Stinkin Thinkin

​For a long time I have known about the gut-brain health connection, but only recently have I gained new insight.
Listening to a random 1 hour long YouTube video titled: Gut bacteria and mind control: to fix your brain, fix your gut!  By Professor Simon Carding: the video began to answer a few personal mystery’s for me.
Mystery 1: What happened to me after the death of my first husband?  (This is an umbrella question, and this answer only provides insight into one small area)
According to the video, by changing our eating pattern, or even by fasting, we alter our gut bacteria, which in turn alters our behavior and mood.
If I am honest, as I look back on that time, I was not eating well, and at one point during the worst of it, was eating nothing at all, not even drinking water. (yes, it got that bad) How my body survived, I do not know!  It was only after my family removed me from my home and took me to live with them, fed me and made me drink water, that I began to think clearly again.  I am still in awe and slightly afraid of the experiences I had during this time.
Many of the things that happened were borderline nervous breakdown, or paranormal. Throw in the fact that I had been drugged and raped while on vacation, and we have a total disrupt of life.
Looking back, it seems the rape set up the cascade of fearful thoughts which led to not drinking water or eating food.  Being continually on alert also overloaded my body, causing my gut to stop producing certain bacteria. Adding more fear and stress were the paranormal things that were happening in my home (which are on recorded closed circuit cameras). When my body was depleted due to stress and fear, it began to break down my mental capacity and may have opened doors into other realms.  It just kept getting worse and worse, until there seemed no way out.
Glady, for me, being around people, eating good meals and drinking water, brought back my health.  Some of the fear lingered as I set out on my own again.  It took me a long time to venture out of my apartment very far.  There was still that fear of being raped.  And I could only eat the food I prepared, out of fear of being drugged. Any alcohol was out of the question!  
But one thing that the video brought up was that once this biome has been changed in our gut, we are predisposed to go back there, if we do not maintain our physical and mental health.  We need to keep our stress low, nutrition high, and thoughts positive. 
Having been through this experience, I now have reference points which serve as reminders.  There are times I feel afraid, or begin to have those paranoid thoughts, then I stop and think: “Did I eat enough?”  “Did I drink enough water today?”  “Did I take my supplements?”  Usually any of those old feelings begin to subside after I eat some food or drink some water.
Mystery 2: I am not the same person I used to be, where did she go?
I used to be more outgoing and outspoken, but now it seems I am less of those and more content to just do my own thing and not need anyone else.  This could partly be due to being married again, and having less stress now, allowing myself to relax more.  Or something could have changed inside of me.
There was a time on the hospital, after my husband’s stroke, that I looked in the mirror and did not know who was looking back at me.  I think this was when the change happened. I was under the most stress I had ever been in my life!  The person in the mirror was a stranger to me, I did not know my own reflection, but did ask her, “Who the hell are you! and where did Jessica go?”
According to the video, there is a real possibility that something did change inside of me to make me this way.  In all honesty, I do have my days were I still bite off more than I can chew, speak my mind, and kick ass, but those are more calculated. In these moments I feel the old me inside somewhere, but she doesn’t stay long.
In the video, there was this study which was about gut bacteria and personality. They took rats which were outgoing and rats which were very shy, and did a fecal matter implant from the outgoing rat to the shy rat and vis versa. Interestingly, the outgoing rat became less apt to escape its cage and explore, and more content to just be a regular rat. The shy rat was now escaping its cage and exploring.  These two rats had changed personalities by being given fecal matter transplants from each other.   
You’ve heard of the organ transplant and personality change, but this was much faster and without rejection. When the fecal matter from other shy rats was studied, it was found to contain different bacteria than that of the outgoing rats. 
After hearing this, I put two and two together and thought, “Of course!  After being under new prolonged stress, which began when my first husband had the stroke, until I was raped, my gut bacteria had changed!  It had changed so much that I was really not my old self at all anymore.  Only at times, when the bacteria are just right, do I feel the old me.  But to be honest, I sort of like this new me better.  She’s more settled and can let go of things better.
Mystery 3: Arthritis pain.
I’ll be honest, my physical health was never that great from birth!  I was born a blue baby, almost died several times due to not being able to breath at age 2-3, had several other episodes of not being able to breathe, had a severe rash for a few years which nothing could relieve, could never participate in sports, turned red anytime I exert myself, died from a medication, and react to any medication I’ve ever been given.  Add to this, severe arthritis in my body, most days a pain scale of 10, but I have a high pain tolerance – yeah me!
After listening to this video, a huge light went on.  I have really been working on my personal health since the whole Covid thing started, because I really like hypnosis and want to teach it to other people.  I mean, what else do you do when you’re stuck home for months on end? 
I have studied herbals, mind body health, and most things alternative health, for a very long time, since my body does not react to most of them.  Recently, I began to notice how I suddenly have less over all body pain, to the point I really overdo it and make my husband upset with me.  I hadn’t even noticed the pain wasn’t there, because it always was!
Thinking back, it started to disappear when I began to hit the enzymes and probiotics heavy – taking them daily or several times per day.  I also have so little stress now, that I wonder if I should be feeling something else!  (there are things that bring stress, but I can more easily just let it go) It turns out, in the lab studies, the gut bacteria has been found to eliminate chronic and auto immune diseases. 
The video also added that to eliminate the diseases, it also took a shift in thinking, lowering stress, and supplementing the healthy gut bacteria; which in turn changed as the gut health improved.  They found thoughts and gut health were linked.  They also found that as gut bacteria changed, so did all the habits.  To keep breeding, these new bacteria, change our taste buds and emotions, likes and dislikes, so they can keep breeding more!
All of this leads me to marvel at what we do as hypnotists.  We help a person change their thoughts, and change them long enough that their body in turn begins to change the bacteria which is being produced in their gut.  When the thoughts are changed long enough, their whole gut biome changes, which causes a ripple effect and you have a changed person, literally!
So, those old saying are true: “Stinkin thinkin.” and “Shit for brains.”
“Change your thoughts and you change your world” Norman Vincent Peale.  What if your world actually changes from the inside out! There are whole other ramifications if you toss in quantum theory and multi universes.  I mean, do we change dimensions by changing our gut health and thoughts?  Okay, I won’t go down that rabbit hole, but do consider it…
By changing your thoughts, and taming your tongue, you change your gut bacteria, which produces more bacteria, changing your diet, to support the thoughts, words, and life you want!
You owe it to yourself to take one hour of your life and really listen to this video.  Maybe it will anger you, maybe it will inspire you, or maybe it will change your gut bacteria.  One thing is for sure, you will learn something, professor Carding covers so much more than I have begun to describe here. 
I wish all of you happy Trance-Formation, inside and out!
Jessica L Hanson