What Is A Holistic Lifestyle?
I often go on about holistic this and holistic that and you may be wondering what the holistic bit is all about. Well I thought it was about time that I explained a bit more about what a holistic lifestyle really is and how you can incorporate a holistic lifestyle into your daily routine. Firstly what is the definition of holistic?, Holistic is defined as the idea that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Still scratching your head? It basically means that something should be considered in its entirety and not just in its individual parts. The parts of something are intimately interconnected and can be explained only by reference to the whole.
Now that we have got the definition out of the way, how does this apply to a lifestyle? The holistic lifestyle takes into consideration all the parts that make up a life that is the emotional, spiritual, mental, environmental and physical these aspects make up the whole of wellbeing. An imbalance in one or two of these aspects can affect the others and so treatment in the case of an individual being unwell will have to consider all aspects of the whole to find healing. However the treatment(s) for an individual are as unique to each person as a fingerprint and no two approaches to healing will be the same for each person as the contributing factors are many and varied in nature.
There are few things that can be incorporated into your daily routine to begin living a more holistic lifestyle. I will touch on a few but will probably dedicate another blog post to delve deeper into this topic. Some of the practices that we can incorporate are below.
Healing Practices
Breath and Movement: A good breathing practice is great to have in your arsenal as it can help to centre and calm you in times of stress and imbalance. A good movement practice is also great to add, be it yoga, walking or an activity that is enjoyable and therefore sustainable for you.
Holistic healing and nature based medicines: There are so many holistic healing modalities out there at the moment from acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine to cupping and aromatherapy. It is important to know when to use natural medicine for an ailment and when to use western medicine. Ideally, a holistic lifestyle allows for the use of both in balance.
Nourishment: Each individual is different and no two ways of eating will be the same for each person as we are all bio- individual however, it is agreeable that eating seasonally, local and organically is definitely the way to go in a healthy holistic lifestyle.
Holistic Living; Our physical surroundings are as important as what goes on inside us and incorporating more natural practices when it comes to things like household chores can be an important part of a holistic lifestyle. For example reducing the toxic things that we use to clean and maintain our home or the things that we use on our bodies like moisturisers etc
To conclude, a holistic lifestyle can be one that is very interesting, multifaceted and beneficial the more that you delve into it and adopt it into your daily routine.
