The world of holistic wellness is pretty varied, thanks to how it refers to two fairly big topics. On one hand, holistic wellness is a catch-all term for alternative medicine and healing techniques. Holistic wellness is also used to look at health and wellness with the literal meaning of holistic. That is the whole person, and how a person is made up of several interconnected systems, rather than just looking at physical health. So what is holistic wellness interested in? There are some debates about what areas are included, but most agree that mental, emotional, and physical health are definite inclusions.
But why is holistic wellness so important compared to just looking at the physical health of someone? For starters, it represents a shift in the way we think of health. Too often, wellness is predominantly linked to physical health. But things are much more complex than that. Someone can have an absence of physical illness and disease, but still not be considered well, and that is because we need to look at more facets of that person, and how those can impact on their overall health.
Without even realising it, you are probably using the holistic wellness approach of thinking about wellness. Just think about how we know that stress causes or worsens major health issues, or how stress has an emotional impact, changing moods and behaviours. We know that a stressful event can impact your emotional and physical health, which means we can see how seemingly unrelated areas of life can affect others.
So what is holistic wellness?
The National Wellness Institute looks at wellness across six dimensions. They identify the following key components: mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and occupational. Some other institutes add financial wellness as another axis to measure wellbeing, making for seven major components that add up to your holistic wellness.
So how to go about being healthier across all of these categories? There is no single right answer, as everyone will have different areas that they want to focus on to improve their wellness. One area might be more important than others, and this can shift over time, making a specific solution or activity suddenly lose its positive impact.
Just being aware of how each component of wellness affects the other dimensions is already progress. Find the easiest change you can implement or the most impactful change and start there. But beyond that, here are a few suggestions:
- Make sure you get enough rest, which leads to you being more effective, creative and happier. Rest goes beyond sleep, and there are seven different types of rest (a whole interesting topic by itself) so make sure you recharge your batteries.
- If you are feeling overwhelmed, a coach could help you to find insight into where you need the biggest change in your life.
- Getting some exercise will also help, as your physical fitness is connected to your mental fitness, or your ability to persevere and shrug off things.
- If you can, do something you love. A hobby or something you find fun will get you feeling creative.
- Nurture your relationships. The pandemic has caused many of us to lose our sense of belonging, which means our self-esteem has taken a knock.
Finally, keep an open mind. Who knows where you might find a better way to feel healthy? I mean, who thought eating the tiny versions of plants as they just finish their first cotyledon leaves would be a taste and nutrition explosion? Get out there and try new things,
Have you met our Farmer Jo’s yet? We think you’ll like them, they’re real fungis!
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