer serves us. We must let go of what no longer serves us to make space for inspiration to come into our lives.

Simply feeling all our feelings is the best way to let go of the toxic thoughts, feelings, and beliefs we get exposed to each day. Symptoms of not letting go include constipation, dry stools, skin rashes and being emotionally fixated on some issue, so we’re stuck and unable to move on. Hoarding is also a symptom of not letting go of toxic feelings and the thousands of toxic thoughts those feelings generate.

Feeling all our feelings progressively releases the pain and limitations of our past, even if we had a terrible past. The more toxic the past, the longer it is going to take to clear it. Worse, you remain attached to the people that caused you the pain as you go into your next lifetime. That ought to be enough incentive to deal with those painful feelings.

Dietary Considerations

If you are experiencing chronic IBS, you might consider going on an elimination diet. There are seven main food groups that cause most dietary difficulties: Wheat, corn, dairy, eggs, sugar, soy (which is in all processed foods as lethitin) and peanuts. Begin by only eating food that is on the elimination diet, completely bland food for three to six weeks, depending on your severity.

Then you start entering your favorite foods back in one-at-a-time. As you start letting your favorite food groups back in, you eat as much (of the first food you choose) as you want for three days, then stop for the next four days. If your symptoms blossom toward the end of the week, that food group should be eliminated from your diet. If you have no symptoms, you can let that food group back into your diet.

Then you choose the next favorite food group and eat as much of it as you want for the first three days, then none of it for the next four days to see if your symptoms bloom. This way, you recognize foods that have always irritated your colon. For many of you with IBS, this process will be quite illuminating.

Hanging onto the Pain

If we hang onto old pains, the season of fall can feel like relationships or things we need seem to slip away, like sand slipping through our fingers, that every year we seem to lose more of what we had. We can spend our precious time dredging up problems and what went wrong. Our spirit and soul can become quite toxic.

When we are preoccupied with dredging up the past and what went wrong, there’s no room for the blessings life wants to bestow on us. Focusing on the rear-view mirror, we have trouble moving on. We can become locked into rigid beliefs and ideas.

This rigidity shows up in our character as viewpoints of life that are so ossified that they leave no room for new possibilities or inspiration, for transformation and change. The rigidity that shows up in our character can generate frozen joint problems. Mainly affected are the shoulder, wrist or elbow along the meridian pathway of the large intestine. Less often we can also have ankles or knees that freeze up due to rigidly holding onto old pain or limiting beliefs.

When we can’t let go of toxic memories, we may also have trouble letting go of possessions that no longer serve any useful purpose. Hording is one of those issues. It may be time to clean a closet and take clothes we no longer wear to Goodwill. Or it may be time to clean the garage. Clearing out debris in our home coincides with getting our inner house in order. What do you need to let go of?

If the colon fails to get rid of the garbage, constipation, the progressive build-up of toxicity makes it difficult for our organ systems to perform their duties. All the organ systems in our body suffers.

The power to transform our life exists within each moment. The large intestine’s gift of “letting go” lets us rewrite our DNA. At every intersection of life, we can choose to be the best version of who we can be. Time just adds it up for us.