Step 6 - Month 5 | Steady the Colon
- therhythmofhealth
- Nov 21, 2025
- 5 min read
If everything feels fine when you eat, but the next morning you’re running to the toilet, or nothing’s moving for days, that’s your colon and motility system asking for attention.
This is the final stage of digestion. It’s where water is absorbed, stool is formed, and waste leaves the body. Your colon has an enormous amount of nerve endings, so when this part of your gut feels irritated, you feel it everywhere, your mood, your sleep, even your energy.
What It Feels Like
You might notice:
Urgent morning bowel movements or loose stools.
Alternating constipation and diarrhoea.
Bowel movements that change dramatically with stress, emotions or hormonal shifts.
Pain, cramping, or spasms in the lower abdomen.
The feeling of not being “done” after going.
These symptoms don’t always mean there’s something structurally wrong. Often, they just mean your colon is reacting too strongly to signals from higher up the chain, like bile arriving at the wrong time, or too much stress tightening the gut wall.
Why It Happens
The colon relies on steady rhythm and good communication from the rest of the gut. When that rhythm breaks, the colon gets confused. Sometimes it holds on too long, sometimes it lets go too quickly.
Common causes include:
Nervous system tension | When you’re still in fight-or-flight, the colon tightens. See Step 2 | Calm the System
Bile dumping | When unbound bile acids spill into the colon they irritate the lining. See Step 4 | Rebalance Bile + Enzymes
Low magnesium or hydration | The muscles can’t contract properly.
Imbalance after antibiotics | Less bacteria that produce butyrate (Butyrate is the main fuel source for your colon cells, it's also used to sooth and protect the lining.)
Hormonal shifts | Estrogen and progesterone both affect colon motility.
How to Support Colon Rhythm
This stage is about calming and steadying, not forcing.
Calm the gut-brain reflex | Before eating, take a few breaths, rest your hand over your abdomen, and tell your body it’s safe to receive food. This simple cue starts a cascade of relaxation through the colon. [Step 2 | Calm the System]
Keep warmth in your belly | Cold drinks and cold foods can trigger spasm. Use a heat pack over your lower abdomen when it feels tight or unsettled.
Move gently after meals | A ten-minute walk helps colon motility. Sitting still too long after eating can make it sluggish.
Hydrate smartly | Sip throughout the day. Large drinks all at once can cause food to rush undigested into the colon, especially if they’re cold or taken soon after meals.
Balance magnesium | Magnesium helps regulate muscle tone in the colon. Start low, and build up slowly.
Fibre | A Slow, Gentle Introduction
Once the gut has steadied itself from Steps 1 - 5, fibre becomes useful again. Before that, it usually just causes noise: bloating, gas, swings between constipation and loose stools. But once the top of the chain is working (calm system, good stomach acid, steady bile flow, balance microbiome), fibre can finally do the job it’s meant to do.
At this point, fibre acts like a gentle broom for the colon and a slow, steady food source for the microbes in the large intestine (where they actually belong). This isn’t about hitting a daily fibre target. It’s about reintroducing it slowly, watching your body, and only adding what genuinely helps.
Slowly introduce soluble fibre | Soluble fibre absorbs water and forms a gel. It’s the calming, hydrating kind that's helpful for those rebuilding after antibiotics, and constipation. Begin with tiny portions of partially hydrolysed guar gum (PHGG), or cooked, peeled, de-seeded foods like zucchini, carrot, pumpkin, and parsnip. They help to feed butyrate producing bacteria, as well as binding bile acids. Fibre isn't for everybody, you'll know fibre is working if bloating, stools, gas and energy improve rather than worsen. If symptoms reappear pause fibre to let the gut rebalance, and then try a different type.
During meals | Balance bowel rhythm when both constipation and loose stools alternate.
After meals (30–60 min) | Bind excess bile.
Between meals | Feed microbes gently without interrupting digestion.
Slowly introduce insoluble fibre - often much later | Helps to add bulk and speed to the stool by stimulating movement through the colon. But it can also irritate a sensitive gut if used too early. Think of it as the broom that clears waste. Start small, a few forkfuls of cooked greens once daily with meals may be enough. Avoid raw salad or bran-type fibres during repair as they are abrasive and gas-forming. If symptoms return pause the fibre and wait until the gut settles.
Only use insoluble fibre after stomach acid, bile, and enzymes are flowing smoothly, stools are not loose, and there's no ongoing bloating or pain. If the colon is still reactive or bile dumping is happening, insoluble fibre can scratch the lining and make things worse.
If It’s Not Settling
If urgency or pain keeps showing up even when your rhythm, hydration, and meals are steady, or if your stool stays pale, greasy, or just doesn’t look right, it usually means something further up the chain needs more attention. Sometimes it’s bile arriving at the wrong time. Sometimes it’s the nervous system still sitting in alert mode (sympathetic nervous system). In those moments, circle back to the earlier steps, and let things settle again.
And if things still don’t shift, that’s when it’s worth touching base with a practitioner who knows how to look deeper. A few well-chosen tests can help you see whether the microbiome is still out of balance or if there’s a structural issue that needs proper investigation. See "When to Get Help" and "What About Lab Testing?" on the Step 1 | Begin Here page.
The Goal
You’ll start noticing more regular bowel movements, less urgency, and a feeling of ease, like your gut is finally working with you, not against you.
The goal isn’t perfect stool charts or daily bowel movements at the same time every day. It’s stability. That quiet, confident sense that your gut is back in rhythm, responding calmly, and holding steady through. The final step, Step 7 | Building a Lasting Rhythm, brings everything you've learnt and practiced together.
→ Step 7 - Ongoing | Build a Lasting Gut Rhythm ← Up Next
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