How to Take a Holistic Approach to Your Health
Taking a holistic approach to your health means looking at your body as a whole and considering both your mind and body. Whether you deem yourself a spiritual person or not, considering the connection between your mind and body and how they both play a role in your overall well-being can help you to understand yourself better and to lead a thriving life.
Why It Is Important to Take a Holistic Approach to Your Health
Many people will be struggling with a problem or ailment, such as anxiety, asthma, bad skin, and more. The most common route to take is to book a Doctors appointment. While they are great and extremely helpful, more often than not, this only looks at the specific symptom that is being experienced. When you take a holistic approach, you can peel back the layers, go deeper and consider the root of the problem. A holistic approach to your health will give you long-term benefits rather than a quick fix, and help improve the quality of your life. This is because it is considered a lifestyle and empowers people to acknowledge the interconnectedness of the human experience and provide them with a sustainable and effective solution.
Top Tips for Starting Your Holistic Health Journey
Many people will turn to holistic health because they have encountered a problem with their well-being. While it can be extremely helpful, it can also be utilized when you are in good health, as a preventative measure. Regardless of your reason for turning to holistic health, here are some top tips to help you get started on your journey and fully embrace a holistic based approach to your health.
Track your symptoms
Tracking your symptoms can be a great way to learn about what is going on with you. If you don’t have any symptoms, then keeping a journal can be just as effective. This practice will enable you to connect to your body and learn more about yourself. You can note down what you are feeling, what various thoughts arise, the foods you are eating, and the activities that you are participating in. This will enable you to see how different things impact how you feel. You can use this information to do more of what makes you feel good, and start removing the things that don’t. It can be extremely helpful if you are experiencing a problem, as you will also be able to see what lifestyle factors could be impacting your well-being. Not many people realize this, but many habits and foods are the cause of many common ailments. It may also help you to identify what activities help you to manage your health better.
Learn to listen to your body
Similarly to tracking your feelings and symptoms, it is a great practice in holistic health, to learn to listen to your body. By connecting with your body, you will be able to dig deeper into any issues that you may be experiencing, or notice when something is slightly off so you can catch it before it progresses. When you are connected to yourself, you will be able to give yourself what you need. It might be that your diet or exercise regime, while it looks good on paper, is not serving you well and you need to make adjustments. Or it could be that you need to lessen your to-do list and take more rest. Sometimes the simplest of changes can make a huge difference. Unfortunately, we live in a fast-paced society which makes it difficult to stop and listen. But you will find that when you do, your body is constantly sending you signals about what is going on, and what it needs.
Eat and enjoy whole foods
Your whole body is connected and works seamlessly together to enable you to function as you do on a daily basis. In addition to the conscious activities that you participate in, there are also a plethora of functions that your body is undergoing without you having to think, for example, your senses, your heartbeat, and your breathing. For your body and brain to function as well as they could, it needs fuel, which comes from food. When you eat a diet filled with processed foods and refined sugars, you may notice that you feel sluggish and your quality of life is low. It also means that your body is not able to ingest them properly, and will not be infused with all the nutrients that it needs to function well. It can also lead to things like inflammation in the body, lowered immune system, and impact your mood and stress levels, which can lead to many physical and mental ailments.
If you are struggling with things like a cold, skin irritation, anxiety, or another common ailment, it could be down to the food that you are eating. When you eat a diet rich in vitamins and minerals from whole foods, you will be able to feel the difference in the way you feel and your body works. You may find that illnesses don't stay around as long as they used to, or you prevent many ailments altogether.
Review and change your lifestyle and habits
In addition to the food that you eat, it is also important to consider other things that you consume and how you are spending your time and energy. If you are constantly thinking negative thoughts, talking negatively about yourself and others, have a bad attitude, leading a sedentary lifestyle, and generally not looking after yourself, then you may find that you are at an increased risk of hindering your well-being or worsening any symptoms that you already have. Bad habits are hard to break - but not impossible. If you can start small, identify your bad habits, and begin to change them one by one, you will find that your life and your health start to shift. Your daily behaviors will have a huge impact on the way that you feel, as well as your mental and physical health. Good habits may include spending more time outside, waking up at a good time, getting enough sleep, drinking lots of water, exercising regularly, and much more.
Take care of your mind
Many people will focus on exercise to improve their health. While exercise is extremely effective, it often means that mental health is neglected. Make sure you consider your mind, as well as your body. Mental stress can be just as damaging to your health as bad physical habits, as it can cause inflammation, lower your immune system, and make you feel tired.
Some of the best ways you can look after your mental health are by seeking support if anything is troubling you, connecting with others regularly, getting creative, spending time out in nature, and taking time to relax.
Seek holistic therapies
There are many holistic therapies available that can help and support your mental and physical well-being. With struggles such as allergies, skin conditions, inflammation, anxiety, and common colds, there is more often than not an underlying issue. If you take a holistic approach, you can get to the root cause of your issues, improve them and keep them at bay.
Salt therapy is one form of natural therapy that utilizes nature, and the mind-body connection to help with several different ailments. It is a treatment that takes place in a natural salt cave, using the natural particles to remove viruses, pollens, pollutants, toxins, and more from the body - specifically the lungs and nasal passageways - which has been proven to treat and prevent illnesses. The comforting environment works by creating a sense of calmness and peace within you, so you can better relax your body which is inevitably stressed in today’s society. This act in itself will help your body to function better and reduce inflammation, taking it from fight-or-flight and into rest-and-digest. It will also help you to be more receptive to holistic therapy, so you can calmly breathe in the healing air. The salt crystals work so well because they are anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, and antimicrobial. They are negatively charged ionized salt particles that contain 84 trace elements and minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, iodine, bromine, copper, selenium, and iron. The negative ions travel through the respiratory tract and into the bloodstream to be dispersed throughout the body.
There are a variety of holistic therapies that can help you treat, manage and prevent health issues, such as yoga, reiki, massage therapy, and more.
Taking a holistic approach to your health can benefit you in several ways, but most of all, it can help you take control and live a happier, healthier life.