Holistic Health – Do You Know What It Really Entails?

Holistic health and holistic medicine are an ancient system of healthcare whose roots can be traced back thousands of years. The expression is considered more recent vintage these days. Holistic health is basically an approach to life – instead of focusing on specific parts of the body or the illness, holistic health takes the person into account, and observes how he/she interacts with his/her environment.

Holistic health focusses on the connection between the mind, body, and spirit. It emphasizes on achieving maximum well-being in a person; a state where an individual is functioning in their best physical and mental way possible. This approach makes people responsible for their own well-being. It’s a condition where daily choices are employed to take care of a person’s health.

What are the Different Aspects of Holistic Health?

The various aspects of holistic health enable individuals to live in the happiest and healthiest way possible. Here are a few different areas of holistic health:

• Physical: Whenever we think of health, it’s the physical aspect that first comes into mind. This is because our body displays the physical signs of optimal or sub-optimal health. As opposed to the non-physical signs and symptoms that are tough to track, the physical signs can be measured more easily.

As far as your physical health is concerned, there are certain simple things you can do to take care of yourself. These things and practices include sleeping for eight hours every night since it allows our bodies to heal and repair, consuming a nutrient-rich diet that contains a lot of plant-based foods and organic animal products, maintaining proper blood sugar levels by eating snacks and meals that have the right mixture of fats and carbohydrates and proteins, avoiding smoking and excessive consumption of alcohol, limiting having processed foods and hydrogenated oils that are inflammatory and can elevate the risk of chronic diseases, and getting into some form of exercise for at least 30 minutes each day.

• Emotional: Our emotional health is just as important as our physical health. If not given priority, it can negatively affect out physical health as well. In order to support your emotional health, you can opt for therapy when needed. Therapy plays a very important role in supporting our emotional health, and you should feel free to turn to it if and when required.

In order to reduce the things that induce stress in you, stay away from everything that triggers stressful situations in your head, and also remember to practice mindfulness. You can also choose to keep a journal so as to jot down your thoughts and feelings. Also, write down everything you’re grateful for, because this little practice helps improve your emotional health bit by bit.

• Social: It’s said that some of the happiest individuals are those who have a deep connection with their family, friends, and community. This is where our social health comes into being. In order to support your social health, take out time for some in-person connection. Social media has made us all feel isolated from the world outside. To prevent that from happening, try to meet the people you love face-to-face, as this helps in improving our holistic health.

Try to get involved in your local community. Participate in activities, mingle with people, and try to socialize with those who make you feel comfortable. Most importantly, remember to set boundaries and stay away from people who bring in negative energy into your life. Walk away from the toxic friendships and relationships that affect your life negatively.

• Spiritual: People often mistaken spiritual health as being connected with religion, but that’s not the case. Your spiritual health is all about connecting with your inner soul and the world around you. If you want to improve your spiritual health, try meditating for a few minutes every day, spend time in nature, and in case you do believe in religion, try practicing your faith peacefully.

• Mental: The final aspect of holistic health is mental health, which is often found to coincide with physical and emotional health. The biggest difference between our emotional and mental health is that while emotional health is related to our daily mood and emotions, mental health is about our cognitive abilities that affect the functioning of our brain.

There are quite a few things you can do in order to support your mental health. Keep your mind sharp and active by going for learning opportunities and practices that positively challenge your mind. Eat foods that are high on nutrition, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids. These help in improving our cognitive function.

Stay away from excessive drinking, smoking, or taking recreational drugs. Boost the health of your gut with the help of gut-healing food items such as bone broth and prebiotic and probiotic rich foods. This is essential since a healthy mind is connected to a healthy gut.

What are Some of the Holistic Health Practices?

Most of the practices and therapies associated with holistic health can be divided into certain specific categories. Let us take a look at what these practices and categories are:

1. Mind-body interventions that are about psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual approaches. For example, relaxation classes and cancer support groups.
2. Body-based and manipulative methods that make use of touch, manipulation, or movement of the physical body. For example, chiropractic and massage therapy.
3. Biologically-based therapy that employs plants or other biological elements. Examples include aromatherapy and herbal medicines.
4. Alternative medical systems which refer to systems developed beyond the approach of Western medicine. This includes Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
5. Energy therapies that make use of some form of energy to heal, such as thermal, ultrasonic, or electromagnetic energy. Examples of these are healing touch and Reiki.

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