If you watch daytime television, then you have probably come across people praising the benefits of holistic living. Shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Doctors, and Doctor Oz have featured guests who describe how they have adopted holistic living practices and how their lifestyles have led to improvements in their overall health and wellness.
This blog is here to present 10 basic principles of holistic living and the benefits that may come as a result of adopting this lifestyle change.
1. Practice Mindfulness
Living holistically basically means choosing to look at wellbeing as a whole consisting of many parts including all of the mental and social factors that might impact your overall health. Therefore, those who practice holistic living try to focus on mindfulness which aims at reducing the stress and worries involved with daily living.
Mindfulness is putting yourself into a mental state that focuses awareness on the present moment and whatever emotions, feelings or thoughts you might have. Many people believe that having present-centered awareness will result in a balanced mental state that will reflect positively on your overall health and wellness. Those who tend to worry about the future or future problems will often find themselves neglecting their own feelings and becoming anxious or discontent. This can lead to imbalances that can negatively impact your health.
For more severe cases of anxiety, holistic supplements can be used to help with managing negative feelings that can take a toll if left untreated.
2. Eat Clean Foods
Because a holistic lifestyle looks at the human body as powerful and sacred, it is also important to feed it foods that are clean and healthy. Considering the impact that foods can have on your over mental and physical health, try to eat foods that are rich in nutrients and are low in toxic chemicals and pesticides.
Eating homemade foods is one of the best ways to practice eating clean. Try searching the internet for healthy recipes that can replace foods that you might consider purchasing from less healthy restaurants.
3. Focus on Positive Relationships
Research has shown that staying in toxic relationships can harm not just your mental health, but also your physical health. This makes keeping your relationships positive even more important for those living a holistic lifestyle.
By focusing on the positive relationships you have, you will be able to foster a strong support system that will push you towards your goals and hold you accountable for how you live out whatever lifestyle you declare. Living holistically requires work and communication is often key to initiating and maintaining amazing relationships with the ones you love.
Knowing which relationships to hold on to and which ones to move on from can be challenging but setting realistic standards for yourself is incredibly important.
4. Keep a Clean Home and Workspace
You cannot live a fulfilled and healthy life while also living in an environment that is untidy and cluttered. Taking a bit of extra time to tidy your home is a great way to stay in a balanced state of mind. Check out this blog post to learn more about the benefits of keeping a clean home.
Adopting good habits around recycling will also give a boost to not just your health but the health of the planet. Try donating your old clothes or household items to Goodwill or organizing events to clean your local parks or neighborhood. Your mind, body and the planet will thank you for it!
5. Enjoy the Process
Though the phrase, “Stop and smell the roses,” might seem a bit cliched, it is important to allow yourself time to grow. Adopting new habits can be stressful and living in a society that may not follow your lifestyle can make it difficult to stay true to your convictions.
Always practice being patient with yourself when you make mistakes or if you feel as if you are not progressing as fast as you would like. Stressing yourself out will push you into a negative mentality that will only bring you down. Go easy on yourself and enjoy the process!
6. Be Active
Modern society has become so focused on productivity concerning work but has become quite sedentary in regard to living. Being active does not mean that you should fill every space on your schedule with events, it means that you should recognize and address the fact that your body loves to move!
Doing small exercises between appointments or taking walks or bike rides around your community will give your body the stamina it needs to stay balanced and healthy. Your brain needs activity too so try doing some puzzles or downloading some mind games to play on your phone during lunch breaks or commercials.
7. Connect
Meeting new people is a great way of expanding your mind and learning new things. Humans have evolved to live within communities and that connection has created the amazingly advanced societies that we have today.
Try attending events with like-minded people in order to create long-lasting experiences that you will think fondly of for years to come. Being able to have happy thoughts to ponder is great for staying positive when times get tough and gathering fun experiences with others helps to strengthen both new and old relationships.
8. Learn Something New
A phrase that should probably be retired is, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks!” No matter what your age, there is always something new to be learned from life and staying open to those possibilities will only add to the richness of your experiences. The world is changing quickly but do not let that stop you!
Try new things, travel to new places and keep an open mind to experiences that might take you out of your comfort zone! Learning new things will keep your brain active and make life all the more fulfilling!
9. Meditate
Meditation is not just some new-age phrase that was introduced by hippies in the 70s. In fact, even religious books like the Bible call for periods of silent reflection and meditation. As a practice, meditation is meant to help you clear your mind and relax you into a state of focus through breathing. Many people use meditations like yoga to stay fit mentally and physically.
Whether or not you are religious, setting aside time to clear your mind and focus will work wonders on relieving anxiety and rebalancing your thoughts on good things. There are entire Youtube channels that teach meditation so why not start there?
10. Love Yourself
The most important principle that those who practice holistic living understand is self-love or loving yourself. You have to decide that you love yourself before you will have gathered enough strength to make that first step towards better habits.
You must love yourself to take your life seriously enough to take make changes, so in order to give yourself a fighting chance, always treat yourself as priority number one!
What do you think about the idea of holistic living? Leave a comment below!