Colon Processing Rate
In yoga practice when one does the 3rd and 4th parts which are asana postures and pranayama breath-infusion, these two practices do help with the overall state of mind during meditation as well as during routine activity.
The rate of digestion in the stomach and higher intestines, as well as the rate of processing and movement of food waste through the colon is accelerated by the postures and breath-infusion.
One can prove this to one self by doing asana and pranayama practice once or preferably twice per day, while making notations for about a month about the time of evacuation daily.
After making these notations for one month, one will get an idea of the rate of digestion and evacuation of food as to if it takes a day, two days, three days or more for food matter to be processed. To start this check, one should take a meal of a predominant color like say, a meal of greens like spinach, or a meal with much turmeric. Then one should carefully check each evacuation after the meal to find the one which is colored green in the case of the spinach or the one which is colored yellowish as in the case of turmeric. Once that evacuation is noticed, one can then tell how many hours or days it took for that meal to reach the rectum.
For this check to work properly, one should not use a laxative or peppers or any other type of intestinal irritant for the period of checking.
Once that colored meal is evacuated, one should check to see the frequency of evacuation of the main meal by checking the regularity of passing the waste. After establishing that regularity period as hours or days, one may then make another check which is to stop doing the postures and breath infusion for one week. Then notice if the evacuation has slowed down, and check by how many hours it was extended.
Another check to make is as to the compactness of the waste which is evacuated. Usually if one ceases doing asana postures and breath infusion, the waste will transit through the intestines and colon at a much slower rate, which means that the time it takes for the food to be processed from the stomach to the rectum will increase. In addition because the food is transiting slower, the waste will be more compacted. It will contain much less moisture.
The intestinal and colon systems are such that if food lingers or moves slowly through, the walls of the tubing extract more and more liquid from the waste. This makes for a drying waste. In addition some of the liquid in the waste will be converted into gas. That also causes a drying harder waste material to form. This does not mean however that one should become habituated to peppers, spices or laxatives to hasten the food through the system. Peppers and spices will eventually cause ulcers and other digestive-related problems. While laxatives will deter the development of prompt peristaltic movements, causing the muscle operation to become totally disabled in time.
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As contrasted to my normal routine which is twice per day, recently, I was at a location where I could do postures and breath infusion only once per day. After I was at this place for one day, the next day, I noticed that my evacuation occurred three hours later. I also noticed that the stool was more compacted, more dry, which meant that it was evacuated with difficult and with the application of much muscular pressure.
This continued while I was at that place. When I left there, I resumed the double daily sessions of posture and breath infusion. I noticed that after two days, my evacuation resumed and was earlier and was not compacted.
This proves that asana posture and breath-infusion serve for a prompter and much easier digestion and evacuation.
The question arises however as to how this serves the purpose of meditative part of yoga practice.
Does this help meditation?
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Much is impacted by compacted fecal matter lingering within the walls of a human’s innards, and that includes meditation.
Prompt elimination by promoting a smooth and timely transition of digested food matter allows for the following to take place:
Gases accompanying long digested fecal matter are eliminated. One can understand that gases are sometimes an indication of a need to evacuate.
The elimination of stale gases definitely is in line with pranayama, it is not just about inhaling prana or oxygen, but the conjugated actions of in taking of oxygen O2 (two molecules of oxygen bound together) and eliminating of negative gases primarily carbon dioxide CO2 (the two molecules of oxygen now bonded with one of carbon).
The relative saturation of the system with positive subtle air is naturally aided by the elimination of negative ones anywhere in the bodies, so that includes the digestion system.
Disgusted food matter or even compost (for a vegetarian) produces much of the same composition of air, to include carbon (C), nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O), water (H2O, gradually lost in through digestion), but waste contains methane (CH4) as well. Methane, a heavy carbon is used in used up in the process of composting so as to make and lock in nitrogen, sought after for plant life.
Another important contribution to meditation, of prompt elimination is that the bodily systems will run more efficiently. The presence of retardive fecal matter in transit causes a sense of bloatedness that the individual is more or less sensitive to depending on what level of regularity they are used to, ranging from a couple of times a day to fewer than that per week; the whole digestive apparatus is capable of great adaptability, flexibility and expansion.
Upon elimination and by osmosis or decrease of internal pressure, other fluids, gases, hormonal molecules and such immediately start to move at a higher speed, depending on sensitivity that increased level of molecular activity can be felt, a the cellular level. Other less subtle manifestations are of course the sense of relief, from dumping literally, and mucus membranes decongest as they become freed to eliminate.
An even more subtle sense of contribution can be noted with effective elimination of urine. Ultimately elimination is indeed affected by activity, by excellence asanas as they reach more effectively into the internal parts of the body, than any other form or context. So both digestion, intake and elimination of foodstuff and respiration, intake and elimination of air are important to pranayama and other subtle mechanisms, even naad perception.
Such fecal matter also has the chemical tendency to increase the acidity in the body instead of the balance towards alkanity, which is also very much affected by food types consumed. The blood normally should range between a PH of 7.35 and 7.45 a rather narrow margin between total acidity at PH 0, and the corresponding alkalinity of PH 14. A vegetarian diet consists the most of alkalinizing foods.
Furthermore, when food is consumed to be digested during sleep time then not only will there be an imbalance of energy in order to properly digest and at the same time also allow physical, physiological, psychological and subtle form regeneration. Such practice will for lack of activity during those hours not allow for proper movement of the foods or elimination of gas a direct byproduct of the process along with other symptoms of a disrupted smooth digestion process.
