By: Roos Neeter & Julia Blohberger
Julia and Roos, teachers at Delight Yoga and Ayurveda students at Delight Academy, have created a calendar about healthy digestion and happy pooping. They dare you to look back by becoming aware of your digestion. The calendar has a weekly tracker where they encourage you to become aware of your stools on a daily basis. In addition, it is filled with tips & tricks to improve your digestive fire.
Why is this important? Read their story below.
We came up with the idea for this calendar during the first lockdown. Everything was suddenly all about cultivating a strong immune system and eating healthy. We noticed that everyone is mainly concerned with the quality and quantity of food they consume, which is great, of course. But how we return our meals to mother nature seems to be a less popular topic.
In other words, we don’t like to talk s#*t :)
When you get to know a little more about Ayurveda you learn that going to the toilet daily for your number #2 is a sign of good health. On a mental level, it’s a sign that you let go of yesterday and start the new day with a clean sheet.
In the ideal world, you go to the toilet every morning, even before your breakfast! The consistency is of a ripe banana that keeps its shape when leaving the body. The color is brownish, has a neutral smell, and you need a maximum of 2 wipes to clean the back. If you recognise yourself in this picture you are already a super-pooper, congrats! But chances are high that you are one of the people that have little awareness of their pooping habits. That is a shame, because how you poop says a lot about your overall health and digestive fire.
The wisdom of Ayurveda teaches us that we all have an inner-fire, this element of fire supports transformation and digestion. It is not only the digestion of the food that comes in, but also everything that is taken in through the senses needs to be digested. Think seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. Therefore it is very important that our digestive fire is in balance, it should neither burn too high nor too low.
If you are often constipated and your poops are lumpy, dry, and hard to pass, this could be a sign of too much dryness. Or when you are visiting the toilet several times a day with loose stool, it might be that your fire is burning too strong. If you’re not used to looking back and saying hello, it might feel strange at first. But your number #2 is really a good reflection on how your central fire is doing.
In the calendar you can find 45 tips & tricks to inform you about healthy pooping habits. This concerns food, as well as yoga postures, meditation, mindful eating etc.
The Dutch variation is called Lieve Poep Kalender and will launch on February 23rd, available through this link. The non-Dutch speakers have to wait a little longer - in December 2021 the English version will be released with the title "Good Shit" in collaboration with an American publisher.
Illustrations by Froukje den Nijs
