For many women navigating the maze of menopause, bloating can often feel like an unwelcome companion on the journey. As hormonal shifts wreak havoc on our bodies, the uncomfortable sensation of bloating can become a daily struggle. But fear not, there's hope on the horizon. In this article, we'll explore how the ancient practice of yoga can offer relief from menopausal bloating, helping you reclaim comfort and balance in your body.

In this article, I’ll be talking about hormonal changes, dietary considerations, mindfulness, and physical practices that can ease the symptom of bloating while managing perimenopause and menopause.

Bloating and Menopause

As we get older, our hormones start to decrease. This is a natural process that happens to all of us once we get to a certain age. And even here, I feel I need to say that our journey into and through menopause is so unique and personal. For some, they start to feel the symptoms at 35, and for some they only notice later, 45 or even 50.

When estrogen starts to fluctuate, its relationship to progesterone can create a tornado of body functions to become erratic, including how the body processes food and how it retains water.

According to Dr. Stephanie Goodwin, common triggers for menopausal bloating are onions, beans, and sugary treats. It can also be caused by dairy foods, and excessive salt.

When we feel bloated, it makes us sluggish, lethargic, uncomfortable, and anxious. It’s not an enjoyable sensation, and it affects how we function in our day to day lives. How we sit, lay in bed, drive, and the things we do to try to alleviate it.

How Yoga Therapy Helps

Yoga Therapy might be a good way to approach bloating if you are experiencing it often. With my clients, we work on cultivating a physical practice that helps to lessen the bloating in the moment, and we also work on building awareness and mindfulness in our relationship with food.

Lastly, I offer self care practices that reduce stress and tension so that the nervous system is calmer, and hormone flucuations are also calmer.

I’ve seen quite a few clients reduce or fully eliminate their chronic bloating with very simple and effective practices they learned in yoga therapy. Additionally, they found that less bloating means deeper sleep, more energy, more motivation to do activities they enjoy, like hiking or taking a class.

My ONE pose for bloating and gas:

If you do a Google search for “yoga for bloating” you will get 1000’s of articles, videos, and teachers who can lead you through asana for relief.

So instead, I want to share with you the single tried-and-true posture that will help you with bloating and trapped gas in minutes.

This was something my mother guided me through when I was little (I have a long history of anxiety-related digestive issues) and it still works to this day.

It’s so simple and yet so effective. Every client that I’ve met for digestive issues does this when they are having a “flare up” and it works.

1. Lay on your left side and pull your knees as far into your chest as is comfortable. Use a pillow under your head. You can also place a pillow between your knees to feel more comfortable if you like.
2. Take deep full breaths in and out
3. Stay here until the sensations lessen. You might experience burping or passing gas
4. That’s it.

Why does this work? When I was young, I just thought it was calming, which caused the body to release the trapped air. But now that I’ve studied and trained in yoga therapy and in Ayurvedic Nutrition, I have learned that the digestive system is placed in our body in a very specific way. As you lay in this posture, all the openings to the digestive organs are aligned at the “top.” That means any solid contents sink to the bottom and the air.gas rises to the openings and can be guided out of the body with your deep breathing, which massages the organs and sends the gas to the exit.

Also, it’s very calming, which reduces stress, which means better digestion and less gas.

Food Combining Matters

One of the things that drew me to Ayurvedic Nutrition was the aspect of food combining. When I was young, I wanted to be a chemist, and so the principles of food reactions still interest me and light up my curiosity.

Let’s start by talking about the concept of AGNI, or your digestive fire. Nearly all Ayurvedic practices are in service of building up that fire and reducing AMA, which is the waste products of undigested food that hangs around the digestive system.

It’s an unpleasant thing to think about, but it’s true. Not all of your food is assimilated or eliminated. Some of it gets caught in the cracks or just hangs out in the system, rotting and decaying. Sorry about that visual.

To minimize this, Ayurveda has a protocol of which foods to eat with each other to minimize the AMA and also to keep certain chemical reactions from happening in the stomach that can have gaseous byproducts.

An example of this is that you should never eat melons with any other foods, especially dairy.

Before I began this journey in Ayurveda, one of my favorite treats was watermelon and feta cheese. It was a perfect end to a day in the backyard barbecuing and such. But I always felt gross after, but I chalked that up to excessive eating and alcohol.

But after I started learning about food combining, I tried watermelon and feta by itself (this was after I began my sober adventure) and I could feel the bubbling in my gut. It was so unpleasant. I laid on the couch in my special gas pose for an hour, trying to get back to feeling calm in the stomach. I don’t eat those together at all anymore.

As we get older, moving through and beyond menopause, I feel like we gain a sense of control over the foods we eat and enjoy. There is a feeling of empowerment that we no longer bow to the trends of society and we eat foods we like and that feel good in our bodies. I think part of that is that we’ve been through the trial and error of eating stuff that makes us feel gross so we cross it off the acceptable list and keep on eating what we like.

Mindfulness is the Key

Building awareness and practicing mindfulness is your biggest power in fighting the menopausal bloat. Listening to your body, showing it love and taking good care is the only way to really keep bloating to a minimum.

Here are some things you can do to reduce the bloat:

1. Track your food intake. This helps build awareness of what you are eating, when you are eating it, and what is being consumed together–and when bloating happens you can see what was eaten to cause it. This also helps us build awareness of how much sugar and salt we consume. I am a firm believer of eating what you enjoy, and finding moderation in the types of food that nourish the body and the foods that nourish the heart.
2. Drink water warm–room temperature or as herbal teas. Cold water and iced water kills your AGNI, making it harder to digest the food in your system, which means more of it hangs around to become AMA.
3. Manage your stress. When we are stressed out, we struggle to be mindful in our decisions about food, sleep, and hygiene. Do yoga, go for a walk in nature, journal, talk to a therapist, give yourself the care you deserve.

Here I’ve offered up some very simple ways to manage bloating as you move through perimenopause and menopause. I hope they are effective and they help you feel better.

However, if you think you need more guidance, I am happy to chat with you about how yoga therapy and Ayurvedic Nutrition can help you dig deeper into the causes of your bloating as well as more customized and targeted practices to get you feeling more energized, lighter, and with a sense of more complete assimilation and elimination.

Additionally, I am offering free short classes on YOUTUBE that target the digestive system in perimenopause and menopause. Let me know if they help you out.

That’s it from me, may you eat well, sleep well, and have a great poop!

Mwah 😘 Take good care of yourself.

–Viviane

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VW