The term “holistic living” has been gaining popularity but with that growth, the true essence of holistic living can get diluted. In this post, you will discover the genuine meaning of holistic living and receive practical steps to begin integrating holistic living principles into your lifestyle.
The Meaning Of The Word 'Holistic'
The phrase “holistic living” or “holistic lifestyle” carries numerous connotations even though the concept is actually quite simple.
There isn’t one set way to live holistically. Holistic living looks different for everyone and there’s so much information out there that it can get overwhelming.
I think if you understand what this term actually means, you’ll see that it isn’t that daunting to add these concepts into your life. You just need to take it one step at a time.
In terms of “holistic medicine,” this phrase means looking at the whole person instead of looking at each body part individually. Sometimes this gets lost in modern medicine because healthcare practitioners have become so specialized.
I feel that this is good in some ways because these specialists know so much about one specific system, but I also think that the whole person needs to be looked at as well.
It’s important to look at the entire person because everything is connected.
From a non-medical standpoint, holistic means looking at something in its entirety instead of just looking at individual aspects.
Holistic living means to take care of your entire being.
This means taking care of yourself from a physical, mental, and spiritual standpoint.
The Importance Of The Body, Mind, Soul Connection In Holistic Living
The body, mind, and soul/spirit are all connected together which is why it’s important to work on all three of them. And if you aren’t taking care of any of these parts, don’t worry! We’ll take this one step at a time.
A good example of a simple connection in our body is when you’re trying to lose weight. Say you’ve been working out consistently but you’re not experiencing any changes. Although you’re working out, you never changed your eating habits and you still eat a lot of processed unhealthy foods. You need to combine nutrition and exercise to attain your physical goals just like you need to combine mental health, physical health, and spiritual health to take care of your whole self.
It’s pretty common that we remember to take care of ourselves from a physical standpoint, but all too often we forget about the mind and spirit. This is probably because physical health is much more straightforward than the other two parts of holistic living.
Physical health is the basis for the other two though so if you’re not working on any of these, physical health is a good place to start!
Let’s look at these three aspects in a little more detail.
How To Practice Holistic Living
Taking care of the physical body
This one is pretty straightforward as most of us have some basic understanding of what we need to do to keep the body healthy.
As with anything, you can make this very complex, but I like to keep it simply by breaking it down into four parts.
1. Eat healthy
Choose minimally processed whole foods when possible and eat your fruits and veggies! Make sure you are getting all the vitamins and minerals you need. Also, make sure you are getting the right ratio of carbs, fats, and protein. If this overwhelms you, consider working with a dietician to get you on the right track!
2. Exercise and move your body
Our bodies are meant to move. If you hate working out then remember, you don’t have to do intense cardio to get in your exercise. Just going for a walk counts as movement! Find what you enjoy doing because then you’ll be more likely to be consistent.
If you sit a lot for work, try to schedule breaks to get up and move around throughout the day.
If you do sit a lot, you might like my free 5 day program to reverse the effects of sitting which you can find by clicking here.
3. Get adequate sleep
This one is probably easier said than done for people who have trouble sleeping.
Sleep health can get pretty complex but I do think that much of your quality of sleep relates to stress, so finding ways to manage stress is important.
4. Know when to give your body rest
As important as it is to exercise, we also need rest. If you use weights to workout your arms for multiple days in a row without a break, this is going to lead to issues. Remember to give your body the rest it needs. Having a self care ritual is a nice way to remind yourself to rest and relax.
Those are the 4 main categories to assess when it comes to physical health. Each of these categories can get pretty detailed and there are more aspects to physical health than just these 4 things but overall, if you are working on these 4 things, I think you’re doing a pretty great job at taking care of your physical body.
Taking care of the mind
I know this one can be tough for people because sometimes taking care of your mind brings up stuff that we would rather not deal with. Trust me, I’ve been there and still find myself struggling with this but you know what? Even though I struggle with this sometimes and would rather not deal with it, I feel a million times better mentally now compared to when I was just ignoring it.
I also combine emotional health with taking care of the mind.
Emotions can effect all parts of the body so they are important.
It’s important to let ourselves feel our emotions because otherwise they can start to present as physical symptoms or they can cause things like blocks in our energy.
But although it’s important to allow ourselves to feel our emotions, it’s also important not to hold onto negative emotions for too long. An emotion technically only lasts for a short period of time, but when we attach the emotion to something like a memory, we keep reliving that emotion. Reliving negative emotions only holds us back in life. Dr. Joe Dispenza is a great resource to learn more about this. I’m currently reading his book “Becoming Supernatural” and it’s truly fascinating.
A great way to work on the mind’s health is to be open to learning. Learning is how we keep our mind healthy whether it’s reading, listening to a podcast, or watching a video on something we want to learn. This can be anything you want, if you want to learn how to knit or something that totally counts.
I also think it’s important to take the time to learn about having a positive mindset and to work on self improvement. There are so many great resources out there for this.
Having a gratitude practice is also a great way to take care of your mind. A gratitude practice could be something as simple as writing down three things you are grateful for each morning. This helps your mind start to focus on the positives instead of negatives.
Taking care of the spirit
I think so many of us hear the word spiritual and think it’s the same as religion. You can be both religious and spiritual but you can also be spiritual without being religious. Religion is when you’re associated with a specific more organized group of beliefs. Spirituality is an individual practice. I have nothing against being religious, I just want you guys to know that they don’t have to go together.
There are many ways to tap into your spirituality. Like I said, this is an individual practice so this will look different for everyone.
Some ideas to get you started include:
1. Yoga: Many people don’t realize that yoga is actually a spiritual practice. This is how I started my own spiritual practice! Yoga is a great for people who are new to working on spirituality because many types of yoga are also a physical practice. Remember how the mind, body, and spirit are all connected? Well, working on our physical body through yoga can help us take care of our spirit.
2. Meditation: Meditation is great for spirituality because you take away all the distractions of the external world. It’s also good for the mind but then again, all three aspects of holistic living are connected so technically everything we’re talking about is good for all three, the mind, body, and spirit. 🙂
3. Try to consciously be aware of your surroundings: The more we live with awareness and live consciously, the easier it will be to connect with our inner spirit.
4. Look for the connection in things, because everything is connected: Like the mind, body, and spirit are connected, so is everything else in this world. The more we start to see this, the more our spirit will become awakened.
Everyone can benefit from working to incorporate holistic living into their lives.
Like I said before, take it one step at a time. I know that’s what I say for everything, but that’s because it’s true. When we take on too much at once then nothing gets done. So choose a starting point and slowly add on from there.
I’ve created a free checklist to help you to get started with holistic living. You can find it by clicking here: FREE HOLISTIC LIVING CHECKLIST!
I can’t wait for you to see all of the benefits that a holistic lifestyle can bring!