Weekly Musings: Why Digestion and Elimination Matter (and How Ayurveda Can Help)

March 10, 2026

I said something in a recent Ayurveda talk that made the room go very quiet.

I’ve been giving these free introductory talks for almost two years now, and there’s always a moment where people lean forward a little because what they’re hearing isn’t something they’ve heard before.

This time it was about digestion. Or more specifically, elimination.

Digestion and elimination are not quite the same thing, though we often talk about them as if they are. Digestion is the process of breaking food down and transforming it into energy and nourishment for the body. Elimination is what happens after—when the body releases what it no longer needs.

Both matter, but elimination is often the easiest window into how your digestion is actually functioning.

And most people have no idea what “healthy elimination” really looks like.

I told the group that in Ayurveda, we consider someone constipated if they are not having a bowel movement every morning, without strain, at roughly the same time — and without coffee or another stimulant to make it happen.

And then I paused.

You could feel everyone thinking.

Because most of us were never taught what healthy elimination actually looks like. I certainly wasn’t before I began studying Ayurveda more deeply toward the end of the pandemic.

The Ayurvedic Lens

One of the first places Ayurveda looks when trying to understand someone’s health is digestion.

Not just what you eat, but how well the body processes and eliminates what it no longer needs.

It’s a surprisingly revealing window.

If digestion is strong and balanced, the body breaks food down efficiently, absorbs what it needs, and releases the rest without much effort. When digestion becomes irregular — too slow, too fast, or inconsistent — the system starts to show signs that something is off.

Sometimes that shows up as bloating or sluggishness. Sometimes it’s the opposite: things moving through the system too quickly.

And sometimes it’s simply that quiet, common experience of not going regularly, which many people have come to think of as normal.

Ayurveda would gently disagree.

Food and Daily Practices as Medicine (Without Perfectionism)

Recently I was talking with a dear friend, and somewhere in the conversation I got the sense that her digestion might not be moving as smoothly as it could.

Not dramatically. Just… a little stuck.

Which, honestly, is incredibly common.

The good news is that Ayurveda rarely starts with complicated solutions. More often, it begins with small daily rhythms that help the body remember what it already knows how to do.

For example, one of the simplest morning rituals is tongue scraping. It takes about ten seconds and quietly signals the digestive system that the day is beginning. If you’re curious, I made a short video explaining how it works.

Another practice I often suggest is soaking a small handful of raisins overnight and eating them in the morning along with the soaking water. It’s surprisingly effective at encouraging natural movement in the digestive tract, and it’s far gentler than reaching for stimulants.

Then there are the practices that support digestion indirectly — things like warm oil self-massage (abhyanga). I made a very short video with a few helpful pointers here.

Or a few gentle twisting yoga postures that massage the abdominal organs and help stimulate digestion. Here’s a quick one-minute video where I demonstrate a simple twist — and bonus, you can even do it in bed before getting up in the morning.

And perhaps most overlooked of all is rest. Practices like Yoga Nidra help shift the nervous system out of stress mode and back into the state where digestion actually works best. You can learn more about Yoga Nidra here.

Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation that promotes deep rest, nervous system reset, and intention-setting.

None of this needs to be done perfectly.

Often, one small practice done consistently can shift more than we expect.

What if your digestion is simply asking for a little more rhythm and attention?

Optional Seasonal Offering

If digestion has been feeling a little sluggish lately, I recently wrote a blog post about one of Ayurveda’s simplest remedies: CCF tea, a traditional digestive tea made from cumin, coriander, and fennel.

It’s one of the first things I reach for when digestion needs gentle support. And for me, this is usually after dinner.

You can read the full article here.

And because so many of you asked about it, we quietly opened a small Etsy shop this season where you can find our whole-seed CCF tea blend with rose petals, which makes the daily ritual very easy.