A holistic approach to life – What does it mean?
Holistic Living is all about ensuring you take care of your Mind, your Body and your Soul/Spirit/Essence, equally.
Using this description, how would you honestly rate your current state of Holistic health?
Are you more focused in one particular area?
Do you have an “equanimous” approach across all 3?
For decades, I very much focused on the Body and the physicality of life (which was absolutely ok) until a few interesting life events brought a crystal-clear realisation of how little I had cared for the other areas in my life. Clichéd, but true.
So, here’s a short read, to explain what Holistic Living is all about.
YOUR MIND
Tending to your mind is so important.
We can often lean toward forcing ourselves into the expectations of what we think we ‘should’ do or be doing. Living life constantly in the future, comparing ourselves to others, working longer hours or even harder, ignoring our feelings and emotions, and maybe even forcing positivity.
A “mind-centred” holistic approach allows you to step back and observe how you’re feeling mentally and emotionally.
Ask yourself…
- Is your mind constantly on play, fast forward, repeat?
- What are the thoughts and emotions going through your head?
- Are they affecting your life and perhaps manifesting in other ways?
It’s interesting to keep in mind that your emotions can and often do manifest in the body.
Using a holistic approach can help you “shine the light” on areas of your life you may have been overlooking, or just haven’t noticed because you’re constantly go, go, go.
YOUR BODY
The body part of holistic living is usually the easiest to understand because it’s the physical part. We can easily see and measure the effects of nourishing the body. Nourishing the body in a holistic way involves a variety of elements.
We know the importance of the foods we eat. The more you nourish your body, the better it functions. And we also know that moving our body is important.
When taking a holistic approach to nourishing the physical body, we also take into consideration things like sleep patterns, our connection with nature, the types of products we use in and on our bodies, and the health of each of the body systems within the body.
In holistic living, we also focus on wellness – living in a state of good health. The aim is to live in a state of good health as much as possible, rather than fixing problems as they occur. Holistic living can also enable us, when unforeseen things do happen in our lives, to come from a place of strength and vitality and be ready for any potential challenges we might then face.
YOUR SOUL/SPIRIT/ESSENCE
The ‘Spirit/Soul/Essence’ category can be a little harder to pin down. These words can often make us feel uncomfortable for lots of different reasons and have many of us running for the hills, but that’s ok. Feeding your Spirit/Soul or Essence can help you get closer to that understanding and importantly, what that means to you.
There’s no denying that nourishing your soul can mean spirituality, however, it’s also so much more than that. Living a life aligned with your values and living with purpose are both vital to holistic living.
Feeding or nourishing your Spirit/Soul or Essence can also mean deepening your connections with others and perhaps spending time on meaningful contributions in the world which are of personal interest to you.
Over time, as you nourish ‘Spirit/Soul or Essence’ elements, you’ll create a deeper relationship with yourself and how you connect with and understand the world around you.
So maybe it’s time to give yourself some space for you to discover your own personal power by creating a life that feeds your Mind, Body and Soul through holistic living and wellness.
Have a ponder on the following quote …
“We are not human beings, having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings, having a human experience”.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Maybe adopting a more Holistic approach to living your life is something to try and see how life unfolds.
Love & Light
K xxx
