As awareness grows around health and wellbeing, so does interest in holistic health. More and more people are seeing that the conventional ways of addressing health issues are not quite serving them. People can spend their entire lives on the merry go round in and out of doctor’s offices, never finding answers or relief.
Holistic medicine offers a way to address the person as a whole. Conversely, in traditional medicine, the body is addressed in pieces. Trying to separate out the human system can be detrimental and finding answers and solutions. As a result, so much of the time, the underlying issues don’t get addressed.
I myself have been on the holistic health path for the last 8 years. I have learned through what I called “The School of Hard-knocks” – having to learn through experience, trial and error. This includes the help of various kinds of health wand wellness practitioners, teachers, and mentors. But mostly, I learned through my own profound healing process. I have learned to heal and live in a way that is intended to support balance on all levels of my being. I believe it’s my purpose to help guide and support others in striving for and achieving this balance as well.
Holistic Health Definition
Definition: Utilizing complementary modalities, the body, mind, spirit, and emotions are brought into balance to prevent and treat dis-ease.
Holistic health acknowledges that nothing happens in isolation. It’s crucial to address the whole human system as such – whole. Just as we are each interconnected and interdepedant with each other, every aspect of ourselves is also deeply interdependent. Our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical dimensions come together to create the whole of who we are and what we experience.
Nature is also an integral part of holistic health. Balance and harmony within ourselves is supported when we recognize that we are also intertwined with the cycles and rhythms of nature. In holistic health, the medicine that nature provides both at physical and more subtle energetic levels is understood and honored.
In addition, it could be said that holistic health is a way of life. When you consider the four interdependent parts of our being, you may notice that everything we do impacts our health. Activities or habits like keeping a toxic free home, eating nourishing healing foods regularly, gardening, meditating, exercising, journaling, and so on, are supportive of a holistic healthy lifestyle.
Holistic Health Examples
When we address the human system as a whole, it helps us integrate all parts of ourselves and experience a smoother life. Rarely is something happening as a result of just one thing.
For example, if you have a headache, it could be because you didn’t sleep much the night before or because you’re dehydrated. But chances are, it would be a combination of something like that along with being emotionally exhausted. Often, even something as simple as a headache is a combination of things.
Here is a (holistic) approach I might take to a headache:
- Hydrate more
- Check to see if I need to nourish with healing foods
- Ground my energy
- Check in with my emotions
- See what beliefs might be popping up around my discomfort
- Rest
Dimensions of Holistic Health
Traditionally, there are 5 main dimensions of holistic health. Though these areas can be listed separately, they all overlap greatly and are interdependent on each other.
- Physical: nourishing with healing foods, minimal supplementation, exercise/movement, sleep
- Emotional: your feelings and responses or reactions to your experiences
- Spiritual: your connection to the Divine, your purpose and meaning
- Mental: your beliefs and thoughts
- Social: relationships and environment
The social aspect of being a human is absolutely critical to our well being. Nothing made this clearer than the “social distancing” that’s currently encouraged. However, “social” is something I myself tend to lump in with the other 4. Our social environment and relationships are directly related to our emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical states.
Why Holistic Health is Important
In a world with increasing dis-ease and illness, real solutions are more important than ever. Unfortunately, conventional medicine is more interested in treating symptoms with temporary and often harmful solutions, like pharmaceuticals. This often means the root causes are not identified or ever addressed. In addition to this, the very solution of medication can further contribute to ill health physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.
It can be heartbreaking to witness. Life-long customers make conventional medicine a ton of money. Conversely, when people are healed, they are no longer pouring money into their health. There is much less money to be made in helping people actually heal.
Many holistic health practitioners, including myself, strive to help their clients come into true health so that s practitioners we are no longer needed. When one is empowered to tune into their own body and filled with enough knowledge and understanding, they are less likely to rely on someone else for their healing.
Realizing our own inherent ability to heal (on all levels) is a vital to holistic health. Faith and trust in one’s own body are encouraged and are immensely powerful in leading one out of disease and into true health.
Wholistic Health
Many will use “holistic health” and “wholistic health” interchangeably. I personally like the term “wholistic” much more than “holistic” since the “whole” person is what is being worked with. Rather than focusing on the “hole”, or what is missing. I believe in the power of words and the intention created with them. I use the term “holistic health” because it is more widely understood and used. As a practitioner, those who are seeking “holistic” can find me easier.
The world is waking up from its slumber. More are seeing that many things need to change – and are changing. Health and healing is a major piece to the transition humanity is in the process of. When we all take become empowered to see ourselves as whole beings who are capable of healing, it changes our entire perspective about life, ourselves and each other. This is the way of the future. And the future is here.
I am honored to help guide others through their own holistic health journey. When walking this path, you will find the rewards are innumerable and so very worth the time and energy put in. Please feel free to schedule a complimentary consult here.