Wellness and mental health are very complex and are vital to look after in our daily lives. Well-being integrates various aspects and is interconnected. Holistic wellness is one method to take care of your mental and physical well-being, and it incorporates every element of wellness and mental health, giving an inclusive and holistic approach.
Discover everything you need to know about holistic wellness and how to implement it in your daily life.
What is holistic wellness?
Holistic wellness can mean two things that are different from one another. Sometimes, the term is used to describe alternative medicine. This meaning focuses on finding natural ways of treating illness and is also referred to as holistic medicine.
However, the most popular meaning of holistic wellness is a much broader topic. It uses the meaning of the word holistic and defines wellness as the interdependence of several varieties of health. This means the whole person isn’t well unless they are well in every aspect of their life. It includes your mind, body, spirit, and social aspects as our physical body depends on our mental state, and vice-versa.
Why is it important?
Wellness is commonly associated with physical health and other aspects, that holistic wellness includes, are often forgotten about. Many define health as the absence of diseases and illnesses, but there is so much more to it. Health and wellness can only be understood as parts of a whole where each part is interconnected.
A great example of this is stress. Stress is scientifically proven to cause the majority of major health problems. It has a huge emotional impact on you and your body and stressful events can show how unrelated areas of your life can affect you. It can easily affect your emotional and physical health.
Holistic wellness takes into account factors that can affect your life that often get overlooked. This is now being valued in businesses across every industry due to the blurred lines between work and home. Holistic wellness can help to bring focus on the important fact that there is just you, work you and home you don’t exist. Including holistic wellness in business and daily life, can increase productivity, creativity, and innovation.
There’s no need to separate work and home lives, or even separate different aspects of holistic wellness. When you bring your whole self to work and your daily life, you perform better and are much more creative. In essence, holistic wellness improves mental, physical, and spiritual health, allowing you to be fully you and the best version of you possible.
Aspects of holistic wellness
There are many aspects to holistic wellness that allow you to be whole, creating the best version of yourself. The key components of holistic wellness are mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, occupational, social, and financial. These each contribute to your overall wellness in different ways.
Mental
Mental well-being and fitness are vital to your overall health. Looking after your mental health allows you to communicate with others clearly, think critically, and make decisions easily and quickly. Having a healthy mind gives you the chance to learn and grow while staying present in the moment. Poor mental health can create stress and other issues while reducing motivation and resilience.
Physical
Physical wellness can be seen as getting rid of illnesses. However, it doesn’t just focus on this as just ensuring you’re not sick doesn’t give a good quality of life. Instead, this aspect focuses on energy, strength, fitness, flexibility, nutrition, and sleep.
Emotional
When you are emotionally healthy you can positively impact your relationship with yourself and others. This aspect determines how you interact with stressful situations and your ability to regulate emotions. It also improves your ability to seek help and deal with uncomfortable emotions.
Spiritual
Spiritual wellness is about your connection to something bigger than yourself. If you are spiritually healthy, you can find purpose and meaning in life. This leads to feeling more motivated and resilient. You can also feel as though you have a place in the world. If you have a lack of spiritual wellness, then you can experience an existential crisis.
Occupational
A huge portion of our lives is spent at work. Due to this, it can significantly impact our overall health and how we feel which can impact our daily lives. Occupational health is about finding joy and fulfillment in your job role. It also entails having opportunities to grow, learn, and develop within your career.
Social
Social wellness is focused on a sense of belonging and being aware of others. Participating in organizations, spending time with loved ones, and feeling connected to others are all a part of social wellness. Helping others, particularly those in need, is also a vital element of this aspect of holistic wellness. This can include giving to charity, like Muslims who pay zakat every year, as well as aiding those you love and strangers in your daily life. You can have a longer and healthier life if you have a strong social network and care for others.
Financial
A huge factor of stress is due to your financial state, especially now during the cost-of-living crisis. Having financial stress can lower productivity and morale, and boost stress. People with poor financial health can feel like they have little control over their income and expenses. This leads to worrying about handling necessities and emergencies while having lower self-esteem.
Practices to achieve holistic wellness
There are a large variety of ways that you can achieve holistic wellness and there isn’t a right way to do this. It’s all about what works for you as you become more aware of the way multiple factors affect your life. Some practices you can do to incorporate holistic wellness into your daily life are:
- Include rest into your day: If you have a lot to do, it can be difficult to sit down and unwind. However, rest makes you more effective, creative, and happy. Getting enough rest, not just sleep, is vital to your holistic health. Maybe set a reminder on your phone to take breaks away from your hectic day. Do something to recharge yourself creatively and spiritually on these breaks.
- Understand the correlation of physical and mental health: Physical health has a huge impact on your mental and emotional state. If you take care of your physical health, such as getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet, and exercising regularly, it can improve your mood and cognitive ability. Self-care practices come into this too. You could do mindfulness, meditation, or even acupuncture to nurture your body, mind, and spirit.
- Use a coach: It can be hard to notice how the different aspects of wellness can be impacting your life. Working with a wellness coach, therapist, or practitioner can provide valuable insights into what changes will make the biggest impact on your overall health.
- Nurture relationships: Building relationships that help you develop a sense of belonging and that inspire you is crucial. You create your understanding of yourself by how others perceive you. This also boosts your self-esteem. Invest in building relationships based on support, mutual respect, and shared goals.
- Do something you love: Having a hectic lifestyle can leave very little time for fun. However, this should be made a priority in any spare time you have. Doing something you love during your personal time helps your creativity to bloom. Time spent having fun directly correlates to how efficient you are during work time. So, try to work hard and play hard.
- Stay open-minded: If you are skeptical about holistic wellness activities such as yoga, Reiki, or meditation, then it’s best to be open-minded and try it anyway. Just because you don’t fully understand how holistic wellness activities work shouldn’t be the reason why you don’t try it.
Holistic wellness is vital to being authentically you and the best version of yourself. It incorporates many aspects that are all interlinked and create an overall healthy you. Try incorporating holistic wellness into your daily life to reap essential health benefits and boost your productivity, motivation, and creativity while being happier.
