If digestion feels unpredictable—bloating one day, discomfort the next, reactions to foods that should be fine—it’s easy to assume the problem is the food. However,  digestion doesn’t begin in the stomach. It begins in the nervous system.

Digestion is a parasympathetic process. When the body feels safe, relaxed, and supported, digestive secretions flow, motility is coordinated, and nutrients are absorbed efficiently. When the nervous system is under stress—whether from inflammation, blood sugar instability, poor sleep, or ongoing emotional or relational strain—digestion downshifts in favor of survival.

You can’t digest well while running from a lion.

Why Stress Disrupts Digestion

When the nervous system is in a state of vigilance, several digestive processes are affected:

• Stomach acid and digestive enzyme secretion decrease, impairing the breakdown of food
• Gut motility slows or becomes uncoordinated, particularly in the small intestine
• Blood flow is redirected away from the digestive organs toward muscles and the brain
• The gut becomes more sensitive and reactive, amplifying discomfort and pain

This is not a failure of the body. It’s a protective response.

When stress signals remain active, the HPA axis stays engaged and cortisol remains elevated or mistimed. Because cortisol is one of the body’s primary tools for mobilizing energy and responding to perceived threat, digestion is deprioritized in favor of immediate survival needs.

Over time, slowed motility and reduced digestive secretions can create the conditions for bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine (SIBO) and contribute to IBS symptoms such as bloating, gas, pain, and altered bowel habits. When food isn’t fully digested or moved along efficiently, bacteria ferment it, producing inflammatory byproducts that further irritate the gut lining.

This irritation can increase intestinal permeability, driving immune activation and inflammatory signaling. As inflammation rises, the brain receives more “danger” signals from the gut, keeping the stress response active and making it harder for cortisol to settle into a healthy rhythm.

Pain itself becomes a stressor. This creates a self-reinforcing loop:

• Stress and inflammation activate the HPA axis
• Cortisol disrupts digestive timing and motility
• Digestive dysfunction increases pain and immune signaling
• The nervous system stays on alert

Breaking this cycle requires more than food changes alone. It requires restoring signals of safety that allow the stress response to soften.

How to Support Digestion When the Nervous System Is Stressed

Supporting digestion often means supporting nervous system regulation and cortisol rhythm first. Gentle, consistent cues of safety allow the body to shift out of survival mode and back into “rest-and-digest.”

Supportive steps include:

• Gentle vagal activation practices, such as slow breathing with a long exhale, humming, or pausing briefly before meals. These signals help downshift the stress response and support digestive secretions and motility.
• Ginger tea or ginger extract, which supports gastric motility and can help counteract stress-related slowing of digestion.
• Digestive enzymes, which may temporarily reduce the workload on the gut when nervous system activation has impaired enzyme release.
• Warm, simply prepared foods, which are easier for a stressed system to digest than cold, raw, or highly complex meals.
• Eating in a calm, unrushed state, even if the meal itself is simple. How you eat matters as much as what you eat.
• Lighting a beeswax candle or using warm, low light in the evening, which signals safety to the nervous system and supports the natural evening decline of cortisol.
• Safe, attuned relationships, which provide powerful cues of safety. When the body feels supported and connected, defensive physiology softens and digestion can function more effectively.

From a nervous system perspective, the body is constantly integrating information from the gut, the environment, and relationships to determine whether it is safe to digest.

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Digestion Is Built on Safety

Food quality, ingredient choices, and dietary patterns matter deeply. But digestion doesn’t heal through restriction or vigilance alone. It heals when nourishment is paired with regulation, rhythm, and a nervous system that no longer feels under threat.

When the nervous system feels supported, digestion becomes more resilient. Foods are tolerated more easily. Symptoms soften.

Digestion improves when the body feels safe.

If you’d like to explore how cortisol rhythm, nourishment, light exposure, and daily practices work together to restore that sense of safety, you can visit Gift #11: Restore Balance by Regulating Cortisol.