Since I have struggled with digestive issues for the past 3 years, I have been on quite a journey to determine how to heal my body. During my journey I have been surprised to learn how many other women are plagued with digestive issues. I have wondered why this is. In my case birth control, specifically Yasmin, was the root cause of my digestive issues. As a result of taking Yasmin I think the good and bad bacteria in my intenstines became out of balance. I still don't have an exact diagnosis, even after seeing one doctor after another, but I do know my problems started shortly after taking Yasmin. This post isn't about my horrible experience with Yasmin (I will write another post on this topic) however, but instead this post is meant to offer my own theory on the correlation between women, energy, and digestive issues.

I personally believe my digestive issues came about because my energy was out of balance. Yes, Yasmin started the issues but I think my health problems forced me to evaluate an imbalance between my male and female energy. During the peak of my stomach issues, I was working with predominately all men. I was an HR professional but the majority of my clients were male. I found myself feeling the need to have my male energy dominant. I felt I had to stuff my female energy away in order to be respected and successful. During this time I told my brother, "I am much different at work than I am outside of work." My brother asked this simple, yet quite pertinent question, "Do you like who you are at work?" It was one of those "Aha" moments when I realized I didn't like who I was at work. The reason? I wasn't being true to myself. My most authentic self is someone who has a healthy balance of male and female energy. By nature I am an extremely caring, nurturing, and feeling-oriented individual. This is my female energy. I am also a highly competitive, assertive, driven individual. This is my male energy. I needed to figure out how to balance both these sides of myself in order to be both happy and healthy at work.

In my next position I allowed my female energy to come out. As a result I found myself being relaxed, at peace, and very comfortable with myself. This was quite a change from the person I used to be. I didn't need to pretend anymore. I still had stomach issues but I noticed they weren't quite as severe. My whole body felt better and I had more energy. When we aren't true to ourselves, it sucks the living life out of us, as I experienced first-hand.

This brings me back to my original question of why women deal with digestive issues. From what I learned in my research, our stomach is our source of power. We store a lot of our emotions in our stomach. Women, especially those working in Corporate America, seem to struggle with balancing their male and female energy. As a result of women not being true to themselves, I think a lot of women have health problems as a result. Women are afraid of being too "soft" or too "emotional" and as a result, they overcompensate and turn into women trying to be like men.

Recently I met with an Organizational Development Consultant at a large Fortune 500 company. She said her goal was to bring feminine energy into the organization. I couldn't believe what I heard. I was so excited someone actually cared about energy in the workplace and was trying to do something about it.

This HR professional said she had encountered a lot of women who weren't fully owning their female energy. They didn't dress up or wear make-up for fear of standing out. They were uber aggressive when this wasn't natural for them. I could absolutely relate to everything this woman was telling me because I had observed, and experienced, a lot of things she was talking about. The HR professional said many women she meets with are unhappy because of the simple fact that they are not being true to who they are. Denying 50% of your energy, female energy in this case, is denying 50% of who you are.

So, if you are experiencing digestive issues, try to determine if your energy is out of balance. Do you feel you are pretending to be someone you are not? Do you find yourself trying to force your male energy to dominate? Do you feel you can't be true to yourself in the workplace?

When we fully step into our most authentic selves, our whole body takes a deep breath, lets out a huge sigh, and relaxes. Do yourself a favor, and step into your most authentic self!

Colleen Canney is a Career, Life, and Wellness Coach based in Milwaukee, WI. For more information on Colleen, please visit her website at www.colleencanney.com. To contact Colleen for a FREE consultation, please email her at colleencanney@live.com.